My First Bike

I bought a motorcycle yesterday. I'm pretty excited about it; well, as excited as I get about things.

I'm hoping that a motorcycle will save me money not only on gas, but also on maintenance. I'm hoping it will also save me on stress. My car hasn't really been that reliable ever since I got it: Multiple batteries inexplicably dieing, tensioners mysteriously falling off, transmission fluid leaks, coolant system leaks, broken power windows, a rear-view mirror that wouldn't stay on. The car has pissed me off fairly consistently for the last three years. And not just because it tends to fall apart.

I've had a shittier, less reliable car -- Grumbles, the 1982 Dodge Omni -- but it was at least consistent in its shittiness. It made no promises of working well or getting me where I needed to go. I wasn't surprised when its muffler fell off or upset when the driver side door stopped opening. It was what it was.

I bought the Grand Am, my current car, to replace my old, unreliable clunker. It wasn't even ten years old when I got it, and it started to fall apart within the first month of me owning it. It was a constant disappointment to me until about a year ago when I decided I would just run it into the ground. I've tried to think of it more like I did about Grumbles, but the Grand Am just doesn't have the same charm. That, and I'm still bitter. Long story short, I'll be glad to ditch my car and start riding my bike

Motorcycles seem so much more accessible than cars. Cars have so many moving parts that can fail, and everything is crammed under the hood or slapped up underneath where it's hard to reach. On motorcycles, you're staring right at the engine whether you like it or not. Everything is fairly straight forward, and I feel like I could actually learn to repair a bike, unlike staring at my oft-broken cars in wonderment and confusion.

So, getting the bike was step one. Step two is getting my permit. And steps three through forty-seven are, collectively, the daunting task of negotiating the DMV to get it titled and licensed and whatnot. Then comes the step in which I try to learn to ride it without breaking my neck. I'll keep you posted.