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My wife and I were driving somewhere last night and we got on the topic of cars.  My wife said that her favorite car of all time was her first car…err SUV…a Jeep.  She loved to looks and the convertible’s wind in the hair, but I was amused at her number one reason:  “because everyone else in a Jeep waves to you”.  I get that…I completely get that.

If I saw a complete stranger and the only thing I knew about him was that he rode a motorcycle, he would have an in with me.  I think its why the sport, on one terrain or another, has survived in my arsenal of activities for so long.  The  common bond of knowing what two wheels is all about.

I think riding is a good fit for me because its both a solo sport and a group sport at te same time.  I consider myself a social creature, and never really ride/rode alone.  I like the solo sport nature that riding provides, but its still done with others working their own machine.  The camaraderie is excellent and has create some of my best friends…literally…met through riding.

I can’t help but think of the brotherhood that my friends who are military veterans tell me about.  I’ve never served, and I cannot imagine the brotherhood from motorcycles is as tight as with those who have been in the trenches of war together, but it sure sounds like it falls along the same line.  I remeber a quote from the movie Black Hawk Down from “Hoot”:

When I go home people’ll ask me, “Hey Hoot, why do you do it man? What, you some kinda war junkie?” You know what I’ll say? I won’t say a goddamn word. Why? They won’t understand. They won’t understand why we do it. They won’t understand that it’s about the men next to you, and that’s it. That’s all it is.

I truly think that if my fellow bikers weren’t great people overall, I’d have shaken the sport a long time ago.  Of course I have met a handful of bikers that were complete ass-hats for one reason or another, but overall the two-wheeled folks have been people I would let stay at my house.

Heh - so no…my wife didn’t need to explain to me what the wave means.