Choosing the Right Bike for Your Mood: Exploring the Art of Motorcycle Selection

Transcript

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Maybe the bike you pull out of the garage should be more related to your current mood. Do you need a thrill or just a chill day on your bike or exploring nature or feeling nostalgic?

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Motorcyclists use a famous equation to describe the ideal number of motorcycles to own.

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It's defined as N plus one where N is the number of bikes you currently own. While the saying is a bit tongue in cheek, many motorcyclists strive to have a dream garage where the bikes offer the different facets of experience one could choose.

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Especially since motorcycles are much cheaper compared to cars, one could have several bikes for less money than one sports car.

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So having a garage of bikes covering a spectrum of styles and capabilities is more practical than it would be with cars. In truth, many of us have more than one bike. I've been asked by friends who ride but only have one bike how I choose which bike to take out each day.

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Sometimes it's practical consideration, like, are we going on a weekend trip for adventure riding? I'll bring the GS. Or if I'm participating in the distinguished gentleman's ride, my classic bike could be ridden that day. But for a regular day ride, when I want to go out and ride. More often than not, it's just based on the mood I'm in that day.

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Now, each of us might wake up in a certain mood each day, and most moods tend to be classified into either a positive or a negative mood.

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That's usually what we say, like he's in a mood today. Now there is a famous saying that nobody sees a motorcycle parked outside a psychiatrist office because of the endorphins released when riding. In fact, we have an article about why riding a motorcycle is actually good for you, and I'll add a link to that in the show notes. But moods don't have to be exclusively negative. They can just reflect one's current state of mind. And I want to focus instead on mood in the sense of what you're in the mood for. And that's what I really want to capture here is like, how do you figure out which bike is the one that you're in the mood for that day?

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Now, as I open up in the introduction, motorcycles are oftentimes much, much cheaper than cars. Now may be an exception. If you've got a CVO, Harley, that's going to be a very, very expensive bike. But most bikes are going to be less than $10,000. And certainly some of them, like the Royal Enfield line, are way, way under the$5,000 that you could buy. So having a few bikes is realistic in the sense of having that something that's so much more economical than a car. In fact, one of my bikes, my Vespa, actually I got to replace a car.

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So we had a second car. We got rid of the second car and I replaced it with a Vespa. So I always had something that was going on two wheels.

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now, that will actually lead into one of the first moods that I want to describe, which is running an errand. Most people will default to jumping in their car, but I like to stay on two wheels whenever possible.

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So that's when I reach for my Vespa. Now, the cool thing about a scooter is a scooter tends to have a lot of built in storage.

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Now, on my Vespa, I actually happen to have a top case on it.

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So I've got a space where, you know, when I was commuting, I would able to throw my helmet into the top case store, the helmet there, and then my riding suit. I would typically use an Aerostich and I would be able to store that underneath the seat because there's actually under seat storage. So fully locked away, I was able to put all of my riding gear and leave it on the scooter when I was parked and then taking the train to go into the city. But even running a normal errand, you've got a lot of carriage space on there, so you've got the space that I mentioned that's underneath the seat. I got that top case that I can do. But the cool thing on a Vespa, and a lot of other scooters is they often have what's called a bag hook. And this is right in front. So you've got the little section where your feet would be, I can hang, hang a bag. So when I want to run and pick up, let's say take out, I'll run over there and I'll just hang the bag onto the bag hook and I'm able to use the scooter instead of a car for doing a lot of things. I've actually carried two by fours on my Vespa. Looks a little weird, but you can actually do that.

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You can run over the hardware store and pick up whatever you need. So if I'm running an errand, the Vespa is, the bike that I typically heading for.

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Now, if I'm feeling that I'm in the mood for where I need a thrill, an adrenaline rush can be just what you need at times.

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And this is when a sport bike might be the perfect bike to choose. And I'm fortunate I have a BMW S1000R and it's a very powerful sport bike. But unlike a bike that has clip ons, this has a normal handlebars. So it's a little bit more comfortable for riding around normal streets and roads, but it's still got that insane acceleration That bike will do 0 to 60 in well under 3 seconds. So you're you're talking supercar performance in terms of beating a lot of EVs, for example. It's a very, very, very quick bike and very lightweight, very flickable. So any time you want to go through the roads at a very, very quick space. A sport bike is an amazing, amazing thing to have. So if you're really in that mood and you just need that adrenaline rush, this is what a sport bike might be, that good option.

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Conversely, sometimes you just really want to slow down.

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You want to get on the bike, but you don't need that adrenaline rush. You just want to kind of take an easy ride out. And when you want to slow down, maybe smell the roses, maybe just take a nice leisurely ride. This is maybe when a cruiser is the perfect bike to choose. And I've got the R18 Classic from BMW.

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And this cruiser is in many ways it's a cruiser made for people who don't normally like cruisers because it actually handles really well. So even if you want to go at a bit of a faster pace than you would on a typical cruiser, it can do it and it can handle very, very well. But it is a more sedate ride, I'll be honest. Then let's say a sport bike. So if you want to take that little bit more of a slow and just enjoyable cruise, this is where a cruiser might be the perfect option for you.

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Of course, sometimes you just want to go and explore.

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Maybe you want to get out in nature, you want to get up into the woods area, whatever it ends up being, but you just want to really just sort of explore and you don't have a destination in mind. you know, our ancestors would often hike as a normal part of their day. And the urge to get out into nature is still primal within each of us. Now, when I don't know where the road will lead or even if it will continue to be a road, I'll jump on an adventure bike. And the beauty of an adventure bike is it really doesn't care what you're going along. I'm I'm probably less likely to say, hey, I'm going to take my R18 and go off on some like rutted seasonal maintained road. I'll take the adventure bike instead on to that. So when I don't know where I'm going to go, I'll typically take the adventure bike if I want to kind of explore. So it's another sort of what is the mood that you want to do? And in many ways the thing that I like about an adventure bike as opposed to many others and we actually have an article about why an adventure bike might be a good bike for you no matter what is that Swiss Army knife nature to it. You can basically do anything with it. It can handle really well, so it can be kind of sporty, not as much as a sport bike, but certainly more than a cruiser You don't worry about if you hit a dirt road or even a seasonally maintained road, it'll handle that and perfectly fine. I mean, I've taken my GS on singletrack. It's a bit of a handling there, but it can do it. But if you don't know where you're going to go, an adventure bike really allows you to sort of explore.

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Now every once in a while, you know, there's a moment when we feel that the past was better, and perhaps because it was simpler, perhaps it's because we had fewer demands on us. When you feel the need to connect with the past, this is where a classic bike might be the right one for you. I have a old 1972 BMW R75/5, so the bike is more than 50 years old. When new it may maybe pushed 50 horsepower.

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It's not the most powerful thing.

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It's got drum brakes front and rear that are cable actuated. So doesn't stop really well, doesn't accelerate very well, but it has a character to it.

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That was something really remarkable of the bikes of that era and a lot of modern bikes with, you know, fuel injection and highly tuned motors lose a bit of that character. So sometimes you want to have that nostalgic feeling where you're not in a rush, you're not in any sort of a of a need to get somewhere quickly, but you just want to get back to that essence of what motorcycling was all about. And this is where a classic bike can be wonderful.

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And I would actually highlight that it doesn't necessarily need to be an actual classic bike like my my /5. But it could be a bike that is maybe a modern classic, you know, something from like the Triumph Line as a good example. These are bikes that look like the old air cooled parallel twins of yesteryear with their Bonneville series. But it's still got all the modern feeling into it, or even something like the Royal Enfield Line, their continental GT, their interceptor. 650 Both of those 650 lines also have that same character of an old school bike. But you have a little bit more modern edge to it. Of course, you know, Harley Indian are well known for having their cruiser style bikes that kind of fit into that range. So if that's the bike that you have that fits that nostalgic end that also can be a wonderful, wonderful bike to take as an option.

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Now, while bikes in general are good for you, certainly mentally you might be in need of a laugh at times. And this is where a bike with character may be the right fit.

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Now on my R18 between three and 4000 rpm, the engine has a character and vibration that literally shakes you in your seat. And even after owning the bike for nearly three years, I find myself laughing out loud each time I get in that rev range and the way I've described it to some other people is it almost sounds and feels like an old biplane, you know, where they had this really rickety engine and it was vibrating every which way and just it felt made you feel alive in a lot of ways. And you just laughed because it was just such a unique experience. And that's what I find with with the R18.

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And it is a boxer engine. A lot of a lot of aircraft are still boxer engines today. And it just has this vibration that is so unique to you, that particular bike and the fact that when you roll on the throttle, the entire bike actually rotates because of course the the driveshaft is going back along longitudinally with the bike. So any rotation, you get the torque effect and the bike will actually kind of flip over a bit or rotate as you're standing on it. So that character kind of gives a a feeling to it that maybe a modern bike that is highly tuned, very smoothed out in many ways won't have that sort of an experience on to. So, you know certainly some of the Harley and Indian bikes with the V-twin they also have a wonderful character to them that can give you that vibration that you really enjoy and it can just make you laugh out loud because you you really enjoy that character. So these are just a few examples that I've shared here of, you know, what moods I might be in that might have me choose to ride one bike versus another. But I'd love to hear from you. Which bike do you choose for your moods and what kind of moods do you have? Are there moods that maybe I didn't highlight that you think would be appropriate? Text the show through the link in the show notes and I'll share your feedback in a future episode.

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So let's wrap this up. We talked about a bit of the premise of a mood versus being in the mood for something, and we also covered several examples of the moods and the bikes that I might choose for rides. And of course they may be different than what you might choose, but I'd love for you to share your feedback and hear from you. What kind of bike do you choose? And if you have more than one bike, how do you differentiate? How do you pick to ride one bike versus another on any given day? Text the show through the link in the show notes and we'll definitely share your feedback. Thank so much for listening. We'll talk to you soon.

Choosing the Right Bike for Your Mood: Exploring the Art of Motorcycle Selection

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