Peace Love Moto - The Motorcycling Podcast

Today, we take a few minutes just to relax and we do that by reading passages from a little book that not only takes us on our motorcycles down the road, but it also reminds us why we have such a desire to be on the road in the first place.  Published in 2013 and edited by Malcolm Nelson and Kristen Lassen, it’s called The Little Black Book of Motorcycle Wisdom.

The Little Black Book of Motorcycle Wisdom

I hear it often, even from motorcycle riders traveling on vacation.   I often hear it as I meet vacationers in the National Park.  If people tell me that they are leaving for home the next day, they often say “We have to go back to reality”.   Maybe, they’ve got it all wrong.  Maybe they have it backwards.  Perhaps they have been in reality all along.

There is value in understanding that we don’t have to be perfect.  With each new ride, we have the opportunity to get become a better rider and during that process, let’s just be satisfied with the fact that we’ve found something that we love.  

My brother-in-law and I got ski-high together.  No, not a chemical high through whatever means, but he on his Triumph and me on my BMW, no hallucinations going on here at all.  This is real.  Climbing so high on mountain roads, temperatures dropping over by 30 degrees.  Seeing for miles and miles in every direction, it gives you a new perspective.  Maybe a new perspective on life.  The world… is beautiful and there are lots and lots of amazing open space everywhere, especially here in the western United States.  We just have to see it to believe it.

I’ll never forget our group ride here in Colorado and the smile on my friend's face.  He rented his dream motorcycle from EagleRider, a business that is led by a motorcycle rider who also cares about people.  My friend's smile means mission accomplished.

I'm excited to visit today with the CEO of EagleRider, Sebastian Schoepe!

Learn more about EagleRider at:  EagleRider.com

Many of our motorcycle rides are just circles.  Some 5 mile loops others 500 miles, but usually we start from home and return home.  Why do we do the same thing over and over again?  Well, we riders know why.  Yes, crazy can be fun!

I’m excited to share with you an unedited conversation with my friend Andreas Metzger.  Andreas and his wife Lisa joined me for a long Saturday ride through arguably the most beautiful spaces on Earth here in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming.  I gave Andreas no prep time.  I just handed him a clip-on microphone and told him “OK buddy, let’s talk”.

Today we replay what I feel is one of the more important episodes thus far.  It’s one about forgiveness.  It’s about compassion.  It’s about showing love for a stranger.  It’s about a wrong assumption about a driver who almost killed you.

Are you looking for a community?  A sense of belonging?  Well, you already have your membership card.  It’s the motorcycle you ride!  It’s the jacket you’re wearing.  It’s the helmet you carry into the coffee shop.  You’re in!  You are a part of a growing community of motorcycling riders.  How great is that?  

While preparing every Episode for this podcast, I make an effort to refresh my memory on how I feel when I’m out on my bike.  Since I had determined that I would call this episode, Riding in the Rain, well then, I needed to ride in the rain!  

So this afternoon the timing was perfect.  Here in Colorado, most afternoons or evenings, a rainstorm will likely come through.  I saw on the weather radar that 30 miles from my home, there was a storm brewing.  So, for you, for my listening audience, I prepared for my ride, I confirmed that I had all of my rain gear, hopped on my Triumph Bonneville, and rode through the storm.  Such is life.