What is so special about motorcycles?
I was thinking about this last night. What is it about motorcycles that make them beautiful and so attractive? Even the biggest chrome barge and the shittiest rat bike - if they run - still have an underlying beauty - style, or lack there of, aside.
I think what makes motorcycles so beautiful and fascinating is that they are the simplest form of powered vehicle and yet they are reliable and powerful.
Look at the gas tank - no pump is necessary to make it work... gravity, the simplest force, makes it work. The gas goes to the back of the tank and drains out, if you go up hill, it gets the gas back there, if you go down hill, it doesnt matter because you dont need gas to go down hill. You dont need a battery to make a motorcycle run, you can kick them or even roll them down hill.
Motorcycles require little, if any, suspension - a little air in the tire and some springs on your seat. And in the end, two pulleys run the whole show - one to the transmission and one to the wheel. Hell you dont even need the transmission.
Motorcycles offer little protection - maybe a fender to keep the mud and water off, or maybe not. If you want to protect yourself, you wear goggles and a jacket....
Sure, we all know or see people with dvd players and cup holders and heaters and probably air conditioners on their bikes. In a sense, that merely reinforces the utility of the vehicle. And underneath all that interesting crap, there is still a simple machine that will start and go even if you pull all that off.
The simplicity makes the machine a great platform for power and artistic innovation. It is literally one man, one machine. Personal, yet universal.
So next time you see the billet barge lumbering down the lane, go ahead and admit that you love it -- you love what it is in its soul.
I think what makes motorcycles so beautiful and fascinating is that they are the simplest form of powered vehicle and yet they are reliable and powerful.
Look at the gas tank - no pump is necessary to make it work... gravity, the simplest force, makes it work. The gas goes to the back of the tank and drains out, if you go up hill, it gets the gas back there, if you go down hill, it doesnt matter because you dont need gas to go down hill. You dont need a battery to make a motorcycle run, you can kick them or even roll them down hill.
Motorcycles require little, if any, suspension - a little air in the tire and some springs on your seat. And in the end, two pulleys run the whole show - one to the transmission and one to the wheel. Hell you dont even need the transmission.
Motorcycles offer little protection - maybe a fender to keep the mud and water off, or maybe not. If you want to protect yourself, you wear goggles and a jacket....
Sure, we all know or see people with dvd players and cup holders and heaters and probably air conditioners on their bikes. In a sense, that merely reinforces the utility of the vehicle. And underneath all that interesting crap, there is still a simple machine that will start and go even if you pull all that off.
The simplicity makes the machine a great platform for power and artistic innovation. It is literally one man, one machine. Personal, yet universal.
So next time you see the billet barge lumbering down the lane, go ahead and admit that you love it -- you love what it is in its soul.
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