Just how much your motorcycle weighs is an interesting question. Talking
with my friend Scott who ships bikes, including the crate they always seem to
weigh less than the manufacturer claims, yet in magazines they always weigh
more. While Harley, Gold Wing, Indian, and others add weight, performance
riders look for ways to shed it. Companies have discontinued center stands,
10-15 pounds, tool kits, add another two, and owners manuals that used to be
kept under the seat, 1 pound. Here they just lost 13-18 pounds, a major weight
savings. Install a new header system, another 15-18 pounds, and suddenly you
are talking serious weight loss. Using 500 pounds as a baseline here, you just
brought your bike weight down to 464-172 pounds! Sport bike guys remove the
rear foot pegs, another 3 pounds, and anything else from reflectors to passenger
grab bars, another 2 pounds. Maybe remove the battery or go to a smaller one.
Speedo, who needs one, any cop worth his donuts will tell you when you are going
too fast. But still why do they weigh so much? And are there other ways to
lose weight?
As with any weight loss program, consult a professional first. But here
goes....first, put 10 less pounds of air in each tire, an immediate savings of
20 pounds. You never check them anyway. Only torque the head bolts to 5 pounds
less than the factory, another 20 pound weight loss. On your next oil change
add one less quart, another 1.5 pounds. Change from 50 weight to 10 weight.
Only fill your gas tank to half, another 12-15 pound savings. Say, this is
adding up. Remove the mirrors, 2 pounds, fenders 4-8 pounds, and suddenly we
are leaner and meaner. Your 500 pound ride now weighs now should weigh much
less than 400 pounds, or the same as an old Triumph Bonneville before all its
oil leaked out. See, it can be done! Who needs all that extra weight
anyway?
Race designers either tell you to cut weight or add horsepower. They do
both. But weight reduction can be a tricky and dangerous proposition. Please
don’t try the formula I just suggested. For just like the heart, it can be
deceitful and who can understand it? I have always told my sons never make a
decision on a high or low emotion. Ever fall in love with the perfect bike
until next years model came out? Or are you an expert on marriage like my
friend who has been married five times? If love is just a feeling, you missed
love. Or only experienced a superficial aspect of it. God is love, a noun,
loves us, a verb, and is loving, and adjective. And all decisions made without
him involved stand a greater chance of disaster. Over 50% of so-called
Christian marriages end in divorce, they should know better. They claim to know
better. But God tells Jeremiah it is deceitful, and cannot be understood. Yet
we try with limited success, and ultimate failure.
Even our Constitution doesn’t give power over to one person, lest their
heart lead us astray. They knew, and were influenced by God. Any man made
creed will have its failings when it depends on man instead of God. No
philosophy, no belief system, no education, or club can replace the
misunderstanding our heart can provide. We need Jesus, we need the spirit to
guide us. We say we do, we follow him, but end up losing weight like my
ultimate motorcycle weight loss program, and end up with something not
rideable. Sounds good, but how many chase after God like they do weight loss
programs? Or Bowflex ads? Looking for performance based on an emotion? Sadly
we never look at things to see them quite as bad as they are. We tackle the
easy things first, always putting off the hardest for later. I bought the
program, that is half the battle. No, implementing it is the battle. Already
deceiving ourselves. But yet the heart can be crafty, allowing us to think we
are better, based on how someone else is doing. We have an innate ability to
hide the truth from others while believing the lie ourselves. That is the
heart, it can promise results, vow to do better, and still deceive itself. No
self help book will get the results that taking the advice from God via the
Bible will produce.
For the Bible is the only book that condemns the heart, but points us to
God. Lean not on your own understanding, as we try to figure it out. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart, yet we still try to figure him out, reaching a
stage emotionally and calling it success. God has opened up his life to you via
Jesus, revealing himself via the spirit, and giving us insight and wisdom no
other book or philosophy can. Perfect from above can only promise perfect below
if we trust and obey. The only real way to face life and not be deceived, or
deceive ourselves. Or you can become an emotional retard, a drama queen or
king, being ruled by your emotions and never finding the peace only God can
provide.
And one last weight loss idea for your ride. When faced with wanting to
shed more pounds, the Mercedes Benz race team in the thirties removed all the
paint from their race cars, leaving only the silver aluminum skin, hence the
name Silver Arrow. Another few pounds. Before you go sanding, cutting,
removing, retorqueing, or replacing, consider what you have and what you might
end up with. Same with Jesus, trust in the Lord with all your might, and he
will direct your ways. Ever wonder why some are still fixing while some are out
riding? Did you know that your brakes weigh almost 20 pounds? Of course if you
want to stop....
So let God be truth and all men liars. Only one way to heaven, no matter
how much you weigh, but it depends on whom you believe. Don’t let “but God” be
the first words you say when you face him, but thanks and adoration. Only God
allows you to start anew while still on earth. Both a heavy heart and a heavy
motorcycle are harder to live with. Of course If you take the bus....
Knowing it is not what we do, but what Jesus did. Not who we are but who
he is. Only Jesus can shed the weight of sin from us, can your weight loss plan
promise as much?
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com