{"id":1334,"date":"2011-10-29T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2011-10-29T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T08:00:00","slug":"decision-making-for-a-motorcycle-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/?p=1334","title":{"rendered":"Decision-Making for a Motorcycle Ride"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As my regular blog followers know, I ride a Harley. One may think that given the opportunity, I would be out there riding all day, every day.<\/p>\n

Well, not quite. While I ride during the week to commute to work, that’s about all the riding I can do during the week due to time constraints. During the summer after work, I may ride my Harley to get to a meeting, but if I do not have a specific place to go, then the Harley remains in the garage and I stay home.<\/p>\n

That leaves weekends. My motorcycle club offers a lot of rides from which to choose every weekend. But then again, my partner “offers” a number of activities that also have to be done to maintain our home and the rental properties that I own. My senior pals need some attention, too. Such is life with competing demands on one’s time.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the rides that my club offers are scheduled far in advance, so if there is a ride that I want to go on, I can negotiate the time for the ride and get time off from my partner’s never-ending list of “honey-do” projects when I know a date certain.<\/p>\n

As I consider rides to go on, I think about the following factors:<\/p>\n

* Where is the ride going?<\/b> — I enjoy discovering new places that I have not visited before, or riding on new-to-me roads.<\/p>\n

* How long will the ride be?<\/b> — an estimate of the distance and time of the rides from which I have to choose is provided. If the ride is scheduled for the whole day, then I usually cannot go. I have a lot of things that have to be done crammed into a tight weekend and cannot spare a whole day and leave my partner at home (who will do lots of work while I’m away, making me feel guilty that I was not there to help him.)<\/p>\n

* Is it an overnight ride?<\/b> — as I have mentioned before, I do not go on overnight rides. The guys like to sit around and drink after dinner. I don’t drink alcohol, and though I don’t mind if others do, what I do mind is that their tongues get loose when they get intoxicated, and they say things about gay people or about women that I just don’t want to be subjected to hearing. So I avoid being in such a situation.<\/p>\n

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* What distance will the ride cover?<\/b> — distance is a major issue for me. Rides over about 200 miles are out. I have a physical condition that tires me faster than the average bear. Riding when tired is unsafe. I will not put myself in that situation. <\/p>\n

* What is the purpose of the ride?<\/b> — is it a casual ride on back roads and byways, a ride to support a police or fire charity or memorial, or is it a poker run sponsored by another club? I like the casual back roads rides, and have supported more than my share of memorial and charity events. But I don’t like poker runs and will not go on them.<\/p>\n

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* Who is leading the ride?<\/b> — every ride leader brings his or her personality to the ride. A ride leader known to “ride aggressively” is not someone who I want to ride with. I don’t have any fun trying to keep up all the time. I realize that my riding skills are not the same as others, so I want to “ride my own ride” — relaxed, casual, and unhurried. I will not go on a ride with someone who I know to ride too fast for my liking.<\/p>\n

* What roads may be involved?<\/b> — I have learned my lesson. I will not (deliberately) ride on roads that are unpaved, covered with gravel, or that involve stream crossings over fords. I also will not go on rides where I know there will be turns that are too tight and impossible for me to handle. (Believe me, I know my limits!)<\/p>\n

* Safety factor<\/b> — implied in the above considerations is how safe I think I will be on a ride. That’s based on my health, the road conditions, and what I know about the ride leader’s attention to safety.<\/p>\n

* What’s the weather?<\/b> — always a last-minute decision, but if I want to enjoy a nice, casual ride, I want to do it when the roads are dry and preferably when it is sunny. I won’t go if the roads are wet or if it is raining or rain is predicted. I also have my low-temperature threshold. I will not ride when it is lower than about 40\u00b0F (4.5\u00b0C). That’s about as cold as I can take it, despite all my leathers and gear.<\/p>\n

So there you have it — how I, personally, choose to go on an organized motorcycle ride (or not.) Every biker is different. Some have more time, some have better skills, some don’t have a non-riding other-half with a long honey-do list. Most of all, the motto is, “ride and have fun.” If I think the fun would be limited for me on a ride due to its purpose, destination, choice of roads, ride leader, or the weather, then I may go for a short ride by myself, or stay home and tackle the honey-do list.<\/p>\n

Life is short: make your choices.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As my regular blog followers know, I ride a Harley. One may think that given the opportunity, I would be out there riding all day, every day. Well, not quite. While I ride during the week to commute to work, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycle-ride"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bootedmanblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}