Originally Posted by Labrador

As I lay here in bed sick as a dog with the flu, I was thinking about how most Harley Davidson motorcycle riders, including myself, are a bunch of stubborn ***** when it comes to letting something stop us from riding. Some of the people on this forum ride with missing limbs, others can’t breathe without oxygen, so what do they do? Carry a tank of oxygen in the bags with them. Others with medical devices such as peeing bags or poop bags make mods to their bikes so they can continue riding. Many of us (or someone close to us) at one time or another end up fighting an illness such as cancer, addictions, infections, blindness, mental illnesses like PTSD, Panic attacks, anxiety or even a family loss that just takes the wind out of our sails and sometimes even the will to live. But for some reason, these Harley riding folks here just don’t give a hoot that they are ill and continue riding. Getting too old to ride? nonsense! We just trade the bike for a trike, add a trike kit, trade down or add some other whatchamacallit but continue riding. As I said earlier, we are stubborn *****! (but in a good way).

7 years ago I was sickened with Lyme Disease (LD). If you are not familiar with this illness, it is so bad that even the devil himself is afraid of it. It rots you and every organ from the inside out via infections. And of course, it also comes with friends, known as co-infections. Well, I’ll make this short; I was so ill a few years ago from Lyme Disease that I made my will, put a tag on my tools at work with my wife’s name and address on them and in essence, I was saying good bye to the world. It was curtains for me. But, being the stubborn **** that I am, I decided that I wasn’t going to give up, not without a fight. And the reason why I am posting this here; I promised myself that if I ever got better, that I was going to buy myself a Harley Davidson like I had always dreamed. It was enough motivation for me to fight to the death! So eventually I found a good, old-school doctor who listened to me and gave me my life back. I started to get better little by little and my dream of getting my Harley eventually came true. The day that I rode her for the first time is in the top most unforgettable days of my life.

Because of Lyme Disease, I suffer from chronic fatigue and are unable to ride for more than a few hours. The bike wears me out quick. But do I care? No! I ride as much as I can, even if it means that the next few days I will be dead tired and barely unable to move my arms or legs. You might ask why I put myself through that. Let me tell you. When I get on that bike and hear her roar and feel her vibrating, it stirs up all my senses and at that moment I forget about everything that ails me. As I pull away, I feel the wind, I feel her majestic power through the handle bars and a surge of endorphins and adrenaline rushes through my body. That feeling is just amazing!!

And on those days when I question whether I feel healthy enough to go riding, I remind myself of the days when I was bed-ridden and wishing for a motorcycle to go riding one more time. The illness took our life savings, divided our family and took most of our friends from us. But you know what? I am still here because I had the courage and motivation to fight and get better so I could get my Harley. I might not have money for stage kits, fancy lights, custom paint jobs and stuff like that. But what I do have is a dream that came true and that brings me back to life each time that I go riding. I can’t think of anything else that can do that, can you?

When I go riding and see other riders on the road, I wave to them, no matter what they ride. Because you never know what he/she had to overcome to be behind those bars. But it doesn’t matter, we are both rubber side down on this day and having the best time of our lives. That’s all that matters, right?

Originally Posted by CrBear

Thank You Labrador, what I think most feel on this forum as well. Hope you get to ride today Brother !
When I went on a Grand Canyon ride last June, met a guy at a gas stop. He put it in perspective for me.
-- A little ragged, maybe a few days since showered, not packing much. Ask him where he was heading, said he left Cali heading to New York, with a smile. I said Wow, you're not packing much, he said "I've got 5 of everything I need". Just found out I'm terminal, and on my last trip.
I can still see the years of Adventure on his face. Its what we do. Hope he made it..