I’ve been hearing a lot about motorcycles lately, namely people who want them, or especially in seeing these tricycle style bikes, all tricked out, or as I call them, motorcycle wannabes. As I look around on the internet I find that they are called “trikes,” yes, like the little kid tricycles, and even Harley-Davidson, or what I thought was the “cool of the cool” in terms of motorcycles, is in the game, with something called the “Tri Glide Ultra” (It starts at $32,549 according to the Harley website). It also seems Harley has been doing trikes for quite some time, but maybe it’s just because I’ve been seeing them more recently that I’ve started to care.
Me, when I was in high school, we had a moped, which I thought was cool, but really, in retrospect, was kind of dorky. The thing was, with the moped, you didn’t need a license to drive one, as the contraption combined the thrill of the motorcycle with pedals you could actually use should you run out of gas, I suppose. The other problem was that the pedals were practically useless as it was akin to pedaling a 100 pound bicycle in first gear should that 100 pound bicycle be a ten speed. I, however, was also a rebel, as our moped actually had an engine that was classified as too large to be considered on the “bicycle” license so that if I was actually pulled over by the cops, I could be arrested for not having a motorcycle license.
Anyway, the thing about the “trike” is it just seems like a lazy man’s motorcycle, with the three wheels so you don’t really have to balance, and many times it seems the trike owners tend to trick out their trikes, adding much more in terms of bling to them, as if seeing you on a trike didn’t bring attention to you enough, now you have to make it fancy.
Trikes aside, there is the part of me that thinks riding a motorcycle would be cool, what with the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth, reminiscent of my days on the moped. But then the practical part of me goes that I can’t really afford a motorcycle, living in the Chicago area means I could only really ride it for half a year, then there are the asshole drivers I see who don’t treat motorcycle riders with any respect, and to top it off my garage is too small.
In the end I don’t see myself riding a motorcycle anytime soon, let alone buying one, but that’s not going to stop me from plighting: Do you want a motorcycle?
That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!