Non-riders often don't understand the appeal of motorcycling. At some point, we all get asked why we sit on top of a tank of flammable liquid and fling ourselves down the road on an inadequate number of wheels toward seemingly certain death. We all have our own personal reasons for riding. Many are the same, but everyone's a little different. The Ponkster shares his reasons for riding with us through poetry.

We're all connected to each other by an electronic leash in today's society. Many of us can't resist the urge to drop everything and check our phones immediately every time we get a notification that our father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate reacts to a comment that someone made on Instagram.

Riding a motorcycle forces you to unplug from all that. You can't stare at your screen on a motorcycle. You need your eyes on the road, and you don't have enough hands or attention to control the bike and doom scroll through Facebook at the same time.

Even though my Garmin GPS kindly informs me when I have a notification, I rarely take advantage of the option to have it read to me inside my helmet. I once had an amateur radio station on my bike that let me chat with people while I rode. Soon after assembling it, I removed it. I realized I'd much rather enjoy the ride than talk on the radio. Like The Ponkster, I ride to get away from all that.

Another point he touches on is "concentration causing relaxation." One would think that having to concentrate as intently on the act of riding a motorcycle as we do would be stressful, but in fact, the opposite is true. Everyday life is boring. Track days provide an adrenalin rush, a natural high. 

The higher level of sensory input I get from riding is just enough to put my ADD brain in its happy place without (usually) causing the adrenalin high that the track does. It's not quite an altered state of consciousness, but it's a place where my brain certainly enjoys being.

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