Best Motorcycle Wash

The Best Motorcycle That I Ever Owned

So, let's see...

I had always wanted to ride a motorcycle. I don't remember the first time I saw one. I saw them in movies. I heard them roar past my parents' car. No one in my family had one. There was something about the look. Instead of being stuck inside a vehicle, protected from the sights and sounds and smells of the world, a person could actually straddle the machine and control it like a metal horse. And let's face it, girls love horses. And this was a very fast horse.

After my parents split up, my father disappeared and some time went by, and my mother found a great new guy with his own daughter. He had black hair, smoked cigarettes And he had a motorcycle. I hated him....but I loved the motorcycle.

More then a decade after that loser, I had dated guys who had motorcycles, worked at places that catered to motorcycles and was finally about to buy my own! There I stood in the last dealership of my journey to own my own two wheels. I had asked around, done my research and gone into the pursuit with an open mind. I had stood over bikes that had me on my tiptoes, practically laying down to control them and I had leaned back against back rests and put my feet up on cruising pegs. But nothing fit me until I put my legs over a gleaming solid black on black Buell. This was it.

The Buell had a low center of gravity and sat lower so that it let me touch most of my feet on the ground. It had a riding position that was more upright but not completely so that it felt natural and exactly how I wanted the bike beneath me to feel. It looked great. Serious, sexy, dangerous, cool, everything that I wanted it to be. It wasn't a huge bike but it had enough torque to keep up with the big dogs that I would be running with from time to time. It was belt driven so no chain issues, air cooled, throaty. I loved it. I bought a black on black flame helmet, gave a down payment, signed the papers and drove it home....uh, well not quite. I actually had someone else drive it back to my parent's house for me because I had never actually driven a motorcycle before in my life! That's right, I bought my first motorcycle never having driven one at all.

Which brings me to my next great experience. Learning to control this beautiful beast. I had the concept down. I had driven stick shift cars plenty, and I had ridden on the backs of motorcycles and felt the gravity shifts, but it was a totally different experience to be standing alone with just this black monster and me to work things out. I turned the key. Nothing. I tried again. Still nothing. I looked at the owners manual. Ah ha, turn the bike's 'on' switch on. Got it. I turned the key. Magic! I rotated the handle to rev up the gas. Sweet music to my ears. 'Okay. You can do this.' I told myself.I held the brake in. I held the clutch in. I stepped down and in to first gear. I slowly released the clutch and fed it a little gasoline. It growled and lurched forward and stalled out. I was ecstatic. I had moved us a solid foot ahead of where the black beast and I had started. We hopped forward a foot a time until I found the smooth balance of gas and clutch and actually began rolling forward. I was driving a motorcycle!

Now, the yard I was starting off in was grass and very small and the circle driveway let off on to one of the worst dirt roads you have ever seen. It had been raining off and on. The road was nasty. And I was ready to go on my first ride. I had been told not to turn it off if the pipes were under water because it wouldn't start again. I had that in my mind.

I got my guts in my throat and took out. I stayed to the sides of the mud puddles to avoid the unknown depth of the middle. The road was lined closely with trees so there was no avoiding the mess altogether. I made it a few miles down the dirt roads, little hills and mud puddles to the paved road. I almost stalled as I climbed on to the black top. And then I was free. I was shifting up as fast as could. Leaning left and right. Feeling the control my body had over this thundering machine. It was amazing. A few more miles and I decided to come back and share the news of my triumph. I turned off the hard road and on to the mud trail. I wound around and back to my parents house, I was almost to their yard, when I got stuck in the last mud puddle. It had apparently been waiting to laugh at me this whole time.

There I sat, up to my shins in muddy water. The wheels were almost under the brown water. The tail pipes were shooting air bubbles that were exploding mud everywhere. I was afraid to turn it off and let the water into the pipes. I was afraid that I could loose my footing and fall over, bike and all into the muck. I put it down in to first gear, I laid on the gas, I push with my sinking toes as hard as I could into the mud floor. I rocked the weight of the bike back and forth. I was slowly gaining ground. Inch by inch, held breathe by splattered mud I finally reached the higher ground. The bike had been sliding and squealing the whole time. We finally made it up to the solid dirt road and I just sat and rested for a second. Then I looked up to see the small group of family and neighbors that had gathered from the commotion hoping to help. They had cracking smiles as they took in the sight of me and my new motorcycle just emerging from the mud bog. We were both covered in the clay and mud and dirt and grime. My clothes were ruined, the Buell's pristine glossy black exterior was hidden somewhere deep beneath the abuse it had just endured at my hands. But it never complained about it. I stepped off the side and started to push it the 10 feet or so to the yard where I would soon participate in my first bike wash ever. And as I pushed the now disgusting bike past the talking onlookers, I couldn't help but smile through the mud on my face. I had never been so proud in my life. It had been a rough ride. But so had my life. and now, finally, I was a 'biker'.

This one motorcycle taught me what it meant to be free. It taught me how to ride. I survived it and it survived me. It will forever be the best motorcycle that I ever own because he taught me more then any other ever could.

And I loved every single minute of it!

Thanks Buell.