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Is Motorcycling Meant For You?

When motorcycling and the open road calls, here’s how to respond.

July 6, 2020

A comfortable life is the most difficult to leave behind. Many motorcycle wanderers tend to be gluttons for punishment. Colorado.Enrique Parilla

Have you ever experienced that lingering feeling of wanting to be elsewhere? Maybe you’re going through your normal day-to-day routine when your mind suddenly drifts to wondering if this is how your life is supposed to play out. What if this one wild and precious life of yours is meant to be spent perpetually on a motorcycle, riding off into remote landscapes, forever chasing sunsets? How itchy are your feet?

Many of us thrive with movement. Our cells are encrypted with a nomadic language, begging us to set off into the world with a vague desire to be somewhere different tomorrow than where we find ourselves today. Staying still for too long drains the vitality out of us, as if our boots are caught in quicksand, or some swampy, stagnant bog. Life quickly grows stale, and even though society confirms that we’re doing all the things we’re supposed to be doing, we feel restless.

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Riding into Jardín, Antioquia, a quaint little town in the lush mountains of Colombia.Janelle Kaz

Moments, hours, and days pass by as we wonder what there is to see, taste, and experience on another part of the globe. Perhaps amidst the quarantine lockdown we’ve endured for the past few months, the majority of us are even itching to venture out locally.

Avid motorcyclists are most happy on two wheels, and time spent not riding is time spent dreaming of the next opportunity to do so. Even when we’ve been in the saddle overtime, a few too many days or hours of rest becomes excessive and we’ll be raring to get back to it. So if this describes you, does it mean you should start making plans to organize your life so that you can be out on the road full time?

Even the dead end roads are worth exploring, such as this one into a volcanic canyon in Tolima, Colombia.Janelle Kaz

Obviously there are plenty of reasons why one might not be able to just take off on a motorcycle, destination unknown. Life commitments pile up, we have dependent loved ones, familial obligations, careers, bills, and a variety of other anchors.

Regardless of which life path you take, there are sacrifices to be made. You either forfeit your freedom, or you sacrifice stability. Most often we are swept along with the current of our culture, but alternatively, we may arrive at a liminal crossroads of sorts, where we get to choose which path to follow.

The colorful, narrow roads of Písac, Peru, located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.Janelle Kaz

Sometimes people get a taste of motorcycle travel, from sporadic short trips and planned moto-vacations, or maybe the flavor lingers as a memory of days gone by, pastimes brimming with youthful freedom. At some point, an attempt is made to contain that wanderlust, suppressing it to achieve a “real job,” to settle down, and grow roots. We’ve been taught to conform our whole lives, so it is considered strange and even looked down upon to forego cultural norms in pursuit of your own, unconventional path.

A fuel-injected Kawasaki KLX250 in the Annamite mountains in Laos near the border of Vietnam.Janelle Kaz

Is this restlessness you feel a negative affliction? Are you having an emotional affair with your longing for the open road? Don’t get me wrong; predictable, structured life is a comforting joy for some. But for others, myself included, a creeping terror looms as the days march on and monotony sets in, like a labrador circling over and over before finally coming to rest on the plush dog bed of our lives. Even within life on the road, I’ve found that taking an extended break in a comfortable place for months (or hell, I’ve even noticed it after weeks) causes a certain kind of departure-related unease to grow.

Frequent photos like this can make it seem like one is perpetually riding off into the sunset. Yahuarcocha Lake, Ecuador.Janelle Kaz

The best explanation I can give for this trepidation to head back out on the road is summed by the philosopher Krishnamurti when he said that it is not the unknown we fear, it is the fear of leaving the known behind. When we find a cozy location and end up staying for a while, packing up the bike to leave it all behind feels daunting. The longer you stay comfortably put, the more this obstacle builds. I imagine that in general, there is an indirect correlation between agreeable, comfy settings and the drive to leave for life on two wheels. This obstacle is therefore greatest when we’ve always existed within a plush, cozy bubble. Danger lies in comfort.

UNESCO World Heritage city, Luang Prabang, Laos.Janelle Kaz

Motorcyclists who ride out into the unknown, aware that it is the journey that matters, rather than the destination, are a special breed. Gluttons for punishment, the vagabond life comes with its fair share of suffering and near-death experiences. Wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into is a regular occurrence out on the road. For example, there’s that time my bike mysteriously quit in the middle of nowhere, Laos, and I was without water in the sweltering heat, thinking I may meet my expiration date. Thankfully a kind man, driving the only vehicle that had come by in the last few hours, gave me a lift to the nearest town (my CDI to ignition cable had jiggled out of place). Or that time I slipped off the slick, steep, muddy path in Colombia, causing me to become pinned against a barbed wire fence by my motorcycle. A special mix of embarrassment and gratitude flooded every capillary in my red face as a local farmer came to my rescue, freeing me from my captive state between my bike and the rusted spikes, and even graciously helped me push it up the soggy hill.

No matter where you go, the locals are going to get a kick out of you, such as these Lao ladies checking out my bike and the gear strapped to it.Janelle Kaz

The thing you learn about traveling on a motorcycle into remote, inhospitable landscapes, with all of your possessions strapped to your bike, is the palpable kindness from fellow humans. It never ceases to amaze me how interested local people are in me and my journey, and how willingly they open their arms and homes in a time of need. It is striking to see how in general, the less people own, the more willing they are to share.

Despite all the challenges, I’ve still found that my toughest days on a motorcycle remain better than my good days of monotony. The need to cultivate grit deep down in the belly of my being in order to push myself through a situation is the sort of “normal” I crave. I am a more content person when I feel an overwhelming sense of appreciation for the little things: good coffee, having my gear well organized, a washing machine, dry boots, and cold drinks on a hot day.

Friendly locals will often want to have their photos taken on your motorcycle, such as this man in the small coastal town of Palmar, Ecuador.Janelle Kaz

There are ways to channel your feelings of restlessness into something positive. Maybe you were meant to be out on the road and you will find a way to incorporate that into your life’s purpose. But for most of us, it isn’t practical to go off galavanting out into the world this way. Ultimately, what we nomadic motorcycle gypsies and vagabonds are truly seeking is a shift in perspective. We seek to have our frame of reference expanded, shattering perceived expectations of what it means to truly live.

Therefore, if you are experiencing your own sense of restlessness or anxiety, this can be positively transformed into something new. Seek to shift your perspective on an aspect of your life by learning a new skill, reading a different kind of book, changing your career, entertaining a different viewpoint, investing in a relationship, starting a new hobby, or riding out to somewhere you’ve never been. There are plenty of ways to keep moving in life; daily motorcycle rides are a damn good one.

All days are good on the road, even the bad ones (at least looking back, anyhow). The road into Yucay, Peru, the heart of the Sacred Valley.Janelle Kaz

Carl Jung, psychologist and researcher of the subconscious mind, believed that restlessness is a symptom felt by people who are not realizing their potential, those who are living in discord with their true self. This makes sense, but I would add that maybe there are some of us whose truest selves exist in perpetual motion, the wanderers who are not lost, the two-wheeled adventurers who feel most at home on the road.

Meditation in motion outside of Medellín, Colombia. Photo by Jesse Packwood.Janelle Kaz

Maybe that’s not restlessness we speak of but the neurological wiring of an explorer. After all, stillness can be found while in motion, such as within the fully present, meditative state experienced while riding a motorcycle. With senses engaged, and attention absorbed, everything else fades away. As a fellow motorcyclist, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that within that wild and precious moment of velocity, nothing else matters as you venture more deeply into the landscape, twisting the throttle and chasing that sunset.