Monday, March 12, 2012

Soul of an Old Machine

soul/sōl/
Noun:
1. The spiritual or immaterial part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal.
2. A person's moral or emotional nature or sense of identity.

A friend of mine is shopping for a car. He commented that the SUV’s he is considering have no soul. I thought about that comment as I rode the K75 for the first time this year. Do machines have soul? Can a new machine have soul? Isn’t it our relationship with that machine - the time, the adventures & misadventures we share with it, isn’t that what forms the identity, giving the machine soul? I don’t think a new bike, or new car can have soul off the lot. I think it needs to develop soul, and some never will.

First Tag of the Year
IMG_1718

The K75 has soul. It’s 25 years old this year. I have owned it for 13 years. I remember the day I picked it up. The gentleman that sold it shared his photo album, packed with pictures from the many trips he and his wife had gone on with “Gretchin”. (I never cared for the name, and within a year of owning it, the K75 was dubbed Spare) I wish I’d paid more attention to that album. As it was my first bike, I only glanced at those pictures, they where someone else’s memories of trip to faraway places, like Maine and Canada, I could not even fathom that the bike would ever travel so far with me. On that first day, I could not even envision getting out of my drive way.

Adventure: a key ingredient of soul
Yellowstone National Park

I had the GT for 5 years and it remained soulless.

Good looks...no depth?
2003 K1200GT

Why was that? Perhaps we never bonded right, I knew in my heart it was not the bike for me. With the K75, I can’t part with it, it is an old family album, a family friend…it is family.

Scenic Vistas pictures, an important bonding ritual
R1200GS

If you are swapping out your ride every 2 years, how can you expect to bond with your machine? Why do people do that? Are they in search of some elusive quality in a bike? Or is it only important that they be seen on the latest machine? Perhaps they are missing the point. A new machine will remain soulless until you two have been though something together, and that takes time.