the call of the ride

With our winter weather returning to normal, 60-70 degrees with sun and no rain, I have been out and about visiting motorcycle stores.  From Harley to Honda, Triumph to Yamaha, add in MV Augusta and Moto Guzzi, I may have covered them all.  Led by the low price come on ads, I have ridden to many in a 100 mile radius, and each place wants to be my friend, and sell me a bike.  But just how deep will they go on that price to be a friend.....In California all bikes must have a price tag hanging on them, explaining the price, without tax and license, and this thing called fees.  Years ago whatever the retail was, you might get a helmet thrown in, but that was the price.  Today the game is played differently, as freight and set up are added.  Usually bumping the price $1000, another profit center, as the cost is sometimes half of that, with a rebate for the set up.  But popular today, after the lead in pricing, is ADM, added dealer margin, which varies from dealer to dealer.  On one bike at different stores, the ADM was from $1299 to $2795!  Imagine going the grocery store and at checkout being told you owe another 10-15%, for grocery profit.  Yet I watch as buyers pay it, taking a 2020 Kawasaki z900rs I was looking at from $11,199, plus $1000 freight and set up, plus $2795, before taxes you now pay $14,990 for a bike, an increase of $3791 or 33% above retail!  I have taken many vacations for less....

But yet some stores advertise a discount, and when adding in ADM arrive back at the original retail price, plus tax with no fees.  Do they think we are that stupid, or do they know we are?  Add in bump books at the parts counter, $250 services that are mostly an oil change, and motorcycling has changed, and keeping those who want to enter it because they have the call and desire to ride out of it.  Or on a lesser ride, used ride, or taking the bus!  You may meet the nicest people on a Honda, just not at the dealer when it comes to buying time.  Of course this is only my side of the story as a buyer....and you can go elsewhere, as I do, so how do you know if you are getting a good deal?  Based on my operating advice, where a good deal benefits all involved, the more you want something the more you are willing to pay to have it.  I have been told that no one really needs a motorcycle, never heard a rider say that though.  So check around when buying.....it can be the start of a long and happy relationship. 

There is a passion for those of us who ride motorcycles, just as there is a passion for those of us who love Jesus.  It goes way beyond words, if you can describe either one you probably don’t understand it.  With one key to both, it takes participation on our part.  And with God, he has already provided his part via Jesus Christ.  He sent Jesus so we can have a one on one personal relationship, where we can read the Bible ourselves, pray ourselves, and spend time with him alone.  You don’t have to be in a group or crowd, he is that personal.  Scripture tells us we now see in a mirror darkly, but some day we will see him face to face, just as God wants it.  We may make sport of Moses, who after 40 years never entered into the promised land, but yet in Exodus we find where God spoke to him face to face.  Not through a pastor or through an email, but face to face, one on one.  That’s the kind of relationship I want, where it is just me and God talking.  And listening.  Today many settle for a religious activity once a week, and think that is all there is, or all they want.  A challenge of a personal God scares them, as they are lost in their sin,  knowing about Jesus, accepting forgiveness, but never entertaining his grace.  God wants more from our relationship, do we?  Moses eventually would leave the tent where they met, but Joshua his assistant stayed behind, desiring more, not wanting it to end.  Do we?

Jesus calls us friends, for he reveals all that he knows about the father to us.  Do you consider Jesus your friend?  Did you have to negotiate with him for salvation as you do when buying a new bike?  Although the gift of salvation is free, do you think you can get more things?  Maybe it is as simple as a question I was asked at Christmas time, “do you celebrate his birthday more than his birth?”  Is it him or the holiday, the bike or the ride?  Stop and consider your answer....one makes it personal, the other religion.  A hint, no bike, no ride.  No Jesus, no holiday.  Hope that helps.  Do you call Christmas or Jesus your friend?  Has the cost of the ride gone up and the pleasure gone down?  Has the cost of the relationship gone up, and the one on one gone down?  Has a added religious margin been added to the personal one Jesus offers?

Our lives are an advertisement for the gospel, what do they tell others abut Jesus?  Is he a complainer, is he only in a church setting, is he religious?  Is there an admission fee, does the preacher care more about what you know than about how much Jesus cares?  You may be on a ride you don’t want to be on, it may be trade in time, religion for Jesus.  The spirit calls, what will your answer be?  Do we really want all of Jesus or just pick and choose, based on what we want or think we can afford?  What part of a personal relationship with Jesus don’t you want?  As a rider, the thrill of the wind in my face is rewarding, exhilerating.  Stirs the senses.  So why accept less from Jesus, when he offers all that and more?  Are you paying fees and ADM in your relationship with him, missing out on the full joy of knowing him?  Has he become stale to the point you don’t even care to ride anymore with him?  It happens, and he welcomes us back, open arms,not clenched fists.  And the ride can be even better than before.  Is the price of admission keeping you from the ride of your life, do you know that on earth as it is in heaven starts the moment you accept him, and let his spirit guide you?  Lots of dealers out to get your hard earned money, same with your soul.  Church or Jesus, which one are you devoted to?  Your answer may shock you.....Jesus wants to be your friend, he offers heaven and all that goes with it, with a special time just for the two of you.  Long before Facebook, Jesus offered to friend him.  Moses knew it, Joshua didn’t want it to end.  Maybe it is a good reminder of while Moses was away with God, what his people were up to.  Away from God, building a golden cow.  Rebellious and unfriendly.  In a willful sin, further separating themselves from God, a religion formed,that still exists today.  Let nothing get between you and Jesus, when the added ADM or religion enters, go elsewhere and ride.  For God so loved the world.....he gave.  Jesus and motorcycles, ain’t nothing better!  When both are personal....so why are the ads to ride more exciting than the ones for church?

love with compassion,

Mike

matthew25biker.logspot.com

the care and feeding of a new motorcycle

Close your eyes for a few seconds and remember the thrill of the first ride on your new motorcycle.  All bright and shiny, both you and it are the hit of the showroom, as others wish they were you, riding off on a new bike.  Looking down at the row of zeroes in the odometer, that fresh new bike smell, the exhaust making burbling noises as you sit idling, and looking over the instruments.  One final mirror adjustment, a look around at your admirers, and then a handshake, a wave, and you’re off.  Taking time to get used to the new burst of speed, the brakes, and hoping that you don’t do anything stupid, because the world is watching, and at least in your mind’s eye, the all wish they were you, but they’re not.  Taking  the long way home, stopping by friend’s to brag, then home to inspect your new beauty....and every time you ride for the next few weeks, you hope the newness and the rush of the new bike will not wear off.  It’s OK to open your eyes now.....

Now imagine that thrill for over 250 times over 13 years....and you can imagine what it has been like for me.  For in that time I did the break in miles for Triumph’s West Coast Press Fleet, riding everything new and old and in between.  New models before the dealer even saw them and before the magazine destroyed them.  500-1500 miles per bike, some done over a few weeks, one Daytona R done in just over 24 hours.  Some with time restraints, some just going for a ride.  Some bikes broken in for celebrities like Christine Aguilera, doing the sound on the movie Salt, that Street Triple R Angelina Jolie is riding is me you are hearing.  Being given special one off bikes, like the 220 hp Rocket 3 with Carpenter head, and the list goes on.  Add in vacations on them, a ride to the Quail, allowing dealership owners to have a first ride, and then returning them, often for another one.  In one year I went over nine months without riding anything of my own, and by my own admission, sometimes the thrill was gone.  Until I could show off or brag to someone.....my first press bike a Rocket 3, and my last, a 2018 Tiger 800 with knobbies for a desert test, with a sticker advising not to be ridden over 60, but that felt safe at 110.  For almost 250 times I could smell that new bike smell, see all the zeroes in a row, and break in a new bike.  All with one thing in common, it was always good to get back on one of my bikes and be reminded why I bought the one I did. 

Many times I stood out just because of the Georgia manufacturer plates and became an unofficial ambassador for Triumph.  I probably sold more Triumphs than some dealers, just by being out and riding them.  But the thrill of the ride never got old....and still isn’t today on my own bikes.  God gave me the passion to ride, and then delivered it in a way I could only dream of.  How many times was I asked “how did you get a gig like that?”  It was all about who you know.....

Now close your eyes for a few seconds and look back on when you first met Jesus.  That thrill that goes beyond words, of knowing you are forgiven, that he is real, and you are not going to hell.  But how many times has life interrupted you, trying to steal the feeling, and when it is only based upon feeling, it is shallow and can be stolen.  Religion be damned, I’m a real Christian.  Being a Christian is a life long commitment, and Jesus will hold up his end.  And we must hold up ours, but not alone, but by his spirit.  It is easy to become a Christian, but then the pressures can mount, why didn’t they tell me when they were evangelizing me?  Why didn’t they tell me I would see sin different, lose some friends, look at things differently, and become a new person, a work in process and progress?  For like riding off on a new bike, when the thrill is gone, reality remains.  I have ridden countless thousands of break in miles in cold weather, new models come out in the winter.  Trip plans change with the bike and the deadline.  Some admired me, yet some were jealous, it seems that my dream assignment in many ways helped with being a Christian, to remember my commitment.  And how as a Christian I was and am an ambassador of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.   That in the good days I could brag on him, but in the tough times, he would give me even more to brag about, because in those times he was with me and delivered me.  In many ways trading bikes was like becoming saved all over again, remembering the thrill, adding a bounce to my step, and remembering how great if only for the moment, it was to be me.  To know that I would have the light of the Lord showing me the way forever, just my choice to say yes or no.  He knew the course, would I follow it?

Yet many times we choose to walk in darkness, not taking Jesus’ words to us seriously.  Almost like here are the keys, you figure out how to ride it, we go through life without the spirit’s guiding, but never with his absence.  He promises light if we stay on his path.  Warning that he who does not walk in the light, but in darkness, cannot see where he is going.  Many are saved but never enjoy the grace of calling him Lord, of asking him and following him, of carrying on a lifelong conversation with him.  They have the excitement of that new beginning, but not of the ride that it produces.  We ride alone when we don’t have to, walking in on our own light, which fades and can get us lost.  But never far from Jesus, as he never leaves us....a simple turn and repent, a changing of attitude can bring us back.   It seems the care and feeding of a new motorcycle is like being a new Christian....it is all about the relationship you are building.  And with each day and each ride....they both grow. 

There was little thrill to show off a new bike in the dark, you couldn’t see it, much like we miss Jesus when we live in the dark.  Looking back how many times has he rescued you from the dark when you chose your own way?  That 911 prayer may only be minutes or seconds away....who you gonna call?  So let your life in Christ be new every morning, just like he promises.  Each day with its own promises, and problems, that only in Jesus will we conquer.  That newness in Christ everyday can be like the new rider who stalls at the corner, scared and wondering what is the problem with my new bike?  Until someone comes along and turns on the gas...he forgot to turn on the petcock...Now none of us would ride like that, so why do we live our Christian life like that......when all the power we need is just a prayer away.  “Oh yeah, it was dark and I forgot,” never let that be your relationship with Jesus.

love with compassion,

MIke

matthew25biker.blogspot.com