BORN AGAIN BIKERS
Biking can be the best and worst thing that could ever happen to you. No matter how you join or leave it, it lodges itself deep in your mind... so deeply that there will inevitably be times when you’re thoughts turn to it. Unless your departure left you unable to ride, those thoughts can become a reality. Seldom however is it re-entered in an absolute calm. The stages of re-entry into planet bike raise the pulse higher... The thought, the reminiscences, the sudden compulsion to observe passing bikes, the sounds they make - then there are snippets of conversation, a gaze at the bike mags and anything bikey that catches the eye. Eventually the prospective returnee starts checking finances, and a point of commitment occurs when these are juggled to accommodate what has now become a desire.
The day comes, when all else becomes insignificant. For a sum of money, you have bought your old life back, that is, actually, a new life. Elation doesn’t seem a good enough word to describe the buzz felt by those burning up on re-entry to planet bike. Some repeated profanity seems the only thing besides wow that your mouth can utter. The world melts away, and you are baptised by the wind; a Born Again Biker. The world has recommenced rotation, life has resumed meaning, and if that isn’t a spiritual experience, then humans have never ever been inspired by anything.
For many Born Again Bikers (BABs), being a born-again is like being told you’ve only got so long to live. Just as such a person might decide that life must be continued at the max, many BABs have to ride every day they possibly can. When you think about it, we all have only one life, and only so long to live.
Most BABs make their choice of bike based on sensibility and available finance. Many express no desire to ride particularly quickly. Yet as experience grows, they push out the envelope of the bike’s performance and find themselves wanting something they euphemistically describe as ‘more rapid’. Some will give in to the cosseted ride behind the screens and fairings, others prefer them for their aerodynamic advantages. Yet others still prefer the nakedness where 90 mph feels like 90 mph (hence the retro market and even naked versions of existing superbikes). It’s not some corny wind in your hair thing, but the exhilaration of being in touch with the ride. That said, sentimentality, call it nostalgia, has a part to play. Biking again is a dual emotion, coloured by memory as well as anticipation.
Though it demands some physical effort, every-day biking is not as strenuous as sports like football. Unless you’re a competition rider, it’s probably on a par with walking - or even just sitting down, which is why the average person can do it for most of their lives, and why it can also be returned to with some ease. On the positive side, it has re-injected original values back into biking. But some people getting back onto bikes were to cause repercussions beyond their own private sphere. It is said that many are attempting to recreate their wild youth. There is a sense of growing old disgracefully, as re-entrants enjoy their biking as though they’d never left. Even older BMW riders get called: ‘Hell’s granddads/mums.
It is commonly believed that if you get through your first six months of driving without a serious shunt, you’re through the most dangerous period. It’s a rule of thumb for settling in. Worries have arisen concerning the safety of the more rapid riding BABs, who, regardless of the duration of their re-entry, are frequently parking their pride and joy into the scenery.
Geoff Crowther of the University of Huddersfield, conducted research into accidents among BABs. The worries were sparked by statistics revealed by traffic officer DCI David Short, in North Yorkshire. Here, a number of fatalities involved BABs on race replicas. Matching the findings of the traffic police, Crowther inferred that BABs were a highly accident-prone group who were in need of re-training. Some BABs felt that any training was unnecessary, despite others saying that traffic conditions and bike performance had changed drastically since they’d last ridden. It was also said that some would be too embarrassed to submit to a return to school. The statistics seem to underline something of this nature. BABs aged forty-plus in the 1990s were perhaps more inclined to be indoctrinated by the likes of Mike ‘The Bike’ Hailwood, who said that 80 bhp is enough for anyone. Younger ones, especially in their thirties at this time, might have been victims of excessive superbike lust. In the end, it all hinges on attitude.
The abandonment of and return to biking has been a curiosity of the Western 20th century. It has perhaps added to the view of events like Daytona as temporary drop-out period. Middle-age America showing how mean it could be if it wanted too. But where-ever you live, unless you’re biking for any of the wrong reasons, it becomes not so much a mid-life or other identity crisis, but more of a relaxed home-coming. Being master of your destiny isn’t a battle of wills, it’s a submission to a greater power. The power of the unexpected, the power of your machine, and the power of all the forces working on you. Rather than battle against them, you make them work for you. Those having self-inflicted accidents are viewed as having egos greater than their ability. For the main part, Born-Again Bikers find themselves immersed into a world that is oddly new, yet so comfortably familiar. That’s why its called Born Again.