Crisis, what crisis?
Story & photo by Perry Mack
“You bought a ‘donor’cycle?” Yes, Doc Dave, I bought a ‘motor’cycle. He’s not surprised. We’ve been friends for twenty years, ever since we met at Big White Ski Resort where he was the doctor on the mountain, and earned the moniker ‘Doc Dave’. In those days, unable to defeat gravity, I was on a first name basis with most of the emergency room doctors at Kelowna General Hospital as well.
“Is he going through a mid-life crisis?” My wife, Cindy, is on the phone with a friend, she rolls her eyes and is ready with her standard reply. “I don’t know - he just showed up with it last week.”
Crisis, what crisis? I’ve hit that point in my life, like many of us, where the kids have moved out (my grocery bill has been cut in half and there’s beer in the fridge for days), we’ve moved into a condo, and we’re financially stable. The life insurance is paid up, and so for the first time in my life I’m worth more dead than alive (I sleep with one eye open now – did I tell you about the time Cindy held my nose closed while I was sleeping to see how long I could hold my breath)?
This is the time of our lives when dreams can begin to come true. When the burden of financial and familial responsibility begins to lighten, time becomes available, and with a little luck, a few dollars to go with it.
The stars aligned in February this year, the stars named ‘Needs, Wants and Ability-to-Pay’. I rode home from the Suzuki dealer with a brand new SV650. For those of you east of the Rockies, it’s not a typo; I’ve been riding my bike almost every day since February 14, 2015. Also not a typo, I came home on Valentine’s Day with a brand new motorcycle for myself.
Cindy is still with me. Before you file papers nominating her for sainthood, you should know I had to promise her something with diamonds of an equivalent value. I’m wandering the parks and beaches each morning looking for empties to cash in, I’ll probably be at it for years. I sure hope they double the bottle deposit.
RVing and riding a motorcycle have a lot in common. Riding a bike is exploring the open road, where the journey is often more important than the destination. Like RVing, the windscreen is an ever-changing viewpoint through which we experience the outdoors. As the road unfolds with the white ribbon of lane markings, you can smell the pine trees, lakes and cool clear mountain air. When the sun hits, it warms you head to toe, and you feel the cool relief that driving up into the mountains, a setting sun or a passing cloud brings.
Like driving an RV, I ride for pleasure not to commute, and it’s a social group that openly shares a communal bond in the way that RV’ers do. Watch the next time riders pass each other on the road, seven times out of ten they extend a hand to mark the passing.
Although I chose a sport bike, many choose a cruiser. The new cruiser bikes allow for long comfortable rides – cushy seats, stereo systems, heated everything and in-helmet communications to chat with your group, just to name a few. Riding in a group is like being in an RV caravan – travelling from destination to destination, experiencing new or favourite places, activities and events.
You can easily combine the two to enjoy cheap and fun mobility when you’re RVing. As I write this article, Princess Auto has a motorcycle hitch carrier for $160 and other sources online show them up to $1000. Other carriers allow you to mount the bike on your truck‘s front bumper.
Fall and winter are great times to buy motorcycles in Canada. The selection isn’t as great, but prices are at their lowest. Do a little research online and then find a couple of dealers to get more advice. To a certain extent, it seems the Japanese bikes are sold like computer printers. There’s very little profit in the bikes, they’re hoping to make their money on accessories and upgrades – people love to personalize their rides.
If you don’t have your motorcycle licence there are training courses across the country that are safe and fun, and many provide a bike to learn on. Visit Canada Safety Council at http://www.ridertraining.org.
Seeing and doing new things, or revisiting favourites, isn’t the sign of a mid-life crisis, it’s just a signpost that you’re still alive and enjoying the road of life.