Motorcycle riding is a fully immersive experience

Most people who don’t ride motorcycles never really get it. They think riding is about transportation. Or that it’s too dangerous and you must be crazy to do it. Or maybe they think riders my age are having some sort of midlife crisis involving leather jackets and poor decision-making.

They would be wrong, however.

What many don’t understand is that riding a motorcycle is one of the few things left that forces you to be completely present. If you’re smart, your phone is buried somewhere where you can’t get to it. No texts. No emails. No Teams messages. No social media notifications. No electronic tether connected to your brain every waking minute.

For a little while, you’re free.

Let’s ride. Mark on his Janus Halcyon 250.

You notice things that people sealed inside their climate-controlled Yukon Denalis or Tesla Model Ys never experience. The smell of fresh-cut grass. The scent of someone’s backyard barbecue. The temperature dropping ten degrees as you roll into a shady valley and then warming back up as you ride out of it. You see the hawk sitting on the fence post, the old gas station that’s somehow still there even though it shut down 40 yrs ago, and the sunset that would have gone completely unnoticed through a windshield.

And then there’s the machine itself. The sound. The vibration. The smell of the exhaust. The sun glinting off the paint and chrome. The feeling that you’re actually operating something instead of just supervising technology.

When I’m riding a motorcycle, I’m not thinking about payroll, meetings, investors, employees, customers, students, deadlines, or any of the other things that usually occupy my head. I’m focused on the next curve, the road surface, and what’s happening right now.

Maybe that’s the real appeal. Because in a world where everyone is connected all of the time, motorcycle riding is one of the few last ways to completely disconnect and feel fully alive. #RideLife