Really?!? - Motorcycle Stories

This the first of what will likely become a continuing theme of "Really?" While hoping to avoid my own sins of pontificating, I will try to pose questions that haunt me.

So I ride a motorcycle. As I see it, it's my scooter. It dutifully gets me from a to b. I would actually own a scooter but I am much to large for such a thing and would look much sillier on one that most. I own a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-9R. (900cc "crotch rocket" or "super bike" if u r not familiar) I scored a sweet deal on it used and I happily get 45-50mpg as I tool around in the summers.

Since owning the bike I have noticed what can only be described as weird behavior. There is the expected weird behavior that falls into the driving category. Things like people who can't help but sit in your blind spot because they are actually looking at the bike or the common occurrence of drivers pulling out in front of you because even though they were looking at you, they do not actually "see" you.

The behavior that trips me out is the odd frequency of grown men (know that i too am grown) who frequently approach me to tell me grandiose stories of their motorcycles past and their land speed records accomplished. Every time this happens I can't help but think to myself, "Really?" "For Reals?" "No Foolin'?"

I am honestly not trying to be mean, but being a programmer has my brain wired to take issue with flawed logic and/or receiving information that has a high "u gotta be f'ing kidding me" factor. I find it plausible that they have had a bike in the past, however I do find it highly improbable that every one of them rode it at 135, 155, 175 down a highway with no helmet and it was "...great!"

I ride a lot , I ride without a helmet a lot and I have ridden fast without a helmet a lot. I have learned a few things in that time. Above 70mph without protective gear you start to take some serious physical abuse form the elements. (next time you are driving on the interstate, roll down all your windows. then climb out onto the hood of your car.) Nearing 120mph you start to run out of road pretty gosh darn fast regardless of possessing protective gear. This coupled with the common man's ability to talk serious b.s. with regard to motorcycles leads me to believe that the various guys slurring their stories to me at the bar are using some creative (and now predictable) license.

I cross reference my observation with the fact that I neva eva eva hear this style of story from people in the current possession of a motorcycle.

Why is this? That's what I don't know. I'm sure it will haunt my brain's free processing threads. Are they telling the story of their motorcycle dream? or just enjoying the remembrance of their beloved bike and the embellishment is a sign of how much they miss their trusty steed? I admit that while newer and better bikes roll into showrooms every season, I feel no urge to leave the machine that has felt more to me like a fighter jet than a land based vehicle.

I look at these men like a child looking at the elderly. Taking time to wonder if I too will become what I see before me. I hope someday I too will miss riding enough to embellish my stories with the same amount of love sans the alcohol.