Experience.

The clock keeps marching relentlessly forward. We go about our business as the hands go round and round. At some future point we look back. From "then" to "now" we say we've gained experience.

That statement bears closer examination. Does the mere passage of time mean we've actually gained "experience"? Let's take a look at it in our world of motorcycling. Especially where it comes to using a bike for commuting and transportation as opposed to mostly for recreation.

The other day I met a man on a bike. Actually, he was a student in one of our advanced training clinics. This man made sure to tell me he was only there to support his friend who had less experience than him. He himself had about a dozen year's riding experience, he explained. I try to take people at their word, although I had some doubts. Grandpa always said that the empty barrel made the most noise. The quicker people are to tell me of their high skill level the greater chance there is that the skills aren't all that high.

What people don't always think about is that a professional motorcycle trainer is also a professional riding skill evaluator. We're constantly evaluating what a rider shows us, deciding what they need, and offering positive feedback. It soon became evident that this man didn't have the skill level consistent with his claimed experience. Not that I'm saying the guy wasn't telling me the truth about how long he'd been riding. If you really think about it, riding experience can be described two ways. There's actual progressive experience based on riding and learning. Then there's riders who have one year's experience repeated over and over. Do you see the difference?

Riders who go play for the summer, riding only for fun, then put the bike away as soon as the weather goes bad tend to be in the first group. In contrast, riders whose main purpose is using the bike for transportation are actually gaining progressive, valuable experience. Part of it is attitude, part of it is where we ride. There's a huge difference between being a Road Warrior and Weekend Warrior. There's also a difference in how we're perceived.

I can across this in Lucky's blog. Sorry, my dear Arizona friend, this Lucky is Canadian. Here's a quote. You can go back and read the rest later.

I've had some biker friends mock me for adding large sidecases and a topcase to my bike ("looks like Silver has hemorrhoids" said one particularly humourous biker - funny, eh?). Truth is, the big cases allow me to pack groceries, laptop, equipment for work... in a nutshell, it allows me to live without having to drive a car. And for six to eight months out of the year, that suits me just fine.

We're different for sure. Most of us don't need the latest sportbike. A lot of us ride scooters. Or we ride smaller bikes. We've contrived interesting ways to carry "stuff" on our bikes. I seem to remember Gary actually having a milk crate hooked to the back of The Baron. Besides all the practical advantages, we're far better off in other ways. We're gaining extremely valuable experience. When we say we have so many year's worth of experience it's actually that. Not just the basics repeated over and over.

This is Tukwila, a city barely South of Seattle. Interstate 5 is straight ahead up the hill. Interstate 405 is off to the right of this picture. Motorcycle commuters here face heavy traffic every day. Real danger lurks at literally every corner. Besides sounding romantic, it's quite true. Mental skills are sharpened as riders watch for bogies. High awareness levels are rewarded by another trip that concludes safely at home or work.

Here's some bike parking in a busy college town. This is the spot in Corvallis near the Oregon State University campus that Stacy told me about in a comment. Yes, that's Sophie in the middle of the group. Here's another shot.

Besides dealing with traffic, those who use a for bike regular transportation learn to deal with inclement weather, dicey traction, road hazards, and many other things. This results in real "experience". To quote the Mastercard commercials, getting this kind of experience is "priceless".

I should take a moment here to plainly state something. This isn't meant to say that commuters are better than recreational riders. What I'm trying to say are these two things:

Recreational riders need to be honestly aware of what their "experience" really consists of. Not having an accurate assessment is like thinking our insurance policy covers something it really doesn't. A false sense of security prevents pursuing valuable loss prevention measures.

Secondly, when a rider's slogging through the rain, the cold, heavy traffic, putting on gear, and trying to carefully pack the bike, thinking of the great benefits can make it a little easier to deal with the harder times.

Speaking of benefits, there's another aspect, too. When we go riding for fun, whether as part of our route home or on a free weekend, we're going to be a lot better off having this experience. How so? Stay tuned for Monday. Here's a sneak peek in the meantime.

See you Monday!

Miles and smiles,

Dan