Hardcore

What makes you hardcore. In respect to the hardcore biker. I’ll tell you who I think is hardcore. Melvin (a coworker). He asked me about bikes a few months ago. After I jacked-jaw at him for a few days about all things moto. He went out and took MSF and bought a bike. A brand new Ninja 250. Today when I came into work his bike was in the parking lot.

 It really made me smile. Because today was his first rainy commute. Whatever it was that made him spend 15 minutes putting on extra rain-gear, instead of leaving early in his truck is what makes him hardcore. That sense of saying to yourself “how bad could this really be” and then reinforcing that feeling on the road when your a little chilled but still making better time that your 4 wheeled commuting counterparts. Amidst the quiet thoughts rattling around the helmet you say “this isn’t that bad”. That’s what makes you hardcore. That feeling inside that keeps you warm when it’s chilly, that lets you not notice it so much when a bit of water seeps through the shoulder seam of your jacket. It’s what makes you smile and think your getting a leg up on the comfortable dry cattle plodding along through their daily lives, in their cars and SUV’s. They’re the sheep and you feel like the wolf.

So what makes you hardcore? Whatever it is, it isn’t the ridiculous size or ear-shattering volume of your engine. It’s not the blackness of your leathers. It’s not the ease of your wheelies. It’s something else altogether.

Commuting 40 miles in bay area traffic, on a nondescript 250, in the rain for the first time,….now that is hard-fucking-core!!

See you Monday Melvin