I’ll bet you thought this post was going to be a technical article about how to handle a motorcycle on gravel, right? Fooled ya, technical articles aren’t really my thing. I’ll leave those to people with more experience and ability than I. The title of this post is actually taken from a song entitled “True [...]

Yesterday, during my morning commute, I was behind a car that was weaving side to side in its lane. I eventually pulled into a turning lane to go left and as I passed (in a hurry to get around him), I noticed the driver was completely oblivious to everything around him due to what seemed [...]

I recently watched a 2011 Oscar winning documentary called Undefeated which is about the Manassas Tigers high school football team from Memphis, TN. and their coach Bill Courtney who struggles to teach his players something they can carry with them into life long after football is over. There’s a scene in which coach Courtney says: [...]

There’s an African proverb I read recently that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Spring has finally arrived in full force here in southeastern Pennsylvania and that means more and more riders are hitting the road for group rides, which, of course, is one [...]

Last fall my buddy Stan led us on a group ride from Hellertown, PA, to Conowingo Dam in Maryland. The dam, which spans the lower Susquehanna River, was built in 1928 and at the time was the second largest hydroelectric project by power output in the United States (Niagara Falls was the largest). The original [...]

One of my all time favorite poems is “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost. I’ll admit I know it by heart because of the movie The Outsiders in which it figures prominently. As much as I love the poem I think I love the song “Stay Gold” by Stevie Wonder even more. As I understand the [...]

Life can be an endless string of looking ahead and planning other things. The beauty, for me, has always been in realizing that now might be all we have. My dad died watching TV. I’ve wondered, on occasion, what kind of day he’d had; did he have an argument at work? Was he happy? Did [...]

The Cure for Grief is movement. I’m not sure where I first heard that but once I did I never forgot it. The motorcycle has been my cure for grief for as long as I’ve been riding. Motorcycling is largely about repetition and ritual—doing things the same way each time. Repetition and ritual keep us safer; [...]

A decade of daily commuting has taught me many lessons, not the least of which is to be prepared for anything and to pack accordingly. Bringing clothing for any and all types of weather conditions is important, especially at certain times of the year when weather can fluctuate over a 10-hour period. Tools are (of [...]

“On the wall of death all the world is far from me, on the wall of death it’s the nearest to being free.” – Richard Thompson. Richard and Linda Thompson’s final album Shoot Out the Lights (1982) contained a song called Wall of Death which I first heard performed by Nanci Griffith. Every time I hear it motorcycling always [...]

“Do what you love, it’s gonna lead to where you want to go.” -Wayne White. When I was a kid of 15 we lived in the country and I loved running at night, even in winter. I loved the silence, no cars, no birds or barking dogs, nothing but the moon and stars carefully arranged, it [...]

Back in June of 2012 I wrote Rider to Driver , which made the case that riders and drivers can share the road with each other if we act on a case-by-case basis and don’t label a group based on the irresponsible or reckless behavior of a small percentage of that group. This morning I had an [...]

One of my favorite quotes is, “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” By Khalil Gibran. Cori and I visited her stepmother Gladys last summer on a riding/hiking weekend. Gladys is a kind soul, a family matriarch much like my own [...]

I’m sure I’ve mentioned in prior posts that my first bike was a 1981 Yamaha Maxim. The Maxim was impressive in its day, with narrow cruiser styling draped over a Japanese 4-cylinder. Mine was flat black with gold lettering and a missing air box, my brother found it for me for $400 back in ’98. [...]

Tonight I’m watching an episode of Louie, one of my favorite shows. In a few episodes he can be seen riding a Triumph Bonneville. This is a holiday episode in which Louie buys his daughter the doll she wanted, only to discover that its eyes had become dislodged and were missing. A hilarious montage follows [...]