55+ Living Guide Magazine Spring/Summer 2018 Spring 2018 | Page 32

On The Road Again
By Gino Bocci
I rode motorcycles all during my youth and in to my
early thirties. That’s the point, for me anyways, that
life got in the way… as it does for many of us. Things
change, time commitments of a family nature increase,
priorities shift, and the days when it was easy to blow
off an afternoon to go for a ride become increasingly
scarce and hard to justify. So, the bike sits, you defer
maintenance, the battery dies and the inspection runs
out, eliminating all spontaneity. Eventually you stop
riding all together. Every once in a while you go out,
pull off the cover and stare. You say to yourself, “I’m
going to go for a ride soon”. Sure you will. Then it
happens, one day a friend asks “what you are doing
with that old motorcycle?” $500.00 later he’s riding
down your driveway on it.
Fast forward 20 years. Things change again, the kids
are older or gone, you have a little more money in your
pocket, and you start to dream about those halcyon
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days when things were much simpler and more carefree.
A few years ago, I was driving home from work and saw a
beautiful bike in a driveway with a “for sale” sign on it. Out
of curiosity, I stopped, checked it out, took the number and
drove away. I forgot all about it until a few days later when
I drove past it again… and again. I reminisced about the
bikes I owned and how much I enjoyed riding. “Hey” I said
to myself, “Maybe I’ll start riding again… why not?”. But of
course, my self doubt mechanism immediately kicked in;
“I’m too old (52), I’m not in as good of shape (50 pounds
heavier), I don’t see as well (I wear glasses now) My back
hurts (it does…) etc. So, I did the only logical thing to do
when common sense tells you not to… I bought the bike.
I was more than a little shaky on that first ride! It had been
so long, and I felt a little unsteady and uncoordinated, but
guess what? It came back to me pretty quickly. If you want
to find out if you can still ride, DON’T rush out and buy a
bike, that would be a bad move. Taking a ride on a friend’s
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