Living Outside The Ordinary

by J. Joshua Placa, Cruising Rider Magazine

"Motorcycling comes with some inherent risks. This is obvious to anyone who has ever dared ride into the wind. We do it, not out some kind of hell-bent for leather death wish as the uninitiated may believe, but because life on the edge of two wheels is so full of passion. Motorcyclists embrace life, squeezing every palpable bit out of their senses.

The common citizen may know nothing of the strong sense of fraternity among riders, of the danger and rush and hardships we quietly share. We've come to take for granted the skills, reflexes and heightened instincts we use to survive the road, and enjoy the ride. Bikers are a breed apart, knowing an unbridled joy most could never imagine; possessing the toughness to defy disaster.

We live and ride knowing the next curve may be our last. We toss the dice each time we roll out to the road, aware of the odds. We accept our fate, calmly knowing any one of us at any time can be a casualty. We laugh about the fun; we don't speak of the peril. The experience is intense, the danger is real-we accept it, like it or not, as a necessary condition of living outside the ordinary."