just another reason to ride alone

Have you ever shared a favorite road with a fellow rider only to be disappointed or disgusted after riding it with them?  Too fast, too many curves, no cell service-and this is from sport bike guys who are in their one piece leather and brag about riding Palomar.  Too slow, not enough curves, my GPS says we should have turned back there, and this from touring riders.  Or you mean we are going to ride 350 miles today?  I’ll have to fill up twice!  You mean we won’t stop for lunch until after two, that will take me off my schedule.  And that and other excuses are the reason that I ride alone.   Over the years taking friends and others I know on great roads only to have them complain, I tell these Goldie Locks half a sissy riders “I’m going alone.”  And off I go......

Over the years of doing crowd rides, you only go as fast as the slowest person.  You only take roads they feel safe on, and stay on freeways fighting traffic.  You may stop for 45 minutes for them to fill up, they only use a certain brand of gas, will only eat certain foods, and ride with certain brands.  And brag to each other how challenging the ride was, and how they feel so safe in the group.  Missing out on the personal side of each ride, exercising both mind and body while riding, eating where they want, filling up when they need to, and going places not on the map.  Sometimes grousing how they will never do it again, until next week’s crowd ride.  And the cycle-no pun intended, continues....

Highway 25 in Central California is one of those roads best ridden alone.  Sixty miles of curves, braking from 100 to 20, scraping pegs in the technical stretches, with elevation changes and no cell service.  No gas in between so fill up, no food, no stores.  Just you and the road....a ride best done alone to ride your own ride.  Living in Durango we rode the Million Dollar Highway many times.  With many a first timer stopping to look, take pictures, rest because of the elevation, and having to rest in Silverton before going over Red Mountain and into Ouray.  Again, best done alone.  The Road to Escalante, Highway 12 is no place for a group ride.  Riding upon a road feeling like you are on top of the world, some cannot keep up, some won’t.  While some will wish they stayed home with their GPS.  And you will wish they had too....Highway 33 in Wisconsin, 421 in Oklahoma and North Carolina, 22 in New York State, 7 and 100 in Vermont, the letter roads of Missouri, Loess Hills, pronounced Luss in Iowa, even the locals don’t know about this one, roads in the Masabi Range in Minnesota, Lolo Pass, Going to the Sun Road, Skyline Drive south of San Francisco, Gold Rush Highway, Texas Hill Country, 50 across West Virginia, 555 and 800 in Southern Ohio, 52 following the Ohio River in Indiana, and the list goes on.  Each road different, as each rider is.  With so many roads and so little time to do them, why mess them up with a crowd ride?  Don’t we ride just to get away sometimes....you see there are some who just own motorcycles, and then the rest of us who love to ride them......

Riding like being a Christian is a personal thing.  And we all need encouragement along the way.  Some brag on where the go to church, their study habits, and ability to quote scripture, but like the slow guy on the fast bike, don’t enjoy the ride.  Trying to keep up with studies, it has become a burden, and when it becomes too much, leave the church, and sadly sometimes put Jesus on hold.  I have learned to be compassionate and sensitive to other’s struggles, but find many times they are self inflicted.  And just need Jesus without all the religion man burdens us with.  How sad that Christians have a reputation for killing their own wounded, when we tell others about God’s love but fail to show it.  Just as there are some who only own a bike, some only own Jesus, a cross around the neck, a bumper sticker, known by others at church.  But when confronted with a different road, one that threatens how they live, they go off and after praying and God doesn’t answer the prayer the way they asked, go shopping their problem too others, by passing the holy spirit.  How many rough roads I have ridden turned into beauty after a few miles of dirt, or a section that had me cursing ever being on it?  Does not Jesus tell us “in this life there will be tribulation,” you won’t always get your way, but you can have his!  If only we can be encouraged in Christ during these times, what a difference it would make.

And it does, as so many are full of the logos of God, the entire written scriptures we call the Bible, but fail to connect with  his rhema, the individual holy spirit driven word given just for that time and situation.  No group or church ride, this is where we get personal with Jesus, his will not ours, until our will is his will.  What a difference in the ride and the relationship.  Yet too many seek the safety within the crowd, never reaching out to the individual who can save and heal.  Jesus is a road to ride alone, and driven by his spirit to fellowship with others.  Real Christians don’t just go to church, we are the church, and wherever two or three are gathered in his name, he is present.  And since you are given his spirit upon salvation, and his promise to never leave you, you are never alone, and always with the perfect prayer partner.  You may ride alone, but you are never alone, for he is always with you!

Maybe one of the times I learned this was spending an afternoon telling Jesus all about rides I had taken.  He had as much fun hearing as I did telling, he had been along and remembered them too.  Nothing religious here, just two friends talking and spending time together.  Do you know Jesus like that?  Would you like to?  Listen to what the spirit is saying, he talks in a small voice, but is always audible.  Dare to ride alone with him, avoid the religious dogma and crowd incited worship, and let him lead.  If he can save, who better to guide you?  To know what you need, and to provide it?  Let him speak loving words to you that are good for the soul, that refresh and renew.  We are all just one moment away from one bad ride day, trust the Lord and see where he takes you. 

You see I didn’t mention 32 in Pennsylvania, 14 in New Mexico, the Mogollon Rim, 23 in Arkansas, 7 in West Virginia, 101 on the Olympic peninsula, or riding across the Yupper.  When you get off mainstream religion and into Jesus, the road choices only get better.  Like 34 in Rocky Mountain National Park or Highway 1 to Key West.  There is so much more to Jesus than just religion...if you only get out and let him lead. If you are nodding your head, you know, if not, what are you waiting for?  You see there is this short 20 mile stretch of road between Santa Paula and Ojai, just calling my name.....let’s ride.  With Jesus.

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com

the parable of the filters

Taking the Kia Soul in for its first service since our cross country trip, I thought it just needed an oil change and tire balance/rotation.  It had been completely serviced including new tires and all filters just before we bought it, so I thought, LOF and out.  But when Richard insisted on checking the cabin and air filters, no charge, I agreed.  After only 7500 miles, they should look like new, but go ahead, it’s free.  And for once, I was glad he insisted, for both had big bugs, pieces of straw, flowers, and a big butterfly.  Which amazed me, because we often commented on the trip abut the lack of bugs on the windshield, so how did they all get into the filters?  I’m just glad the filters did its job, and for listening to Richard, our ace mechanic, in his 47 years of business.  You cannot teach experience, but Richard taught me yesterday.  I wondered what else I didn’t learn after spending most of my life in automotive....

While working at Land Rover some years back, we had the fire at Rancho Santa Fe where many of my customers lived.  Without fail after the smoke cleared, they came in insisting we check or change their air filters,  all that smoke must have damaged them.  So I learned to just change them rather than argue, even though none of the many never showed signs of smoke or anything else, and it was easy money, not necessarily smart money.  Which Richard and I laughed about yesterday, how foolish customers are.  Checked for free, if the filter is clean, reinstalled for free.  But if dirty, I had techs who wanted to charge a half hour’s worth of labor, and the job with parts would be near $100, Harley territory.  Now why would someone pay to have a part installed when it should be done for free?  I was often at odds with techs over this....they seldom won, but always found new ways to make money.  Some sounded like robbery, some were pay me now or pay me later.  Again Land Rover, recommended replacing all hoses at 60,000 miles, a $1500 job.  But when refusing would be back within 5000 miles with hoses leaking.  Still cannot figure that one out.  The days of points and condensers is far behind us, but plugs need replacing 100,000 miles now instead of 6000.  Some when taken out still look like new, so why replace them?  A lesson from my old Coke pick up truck maybe explains it, after 100,000 hard miles, they tried to replace them except they couldn’t get them out.  They had seized themselves to the head....and were still there 50,000 miles later when I left.  Surely Ford knows of using anti-seize....

From the service end we used to blame the engineers, many times designing a product no one cold work on.  Remember the Chevy Citation, where the #6 plug could not be reached without taking out the engine?  Lots of five cylinder tune up out there.  Life time anti-freeze, life time trans fluid, and the list goes on.  Or the E class with the sound system that would shut off, then turn on and shut off again.  Seems it put put too much power, got hot and shut itself off.  Then when cooling off, turned itself on again.  A software fix by depowering the head unit.  Cars with space saver spares, cars with no spares, lug nuts put on with air guns you cannot get off.  Different size front and rear wheels you cannot rotate.  Interference motors, if the timing belt breaks, it damages the head-motor toast.  All these things we never think of when buying a car, behind the pretty face lies the cold hearted heart out to empty your wallet.  Like I used to tell my customers, “maintenance is expensive, you don’t even want to know the cost of repairs.”  Pay me now or pay me later goes much farther than a Fram oil filter commercial....

Now as much control as we are offered over our cars and motorcycles for maintaining them, we either neglect it, or pay for it later.  Says so right in the owner’s manual under recommended maintenance schedule.  But how do we apply the basics of maintenance too our own lives?  The old story of man plans and God laughs has been told and retold many times, yet we plan not taking into consideration God himself.  When James 4 reminds us not to set off to a city and to make money without first checking with God, we fail like he says to take into consideration tomorrow.  Life is a vapor and vanishes quickly.  Which can leave us on the side of the road of life.  With only a cell phone that has no reception.  So James recommends, we ought to plan including God, saying “if his will is this or that, we will do it.”  Like the four hardest words you will ever pray, “thy will be done,” we seldom pray like that.  Our fate lies in the hands of Jesus, not our own.  Yet too many go astray one way or the other.  Did we ever just-that word for you Bruce, trust God?  Maybe a TV commercial I saw once may enlighten you.  A little girl stands at the edge of the pool, her Dad telling her to jump in.  After too many “c’mon Honey’s,”and head shakes no, he finally raises his voice, and says “JUMP!”  And she does, not out of trust, but out of obedience.  Do we wait until we are commanded to, or do we trust God?  Obedience may be better than sacrifice, but we find when men walked with God, the blessings were incredible.  If you do not screw up you do not need mercy.  God is not our co-pilot, with all respect to General Doolittle, either God is in control or we are out of control. 

Reality will always have a way to shatter our plans, but in Christ we can be prepared.  He knows the plan, the path, and is the way, and as the Good Shepherd has gone ahead and made the way.  Or you can follow man’s way, like when riding last weekend came upon a detour not mentioned anywhere, no signs to warn, just a line of cars waiting at least 30 minutes.  Poor thinking on their part and we paid the price.  Are you waiting on Jesus, or waiting in traffic?  Learn a lesson from the parable of the filters, God knows what is ahead, and when we need to change, we need to change.  Trusting him will always be the best way, even if it sounds like a detour.  And he does it for free...unlike some mechanics.  No man sets out on a trip without a plan, the few who do are fools.  So why set out in life any other way?  If it needs fixing fix it, and trust in the Lord.  How do I know?  

The sign said 100 miles to the next station, and I was half full on a tank that would go 120....the parable of pushing your bike in riding boots.  And why you don’t want to.  But that’s another story....

love with compassion,

Mike

mattehw25biker.blogspot.com

the Indian on the Triumph

When bench racing we often talk of the rides and the roads we’ve taken, but very little about the men who rode them.  But three men of motorcycling go far beyond the road, having gone places most fear to tread, no matter what they ride.   In a world that tells us size matters, I often refer to a man I met in 1974 working at an A&W root beer stand in Ft. Lauderdale.  He loved to ride, and actually was a touring rider despite his very small size.  But he didn’t let that stop him, his ride of choice was a Honda CB175 with a Windjammer fairing.  He had been all over the US of A, and this summer was planning on beating the Florida heat by riding his Honda to Alaska, again.  But maybe size does really matter, the size of the heart more important than the size of the bike....

Most people will identify Mert Lawwill as a former AMA #1 plate holder and star of On Any Sunday.  But how many know he designs and builds prosthetic arms for bikers who don’t have one?  Working out of the same garage from the movie, he converted it into a design studio, and has put many riders back in the saddle, when they should have retired from riding.  His trophies show him as a racer, but his work tells us more about the man than the movie ever did.  Once again the man outweighing the road, but never the rider.....

But maybe the most hard core rider I ever met was in Albuquerque, an Indian who rode a circa 1969 Bonneville.  Shifting on the right, no electric leg, many would have sought a better and more modern ride, but for him it was perfect.  He had no left leg, no one ever asked why, it never seemed to matter.  But he rode that old Bonneville everywhere, kick starting it, then putting his one crutch in a scabbard on the left side he made for it.  He was able to start and shift his Bonne, without any assistance, only missing rear braking, but skillful enough to use the 70% of the braking the front provided, and using his gears to maneuver.  No handicapped parking for him, he parked where he could, waited in line at parts like the rest of us, and loved to ride.  I must admit the first few times I saw him start his bike I was amazed, but he made it seem as normal as us using the electric leg to start ours.  That was over 40 years ago, and if still riding, that old Triumph must have over half a million miles on it, you see, in 1975 the Federal government made left foot shifting mandatory so anyone could ride, except him.  His always fired off on the first or second kick, took him everywhere he needed to go on the res where most roads were dirt with potholes, and had a life long relationship with riding on that one bike.  He might have appeared handicapped to the world around him, but never to himself or us, just a guy who loved to ride.  And adapted himself to the situation.   Just like all of us would.....right?

Seven years ago when I almost died from a heart condition, God saved me and I am a true miracle.  I have the papers and the scar to prove it.  But I had a big decision to make, was I a victim, should I retreat and feel sorry for myself, maybe even blame God, or should I choose to be a victor, and brag on Jesus, and tell of the miracle he did in my life?  I never thought of  myself as a victim, and always knew the whole situation was all about Jesus, and in the adversity got to know him better.  Even more personal than I ever imagined.  In a world where many live their life of motorcycling by reading about it in magazines, I chose to ride and experience it first hand.  Nowhere near a hero like the above mentioned men, but yet a choice I made on my own.  Today I see people who come to Christ, yet deny the power of the holy spirit that led them to him.  Relying on Bible teaching, church attendance, and fellowship with other believers, they often miss out on the personal side of Jesus he offers.  Bound by doctrine, I often think of a man I used to go to church with, who thought I may be satanic because my motorcycle had Pirelli Diablo Rosso Corsa tires, Red Devil Race tires.  Seems he thought I was a bad witness riding them, when asked did he eat devils food cake, or like deviled eggs, he left me alone.  Note-I love Drake’s Devil Dogs.  He probably would tell you sinners went to heck, so legalistic was he.  How sad to be bound by religious teachings and never enjoy life.  Every once in awhile I run into someone I knew from that fellowship, who think I have fallen away because I don’t go there any more.  When asked “where have you been?’ I just reply “Out living what you are still learning about.”  And never a motorcycle in sight.....

So get out and live, let there be no bounds or restrictions of Jesus in your life.  Enjoy life knowing we are not going to heck/hell, that no matter the situation, Jesus has everything in his control, for our benefit.  We are overcomers in Christ, funny how I too often relate to men outside the church who have overcome obstacles.  Legally I am handicapped and can have a blue card to park anywhere, but don’t.  I will walk because some really need the space I would take up.   In my mind I am a victor in Christ who saved me and who still guides my steps everyday, even when I am not paying attention.  He is always with me, and I rather brag on him than anything else.  It is not the test but how we handle the test that shows our true character, that ought to scare a few of us.  But we are more than the bikes we ride, or the tires we ride on.  God has given us life to be lived, with everything heaven has to offer here on earth.  If you are what you ride, the one legged Indian was a Triumph.  Step over your handicaps and prejudices today, experience Jesus first hand.  So you can tell the stories of how he changed your life.  Live what Jesus teaches, go beyond religion and denominational boundaries, be guided by his spirit and let his life shine through you. 

And be like the guy on his three wheeled handicapped scooter the other day in a restaurant, parked inside.  I asked him if it was OK if I rode my Tiger in, and he said “sure, I’ll make room for you, no problem.” Just another guy who rode, I guess he doesn’t know he’s handicapped....or there’s my friend Joe with a Castrol sticker on his wooden leg....oh what fun it is to ride!

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.blogspot.com