The Last of the Motorcyclists
THE LAST OF THE MOTORCYCLISTS
IGNITION
BIKE LIFE
THE SCARIEST THING I’VE EVER DONE
PETER JONES
According to current trends, by around the year 2061 all motorcyclists will be dead. Not dead as in they crashed into a tree, but dead like in they all got too old to crash into a tree. The new, younger generation of motorcyclists just doesn’t exist.
But I have good news. I have a girlfriend with a 15-year-old son who likes motorcycles. So I’m teaching Gaige, as we’ll call him, how to ride. Or, as I now prefer to think of it, I’m single-handedly saving motorcycling.
I started him out two years ago on a used Honda CRF80F. It proved to be a good way to learn the basics because it’s a four-stroke trailbike that doesn’t have the threat of horsepower. It also doesn’t have much of a threat of brakes, with its little drums on each end.
The reality of teaching a child how to ride a motorcycle doesn’t fully hit you until the kid is sitting on one, helmeted, looking up at you with the sparkling eyes of thrilled, heartfelt anticipation.
It’s a pivotal day in this child’s life. But, for a moment, never mind how special this event is for the child; for the adult it’s also one of those life experiences that has to be earned. You can’t, for any price, buy a ticket to do this.
I taught him how to start it. I then taught him how to shut it off. I had him practice both. Then it was time to teach him how to go. I did this by incorporating with it the lesson of how to stop. Knowing how to go without knowing how to stop is bad planning. When I first rode no one taught me how to stop the thing. I’ve remembered the cost of that omission.
I first used a field of mature corn stalks for stopping. That turned out to be more of a lesson in agriculture than riding. I learned that there are short sharp hairs on some varieties of corn stalks
that are extremely unpleasant against a human’s knuckles at 30 mph. I also learned that corn is planted in rows that are the exact distance from each other as the handgrips on a small motorcycle.
In training Gaige, I’m simply trying to avert him from maximizing the dangers of speed, dumb luck, and ignorance. So, after he intellectually comprehended the concepts of going and stopping, I set him free to start making mistakes and suffering failures. He needed to feel what works and what doesn’t.
Learning to ride, like learning any athletic skill, isn’t just a question of acquiring an intellectual understanding. It’s about establishing a physical understanding. A rider doesn’t make reflective choices while piloting a motorcycle; a rider feels and anticipates and acts. These are skills of muscle memory and proprioception, which can only be learned by doing and then doing again. And again. And again.
After Gaige became comfortable with his new skills, we got him a Suzuki RM85, which is a fast two-stroke beginner’s MX bike. Within the first few days of riding it, Gaige flipped it over backward, snapping the plastic rear fender in half. His mother asked me why I hadn’t taught him what would happen if he gave it too much gas when releasing the clutch. I told her I just did.
My father didn’t ride motorcycles. So I had to learn everything the dangerously clueless way, while he didn’t know I was riding borrowed bikes. Not having children of my own, I thought I’d escaped the question of what I’d do if a child of mine desired to ride. But in the tumult that is my life, children suddenly appeared at my feet. And one wanted to ride. So I did what I had to do.
Until the bike broke. Now Gaige is learning how to fix a bike. EU!
BY THE NUMBERS
one
THE NUMBER OF HEAT CYCLES IT TAKES TO BREAK IN A NIKASILCOATED CYLINDER
15
THE NUMBER OF MINUTES OF RUNNING TIME IT TAKES TO BREAK IN A NIKASILCOATED CYLINDER
160/100
THE BLOOD PRESSURE OF AN OLD-SCHOOL MECHANIC BREAKING IN A NIKASIL-COATED CYLINDER FOR THE FIRST TIME
