Why Motorcycling

This blog is a reflection of evolution of outdoor activities I have done over the past 15 years. I started it all with motorcycling when I was in grade 5. I grew up in Indonesia, where almost everyone learned to ride motorcycle at around that age. One group in Indonesia, who does not have this early learning privilege, is girls since their parents often forbid them out of fear of accidents. Some parents, however, allow their daughters to learn riding.  I did running and swimming also when I was in high school but I was never an athletic type, so they were not competitive.

I had several motorcycle accidents when I was in high school. Two accidents in particular I remember. One involved a family of four who all rode one motorcycle – this is still a common sight in Indonesia – that I hit at an intersection. Another involved my brand-new Honda motorcycle on the way to check my high school entrance result. Both were at about 40 km/h speed so they were not serious. These didn't dampen my motorcycling enthusiasm mainly due to a combination of high speed thrill and free-wheeling motorcycling nature.

When I went to university in Canada, I stopped riding because I couldn't afford buying a motorcycle. I then forgot about it and literally buried my riding passion for 25 years. That's what family responsibility and work-study life gave me. 

But I continued running and I got better at it. I always dream of going long and far. And I did run half-marathon length many times even in winter although I never participated in a running competition (it's too expensive for me to pay for running.) I carried a Camelbak and had granola bars in my pocket, and off I went. I have developed a layered clothing system to handle temperature change from 10 C to -40 C. I admire long-distance runners who can run hundreds of kilometers and always wish to have time to train for that ability. But I never did.

Although running is a great activity and meditative as well, I picked up cycling after running seriously for about 5 years. The main reason is that running limits me to about 40 km a day distance. I wanted to extend the distance per day target. Cycling is great and is as effective as running in keeping me fit. I often cycled to Bragg Creek from Calgary and back, which is about 100 km total distance, in the weekend. I cycled to Highwood Pass from Calgary and back, which is about 350 km in 3 days. And I have done Bandung-Jakarta cycling trip (200 km) in 2 days. The point I'm trying to make here is that cycling allows me to reach about 120 km a day distance. One student told me he did Calgary-Lake Louise (175 km one-way) in a day, so with consistent training I might hope to cover 150 km distance a day by cycling.

I outfitted my touring bike with panniers, pocket-size sleeping bag, small stove, bivy sack to go the distance. And a good distance challenge for someone living in Calgary is to cycle all the way to Vancouver. That's 1000 km distance, and I reckon I could do it in 9-10 days one way. That was precisely what I planned to do last year. It would take me 2 weeks to do a Calgary-Vancouver loop by not cycling back to Calgary. My wife would pick me up in Vancouver and we would drive back to Calgary. Or I would take a bus back to Calgary. The 2-week window to cover 1000 km distance in the end proved too long for me. There was really no other way to shorten the time while maintaining the adventure nature of a trip. This was when I decided to pick up motorcycling again.

So after 25-year hiatus I picked up motorcycling last year. It allows me to cover 800 km a day distance, a 6-fold increase over cycling, and effectively infinity-fold over running when the target is distance per day. Instead of 2 weeks or more to get to Vancouver and back, I only need 4 days.

The setup cost for motorcycling is about four-times higher than cycling, as a good touring bicycle now costs about $3000 when you outfit it with panniers etc. This cost difference, however, is paid back by the cheaper operating cost of motorcycling when you want to cover 1000 km. Motorcycling costs about five times cheaper due to the shorter time to cover that distance. The setup cost difference is recovered when I make about 15 trips of 1000 km distance.

In my estimation, the accident risk of motorcycling is higher than touring cycling, but not ten times higher. So roughly their risks are similar. I have done both, so let me explain my basic reasoning. Most motorcycling risk comes from its speed and fragility when colliding with cars and trucks, but these two factors can be mostly controlled by a motorcyclist when he exercises a defensive riding strategy. Bicycling accident risk, however, is often beyond the control of its rider. A bicycle occupies a narrow shoulder of a highway and is completely at the mercy of passing trucks and cars. What these facts imply is that I can reduce my motorcycling accident risk but I cannot reduce my bicycling accident risk.

I still cycle to work and run during weekend to keep me fit, but I now ride when I want to cover a big distance. One more benefit of motorcycling is that now I can go with my wife. To keep cost down, I chose a motorcycle with a good fuel economy.