Forever Two Wheels

1988, 9 years old, high on life. Before the time of Ipods, laptops, cell phones, internet. Building ramps out of 1/2" plywood with bricks, and riding my BMX was the only thing I obsessed about. There was a place called "the bowl" behind a Sybaris and Lays potato chip factory out in the Northwestern wooded suburbs of Chicago. A dried up river bed gave the perfect natural area for teenagers to build dirt jumps, get high, and drink beer. I remember watching all the older kids ride and I couldn't wait until I became old enough to be able to get "air". Every now and then the Forest Preserve would come through and try to bulldoze or fill in all the areas with wood chips and debris. I would come back a couple weeks later and it would be rebuilt even better than before. No one was in charge, it was just a place to ride if you where "in the know".

I remember even when I was younger than 9 they made this plastic contraption for bicycles that you would mount to your bike with this crappy fake throttle and you could control it to emit sounds of a real motorcycle. I would ride around like a maniac and use my imagination to make myself believe I was on a real motorcycle. Of course, even at an earlier age we would use baseball cards to try to re-create that sound in our spokes.

I would ride all over the place and we would ride with no helmet or pads. My friends and I, at a young age, we where always on two wheels. Tail whipping things in peoples yards. Chairs, flags, whatever we deemed cool enough to destroy. We'd garbage dive for old playboys, build custom BMX bikes, drink Pepsi with real sugar in it, set bags of shit on fire, and make illegal forts in the woods. We where full of energy and could make use of it at our disposal. No one was on prescription anti-hyper active pills.....we burned it all off. From the age of 10 I was barely home.....I was out on my "bike".

My parents where cool enough to cave in and buy me a mini bike and eventually a 1974 Yamaha RD60 when I was in 8th grade that I found in the Trading Times for $200. Even though I didn't know it then, the motorcycle bug was already in my head. I would ride around in circles in our culdesac for hours and sometimes venture out into the street and ride around the block at full throttle which would normally make the neighbors call the cops.

I feel like there has always been some correlation between BMXing with your friends and then years later, riding your motorcycle with your friends. Its like the adult version of being a kid. For those hours or days you ride you can let your mind wander into the deep abyss but stay focused on the task at hand.....staying alive and adjusting to the current mechanical abilities of your motorcycle.

I went out yesterday for a nice long ride with my friends.My kid is two weeks old now so "free time" is more valuable than anything else as the riding season comes to an inevitable end. By the time the day was over I was entering the highway alone. Its a straight 30 mile blast until my exit and usually entails a certain type of aggressive riding style since you are competing with highway drivers. I felt like I was doing 90mph as I clicked into 6th gear. Cars where standing still as I raced passed. Everyone of them on their cell phones, caught up in whatever was more important at that moment in time. Facebook, Instagram, texting, email, etc. The Zombie Apocalypse has already began and we haven't even noticed.

This one of the many reasons I love to ride a motorcycle. I can turn off my phone, hop on my bike with my friends, and have a certain sense of no responsibilities for a short period of time....just like how it was back in 1988.

Don't be a Zombie. Find your own fountain of youth and ride a motorcycle!!!

Forever two wheels!!!!!!!!!!!