Matt Taibbi on White Fragility

[Maple Syrup Actual]

It certainly encourages one to be fully in the moment.

Its also part of the very elemental feeling that riding older motorcycles tends to bring to the riding experience. Many dislike much of the inconvenience or annoyance of such things, but to some, its a large part of the enjoyment.

I periodically inflict a rant about this on the world. Many times people have told me to just buy an ST1100 or something and get an Aerostitch because I love to do long road trips, and I always have the same reaction: if I wanted a Corolla, I'd get one with four wheels and a trunk. Actually, I used to have a Corolla - it was a great little car but it didn't make my heart beat blip with the throttle and that's what I want a bike to do for me. I ride in creaky leather gear on oddball bikes because that's the feeling I want to have. If I ever get a bike that's somewhat intended for long distance use, it won't be a spaceship with all the amenities, it'll be a bagger version of a big gnarly V-twin, ideally with a cam lumpy enough that I can feel it underneath me at stoplights like a living animal. I don't care that there's an easier way. I don't care that I could pay less for more performance. I don't care that when it's hot, I'm hot, when it's cold, I'm cold, and when it's wet, I'm wet. That's what I'm there for. I want to be in that moment experiencing that thing and living that reality and I want the sound and the smell and the feel to deliver that aesthetic and I never want that to change. Mixing bikes with practical is just not my speed.

[Malamute]

^^^ Absolutely awesome post.

[blues]

Don't fuckin' insult my ST1100. It's taken good care of me over the years...from FL to Montana and back again. 800 mile days, 6000 mile trips. Now I hope you never win the Cup.


I like bikes, cruisers, rockets, and all manner of road bikes. Even whatever you ride.

[RoyGBiv]

I periodically inflict a rant about this on the world. Many times people have told me to just buy an ST1100 or something and get an Aerostitch because I love to do long road trips, and I always have the same reaction: if I wanted a Corolla, I'd get one with four wheels and a trunk. Actually, I used to have a Corolla - it was a great little car but it didn't make my heart beat blip with the throttle and that's what I want a bike to do for me. I ride in creaky leather gear on oddball bikes because that's the feeling I want to have. If I ever get a bike that's somewhat intended for long distance use, it won't be a spaceship with all the amenities, it'll be a bagger version of a big gnarly V-twin, ideally with a cam lumpy enough that I can feel it underneath me at stoplights like a living animal. I don't care that there's an easier way. I don't care that I could pay less for more performance. I don't care that when it's hot, I'm hot, when it's cold, I'm cold, and when it's wet, I'm wet. That's what I'm there for. I want to be in that moment experiencing that thing and living that reality and I want the sound and the smell and the feel to deliver that aesthetic and I never want that to change. Mixing bikes with practical is just not my speed.

As an owner of an officially antique R1100RT, I agree wholeheartedly.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Don't fuckin' insult my ST1100. It's taken good care of me over the years...from FL to Montana and back again. 800 mile days, 6000 mile trips. Now I hope you never win the Cup.


I like bikes, cruisers, rockets, and all manner of road bikes. Even whatever you ride.

Man, I knew there was going to be somebody with an ST1100. I should have said Suzuki Burgmann or something. If there's someone here with one of those and they're offended, that I legitimately discriminate against. Your bike sucks. I don't care.

Anyway if the ST speaks to you I'm not criticizing the bike, it's an excellent machine in its own way. It's just the demand that everyone create a spreadsheet and add up their preferences and requirements and choose the most practical option that checks the greatest number of boxes...that sets me off.

I just want to live how I want to live and I don't want to be instructed to find joy in the act of filing my taxes ahead of schedule, that's all.

[Totem Polar]

I’ve seen the goose that Maple rides, and the old-school gear he travels in. No lie: he’s the kind of guy that would stand naked at the entrance to an igloo in a blizzard with an Islay Scotch in his hand because the Scotch tastes better that way. He’s not especially afraid of sensory input in the form of discomfort, I’ve noted.

Me, I’m a sissy, and I drink Islay around a fire bowl. But I still want to go buy this around-towner, today...

https://spokane.craigslist.org/mcy/d...159183292.html

[OlongJohnson]

My long-distance bike is a 576cc Italian single dirt bike. I love that thing.

[Bio]

Not a biker, but when I was in grad school I went to an Electron Paramagnetic Resonance training course. Without going into too much detail, the technique uses massive magnetic fields to measure state changes of unpaired electrons. It's pretty useful for indirectly observing the state of a macromolecules (proteins, DNA, RNA, etc.).

Anyway, the old guy running the training course had an early model built a little after WWII. Its magnetic field was generated by giant lodestones instead of electromagnets, and the spectrum it read was constantly playing out on an oscilloscope instead of a monitor. Magnetic fields were controlled by brass knobs. I was deeply moved.

I did drive to and from the course in my super sweet 1996 stick shift Geo Prism.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I’ve seen the goose that Maple rides, and the old-school gear he travels in. No lie: he’s the kind of guy that would stand naked at the entrance to an igloo in a blizzard with an Islay Scotch in his hand because the Scotch tastes better that way. He’s not especially afraid of sensory input in the form of discomfort, I’ve noted.

Me, I’m a sissy, and I drink Islay around a fire bowl. But I still want to go buy this around-towner, today...

https://spokane.craigslist.org/mcy/d...159183292.html

A) that IS how it tastes best

B) well, part of that is just that fistfighting on gravel with sim guns and no protective gear is a very fast teacher - I don't seek out discomfort or enjoy it or anything but I do believe in the endurance of suffering as a virtue, as anyone who repeatedly shows up to ECQC on motorcycles must...otherwise the experience of putting on a helmet after extensive mountain goating is entirely worth avoiding, as is the experience of peeling it back off afterwards

C) that bike looks freaking awesome

[RoyGBiv]

My long-distance bike is a 576cc Italian single dirt bike. I love that thing.

Respect. /kneel