Wrenching, Riding and Retirement

Hello my loyal MotoReaders! It’s been a few months and if you’re a regular reader of my little corner of the ole interwebs, then you may be wondering what I’ve been doing lately, and more importantly, what I’ve decided to do.

Well, wonder no more my friends! For those just tuning in, I’ll refer you to some past posts here, here and here, so that you can get caught up. Go ahead and click those links and come back when you’re done… I’ll wait. 

Back already? Great! Now that you’re all caught up, let’s get into it. 

Retirement

I’ve made the difficult decision to retire from my payin’ gig. Not only have I made the decision, but I’ve also started, and finished, the whole process. I’m still on the books for now, as I use some extra  leave time that I had accrued because, if I don’t use it, I’ll lose it.

Now, before you ask, no- I’m not some old fart that’s near death and headed to the old folks’ home…I’m still “relatively” young(ish). I’m what some folks might call middle aged… but, as old as that may be to some of you young MotoReaders, I still have a lot of years left in me… at least I hope I do… but I digress. So, one question you may be asking is, “if you’re still young-ish, why are you retiring from your payin’ gig?” Great question… and to be completely honest with you all… I still have plenty of energy, strength and mental fortitude to keep doing it… but I’m tired. Exhausted is actually a better word. Mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted. While my payin’ gig has paid the bills for nearly 25 years, it hasn’t always been easy. I won’t get into all of the details here, not now anyway, but suffice to say that the number one reason why I’m retiring….is as simple as this- because I can. I have served my time and I have reached the finish line. Sure, I could keep going (like a lot of others do), but for me- in the position I’m in, doing the work that I’m doing, it behooves me to know when to hang it up. Staying past my retirement date would just be pushing my luck and taking unnecessary risks- risks that the lovely Mrs. MotoWriter does not want me to take. If I were in a comfy office 5 days a week, it might be a different story… but with what I do every day… like the late, great Kenny Rogers once sang, “…you’ve got to know when to walk away…”. 

Riding

One truly awesome part of my payin’ gig is… er… was….getting paid to ride a motorcycle. Let me tell you- I had a lot of fun getting paid to ride Harley-Davidson Electra Glide motorcycles for the past few years. My boss even sent me to Milwaukee to learn how to work on them… yeah, I have a pretty cool boss. So, you may be wondering (again), why would I leave a job that pays me to ride Harleys? Well, that’s pretty simple, too- when I retire, I’m still going to be getting paid… and I have my own Harleys that I can, and will, ride. Not to mention, I’ll have all the time I want and need, to be able to ride them. You see, riding for work, while a lot of fun, is still work. I like to use, what I call the “Donut Shop”, analogy for things like this. The Donut Shop analogy goes like this… I like donuts- they are fun to eat, heavenly to smell and they taste fantastic. But, I wouldn’t want to work in a donut shop, because I’d eventually get sick of eating them, sick of smelling them, and I’d get tired of making them. Working in a donut shop would eventually make me lose my appetite for those golden rings of goodness. Most of the time, if you try to make a living out of doing what you love, you will eventually grow weary of it, and your love of it will most likely begin to fade. Now, obviously, that’s not always the case… but why risk it? The other drawback to riding for work, is that I have… um, had…to work a lot more hours, and a lot more days and nights, than most of my peers. I’m not complaining, mind you, just explaining. By hanging up those motorcycle keys, I get to pick mine back up…and I get to go wherever I want, whenever I want.

I’ve already got a few trips planned, too so keep an eye out for me and say hello if you see me come through your town. First up- I’m planning a long-overdue trip to see my good friend and his wife. I’m also planning a motorcycle road trip with my first born son and I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my baby boy, and working on some long overdue projects. Most importantly, I’m looking forward to making up for a lot of lost time with the lovely Mrs. MotoWriter… whenever she is off from work, that is. Needless to say, the MotoWriter scooters are going to be racking up a lot of miles over the next few months. After that, who knows…maybe I’ll go back to work part time and get paid to ride (and wrench on) motorcycles again. 

One thing I do plan on doing for sure, though…is teaching new riders. Being an instructor for the past few years has given me an incredible sense of fulfillment. Seeing someone with little or no knowledge about motorcycles become a confident and proficient rider is an indescribable feeling! Just knowing that you have given someone the knowledge and confidence to operate a “freedom machine” is awesome. I’ve got a few job prospects for teaching motorcycle classes… but I won’t get into any of that just yet- we’ll have to wait and see if any of them pan out, first.

Wrenching

Several years ago, I wrote a slideshow piece for H-D Forums, about wrenching your own rides. I’ve always believed that wrenching on your own vehicles is the best way to learn them. An added benefit to doing your own work is learning how it works, and gaining the confidence to keep it running. Not to mention, you know it’s done right and, if you are competent, you get to save some money by doing it yourself. Now, not everyone has the time, ability, confidence, or competence to do their own work. Other people simply don’t want to, and that’s perfectly okay, too… because that’s where I come in. Now, this sort of happened extemporaneously, but…regardless of how it happened, I’ve found myself knee deep in working on motorcycles for other people lately. 

Because I have always worked on my own vehicles and had the tools and equipment to do it, I would occasionally have friends ask for help with their bikes. Fast forward a bit and my ability, and willingness, to work on motorcycles would lead to, as I mentioned earlier, my boss sending me to some classes in Milwaukee to make it official. After word started to spread that I was wrenching on the bikes at work, the personal requests started coming in. So far, in the past year- I’ve had five different motorcycles on my lift at home. A few were favors for friends, one earned me a couple hundred bucks, and another earned me a nice fat “I.O.U.” Not exactly the best business model, I’ll admit… but to be completely honest, I’m not trying to go into the business of motorcycle mechanics- I’m just trying to help some friends, and friends of friends, keep their machines running strong and safe. Not to mention, I find diagnosing, repairing and maintaining motorcycles to be a very enjoyable pastime. So much so that I recently bought a tire machine and balancer (MotoReview of those coming up soon) so that I can do even more maintenance work on scooters. Besides, having the ability to mount and balance my own tires is going to save me a ton of time and money… and being able to mount and balance tires for other folks… well, let’s just say that will hopefully help me pay for my new equipment.

So, what’s next?

Well, to be honest- I actually don’t know. But, I will tell you this… I’m too young and way too active to just be “retired” in the typical sense of the word. So, with that, I’m going to take a few months and get caught up on some long overdue projects and get a helluva lot of riding in. I’m most likely going to fix a couple (or a few) motorcycles and hopefully earn myself some beer money (I can’t pay for my High Life with I.O.U.s, after all) and I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to finish writing this (first) novel. After a few months of that, I suspect that I’ll most likely re-enter the work force and wait for Mrs. MotoWriter to retire so that we can do whatever kind of stuff that older retired people do.

Final Thoughts

Retirement is kind of scary, to be honest. Especially from the line of work that I’m leaving behind because you never truly leave it. But, after having coffee with some friends and getting some insight and wisdom from a long time friend and mentor of mine, I got the reassurance that I needed to go through with it… and feel good about it. In this life, we can make as much, or as little, money as we want or need. We can buy cars, houses, motorcycles and we can collect just about anything we set our minds to. But there’s one thing that is more valuable than all of that stuff combined and multiplied by a thousand- and that one thing is time. We have a finite amount of it, and unfortunately, the amount that we have left is totally unknown to us. When contemplating your own decisions in life, I ask that you weigh and measure those things that you seek, whatever they may be, not with the dollar amount of money that they may cost, but rather- with the time that they will cost you. How many hours of work will you have to put in, to earn enough money to buy it? Because that’s the true cost. 

I’m looking forward to writing those MotoReviews for you guys in the next few weeks, and I’m anticipating some bad, but hopefully a majority of good, days in my near future. In the meantime, please take a moment to look around you and be thankful for the blessing of a new day because, as I saw hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of times over the course of my, soon to be former, career… each day that we wake up with breath in our lungs is a new opportunity to change our lives for the better, because many, many, many people… don’t get that chance.

Until next time, my loyal MotoReaders… stay safe and make good choices! 

Commitment through Adversity

Commitment through Adversity

Commit (verb)- to do something, as in- "commit a random act of kindness"; or to check-in, as in- "commit to a hospital"; or to transfer something, as in- "read this and commit it to memory"; or more importantly- to pledge yourself to someone or something, as in- "I will commit myself to being a better person."

Instant Gratification

The word "commit" may have many uses, but all of them share the same baseline meaning of, basically, "sticking with, or sticking to, something or someone." It's such a simple word, but it seems like in our society today, we have such a hard time giving life to this concept. Our society is so eager to simply give up and move on when things get hard. I suppose it's easy to see how this happened- after all, we live in a world of instant gratification these days. We want what we want at the very moment that we want it and, when we don't get it, we either shut down and pout or we go somewhere else to get it. Back in our parents', grandparents' and even great-grandparents' days, life was significantly more challenging and the virtues of patience and fortitude were elementally woven into their daily lives.

As a casual observer of the world around me, I see the spoiled, bratty need for instant gratification all of the time. I see it in workplaces, relationships, and hell, I even see it in how we treat our property. 

For example- a new guy at work doesn't get the promotion that he wanted, so he gets mad, pouts, then quits to go work somewhere else; a couple hits a rough patch and, instead of working through their problems, decide to throw in the towel and split up. As a society, we barely even commit to the things we have- we live in constant debt because we never commit to paying off that new motorcycle or car- something newer comes out and we want it, or something breaks and we don't want to take the time to fix it. 

Anything worth having, is worth keeping

I'm just old enough to remember a time when people would buy a vehicle, pay it off and keep it running until they couldn't ride or drive it anymore. I'm of the mindset of, when you have problems in your relationship, you talk them out and fix them instead of giving up on 5, 10, or even 30 years, of history together. I also believe that every job worth doing, requires constant commitment, then recommitment when things get hard or you have setbacks. Adversity makes us better. Setbacks make us stronger. Endurance isn't gained by giving up and success isn't achieved by quitting when things get difficult. 

You have to do more than simply want something; you have to work for it. Then, once you have it, you have to keep working to keep it. 

The bottom line is: life isn't easy and it isn't supposed to be. We don't learn and become better whenever things are easy- we learn and grow through adversity. You have to commit to whatever or whoever it is that you are involved with, to whatever goals you want to achieve in your 75 good years of life. You have to embrace the adversities in your life and in your careers, and work harder and become better, after every time you fail. 

You also have to stay committed- consistently committed. Once you find that thing that you want- be it the career path, the relationship, the travel plans or, maybe just that motorcycle you want to add to your garage... start working for it. Once you get it, keep working to keep it, because depending on what it is- there is almost always someone else that wants it, too. 

Time is invaluable

Whatever you decide to do in this life, make sure it's worth the time that you are committing to it because time is, genuinely, the most precious thing we have. No matter how much power, authority, money, skills or abilities you have, you can't coerce, buy, bully, concoct or create yourself more time. 

In the immortal words of The Gambler himself, "you have to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away and know when to run." 

Make sure that what you want is worth the effort, and the time, it takes to get it. If it isn't- walk away; but if it is- then commit to it and make your dreams a reality. Success is earned.

Ride safe, make good choices and commit to something worthwhile, MotoReaders.