To Be Or Not To Be Politically Correct.

Article By: Chris Callen

It seems to me that things are not just starting to get a little weird anymore, now they are down right bizarre. Ya' know the old adage about goats in the market place, right? Well, it would seem that we have reached that critical apex when someone needs to stand up and shout, "What the hell are we doing?" and it might as well be me.

This all started to fester for me as Duke and I were attending the Bubs deal on the salt flats. Over the course of three days we must have gone on and off the salt a hundred times. It was during one of those transitions that I noticed a group of motorcycles parked at the edge of the pavement with no riders around. I didn't think much of it at first, but as we rode the five miles to the pits it started to sink in, they must have walked out. Why would anyone want to walk five miles, I thought?

The next day we just happened to be passing a group of riders who had just walked away from their bikes at the edge of the pavement and I got my answer in the form of an overheard comment; "They probably don't realize what that salt will do to their bikes", he said. (long pause as the editor takes a deep breath and readies his war cry) YOU GOTTA' BE KIDDING ME! In other words, these cats gave up a chance to ride their bikes on one of nature's natural wonders simply because it might have dulled their chrome, or brought some rust about. Let's not forget to mention missing the honor of going where generations of other enthusiasts have gone for the sake of tradition.

I know that there are many, many riders out there today that have become accustomed to the idea that their motorcycle is an investment, and I may have read the handbook wrong, but I think that investment was in your own personal growth. The fact that you now choose to ride less to save the monetary value of the bike is driving the real investment down.

Depreciation is a two sided sword, you see. It can also be referred to as coveting and so this wouldn't confuse the masses I went to Miriam Webster for some help. Sure enough the word Depreciation has two definitions.

Depreciate - de·pre·ci·ate 1 : to lower the price or estimated value of intransitive verb : to fall in value

2 : to lower in estimation or esteem

In the first of these you see the world view of the word in losing money on something that may or may not be inherently valuable. The second however, crosses over into the soul searching aspect of motorcycling into a "What's it worth to you" variable. With that in mind, what is the motorcycle minus the experience really worth, even if it fetches top dollar the day you sell it? I mean, did you buy it just to make money, or to not lose it, or ..... I'm not even sure where to go with that.

The point here is that I have a 2003 Ultra Classic with 50,000 miles on it. It has scars from climbing Pike's Peak, sand of Florida's beaches, scrapes from going to fast on the Dragon, rust from going through the snow to get to Bike Week, salt damage from Bonneville and a marker on the rear fender from that same trip. There are stickers on the inside of the tour pack from half way around the world and back, and I'm proud of every one. Still, if I were to take it to a dealer to trade it in I'm sure its retail value is only half of what I paid for it, maybe less. But this bike is like an old friend to me, one that has conquered the night by my side, braced the challenge of the 14, 1,000 mile days I have under my belt, and has waited patiently while I readied myself for the next adventure. In that respect, it's priceless, and I'd be offended if I were offered any amount for it.

With that in mind, this issue of the Cycle Source Magazine is titled the Bonneville Salt Flats edition and I wanted to mention why we did this. After a conversation with another industry personality, who I respect very much, I got the impression from him that no one really cares about true enthusiasm anymore. To waste pages, in his words, on an event like this was fruitless and I'd be better off sticking to what everyone else does with the standard drunken rally reporting. Well, this is an experiment in that respect. Since motorcycling is more to us than just tits and beer, we want to hear from you. In the pages that follow you will get some in depth coverage of the Bubs Time Trials, the personalities that attended and our adventure getting there. To us, it is what is special about motorcycling, but maybe we're wrong. Please email us your thoughts to supernot@cyclesource.com.

In addition to the salt flats, this will also mark the beginning of a three issue segment of a man that rode his Harley across the Middle East. Please make sure you don't miss a single issue of this story as it is the best thing I have ever come across.

So there you have it, another month prepared by regular bikers in as professional a manner as we were able. The one thing that's for sure, we live it and hope that you will too.

Wild Man