Actually I miss my "old" motorcycle (a Suzuki GS650E, older touring style model) almost daily. I loved that bike. It was great fun to ride, with a nice fairing on the front to block the bugs and most of the wind (especially in the colder weather). I rode that bike as primary transportation for a few years, until (unfortunately for me) I was riding much too fast and an idiot that pulled onto the road in front of me without seeing me coming decided to make themselves my front bumper. The first 2 cars at the hill in the median strip were fine. One checked the road, probably did not see me, but I saw him, and I was able to swerve from the fast lane into the slow one without worry -- or so I thought. Car number 2 followed the first car without really checking the lane. He apparently assumed that if the road was clear for the first guy, it was for him too.
Car number 3 tried the same trick, but instead of turning into the closest lane, he opted to take the slow lane, and left me virtually no where to go.
I wound up totalling that bike (not that I had any insurance except liability on it), and was never able to really replace it. Instead, I wound up getting a smaller bike that just never "fit" and left me with a feeling it was too under-powered to get out of anyones way....
After a few seasons riding it, I was finally able to afford (thanks to a little help from relatives) to ditch the clunker hand-me-down car I was using and get a "new" car. It wound up being a little Geo Metro (not much more than an enclosed motorcycle actually, with it's whoppin' 3 cylinders... always wound up throwing away a spark plug with that thing).
Thanks to constant badgering from my relatives about my familial responsibilities, I wound up basically giving away the last motorcycle I had. I don't really miss that bike. It was just a ride to and from.
But when the warm weather comes for the spring, I do miss the old bike. That Suzuki 650. It wasn't pristine. It wasn't completely shiny and chromed up like the second bike, or like the great touring bikes by Harley, and it's competitors. But it was nice, and it was mine.
What reminds me of the old days and that old bike -- besides the warm weather? Well, a little rant I'm gonna go off on.
A day or two ago, I'm riding home from work, cruising along on the "beltway" and I get passed by some complete idiots. Wanna-be organ donors. A group of riders that were smart enough to put on helmets, but not much else by way of protective gear passed me as I was merging from lane 3 of 4 into lane 4 of 4 (the slow/merge lane). One second they weren't there, one second they were. Given my tendency to ride along at the speed limit or slight above when possible, I know full well that those riders were doing at least 85 MPH, probably closer to 90.
I'd have to say I was tempted, at least for a bit, to take a hard lane change over in front of the whole group. If I had, at least 4 riders would have had to lay it down on the pavement, and I doubt that there'd have been much of them left once they had.
I feel bad that I actually wanted (even if it was only for a second) to crash these morons. To this day, I remember much of my motorcycle safety class training (though I temporarily forgot a bit of it on the day I was riding too fast myself), and I remember a bunch of "share the road" messages that are supposed to tell you to watch out for motorcycles and share the road with them.
Then there are days when I see idiots like the ones from the other day and think it's probably a good thing that I don't ride anymore.... And it's an even better thing that I'm not so easily led to temptation. (That, and the fact I really don't want to have to be involved in any paper-work and accident reports for a cyclist, no mater how stupid they were).
