Lose Weight Riding Motorcycles

I posted before about my weight loss, and experiencing a sore butt while taking long rides.

Yesterday, I came to a conclusion. Riding motorcycles is hard work.

I weighed in that morning at 189 pounds, and by this morning I weighed in at 185. I lost four pounds riding my motorcycle yesterday.

It was a long ride, about 250 miles in all, with about 100 of that going through twisties. The rest was taking freeway to get to the twisties, and to get home.

Midway into the ride, we stopped at Big Oaks Lodge, a biker hangout along Boquet Canyon Rd. I had a cheeseburger and a hefeweizen (wheat beer). Later on, we rode to Tom's Farms and I had a Diet Coke. That night, I took a run to Jack in the Box for a sirloin cheeseburger, and washed it down with a Jack Daniels & Coke (regular Coke).

I don't know the total caloric intake on that, I'm guessing around 4,000 calories.

It's said that the average American needs to burn 3,500 calories to lose one pound.

And considering I did no exercise yesterday, no great amount of walking either, I should have gained a pound or two. But instead I lost four pounds.

I rode my Road Star yesterday. I don't ride with a windshield or any kind of wind protection on that bike. And with about 150 miles of freeway on that route, the wind was pushing me back for quite a ways. Maybe having to hold on tight burns calories.

And considering there was about 100 miles of twisties, I spent a lot of time focusing on the road, looking for debris on the road, watching the recommended curve speed signs, downshifting, upshifting, positioning my bike for the turns, etc. Basically, I had to do a lot of thinking. Maybe using your brain actually burns calories, and maybe that's why so few people use theirs.

I also led a group of 18 bikes, with 21 people. It was a group larger than what I'm accustomed to leading. So I always looking for my tailgunner to make sure we had everyone. I was always looking in the mirror to see if everyone made it through the green light. At all the gas stops I had to keep track of time and make sure we weren't wasting it. Perhaps leading a group is something that also burns calories.

What I do know is that by the time I got home, I was tired.

So I figure I burned quite a few calories riding my motorcycle. I just don't know where those calories went to.

Perhaps I should write a book, "The Motorcycle Diet". I could appear on Oprah Winfrey, and tell her to get her fat butt on a bike.

9 comments | Post a Comment

---

Can Foreclosures Kill Riding Clubs?

Over the weekend, I learned that a local riding club around here is in jeopardy of closing up. I don't have first hand knowledge on why they're falling apart, but it was explained that many of their "core" members have moved away in the past year.

It sounds like other members of the club have failed to make good on their commitment as patch holders and keep the club moving forward. Now, the two remaining founders are thinking of shutting it down and joining a motorcycle club.

Funny, where have I heard that before?

It's perhaps a non-issue if a riding club has chapters all over the USA where someone can transfer to a different chapter, but this particular club was a small, localized club.

It's really tough to find people that can step up within a club and take on a leadership role. Most people don't want to take lead in anything. Taking lead is not necessarily becoming a President or First Officer. It just means organizing an event, leading a ride, putting together a care package for a Marine, or just calling up a bunch of guys to go have a beer. Most people just wait for someone else to do something.

So when the active members of a club are forced to leave the club, it's rare to find anyone that can step up to save the club.

The root of the problem is that riding clubs require very little commitment. Even within those riding clubs that implement a prospect-based membership process, all the members still understand that there is very little hanging over their heads to keep them active.

Those of us who act as leaders in a club, riding club or motorcycle club, don't want to become babysitters. We want members to take their membership seriously. The question I ask is if they didn't plan on being an active member, then there's no need to become a member. Just come out and ride with us whenever the mood strikes you. The back patch is only for people who can make the club proud.

In the riding club I'm in now, I've been telling all of our prospects and hang arounds that the difference between joining the club versus hanging around is that members all make a commitment to make the club beneficial to everyone. If you can contribute to the overall fun and well-being, then you're welcome to wear the patch.

But in reality, people can promise to be an active member, and then be active for a short while, and slowly fade into the background. The best thing a riding club can do is foster close-friendships between its members. The friendships and good times make people want to get together, and make it a tough decision to move away.

5 comments | Post a Comment

---

Riding Means Different Things to Different People

Most riders I talk to will tell me that they like to ride a lot, and they often complain about others not wanting to ride more often.

But it's often just a difference of opinion on what "riding a lot" means to you.

On our riding club forum, we had this guy from another club introduce himself and offer an invitation to ride with them on an upcoming ride. They wanted to ride to The Hideout, and then to the Oasis, a couple of biker bars in north San Diego County. This ride looked to be about 80 miles round trip.

This guy talked about how he was so frustrated that so many people don't ride their bikes that often, and how he just loves to ride "a lot". Then he went on to describe some of the riding that he and his club guys do.

Since I've never ridden with them, I can't really know for sure how often they ride, or how far they ride, or if they do more freeways than twisties.

But the sense I got was that they love to ride to destinations, as opposed to riding for the sake of riding. The examples they gave were either riding to specific bars, or travelling to specific rallies. For all I know, they took the freeways there, and for all I know, they only ride 100 miles each time.

I met another guy awhile back, who hooked with me through my Meetup group. I had planned a ride along Big Pines Hwy, and then over to Boquet Canyon Rd, and then to Little Tujunga Canyon Rd. These are three very scenic, and very twisty roads, with a total mileage of about 300 miles. It also included a stop for lunch at the Rock Inn, a popular biker hangout.

Anyways, he showed up on his Big Dog factory custom, with this ridiculously long rake, and ridiculously fat rear tire. I knew for sure he wasn't going to handle the twisties. I reminded him there was going to be a ton of tight twisties on this road, but he said it was no problem because he rides the twisties all the time.

So off we went, and as soon as we hit the twisties, he kept drifting further behind. I slowed it down, but he was still drifting back.

After that ride, he hasn't returned to ride with me.

I thought that he would be riding with me some more, because he kept boasting about how he rides his Big Dog so much, and that he can't seem to find anyone who wants to ride often as he does. And since he said he rides the twisties "all the time", I figured we'd be riding together again.

Obviously, his idea of riding is way different than mine. I think his idea of twisties are roads where you can still ride 50mph and not drag your pegs, and I think his idea of riding is more like 100 miles round trip, with a few stops in between.

Differnt strokes for different folks.

So when I hear someone talking about how they love to ride a lot, I take it with a grain of salt, and wait to see exactly what they're talking about. There's riding just for the love of riding, and then there's riding for the destination.

Maybe it would be more correct for someone to say, "I love riding to the bar a lot".

9 comments | Post a Comment

---