Why I Stopped Riding Motorcycles [0:00:00]
[Music] So, my love affair with motorcycles started
in high school.
I had a friend that had a bike, and let's just say that he had no problem with the ladies.
Seriously, every time Troy showed up on that bike, he had people ooh-ing and aah-ing and
there was always a girl that jumped on the back and wanted to go for a ride.
Fast forward a few years, I'm in college, I've got a little bit of money and I realized
getting a motorcycle is pretty economical.
So, I take a motorcycle class my local JC, they've got these little 125 cc bikes we learn
on and before you know it, I've got my license.
[Music] So, my first bike that I picked up for 400
bucks, a Kawasaki 750 special.
I remember I took my friend, Brent, to check this thing out.
He was pretty good on bikes.
He rode it, he came back and said, “Tony, you are going to kill yourself on this thing,
but it's an awesome bike if you want it.”
Now, obviously, he was joking, but he did want to point out, “Hey, this thing has
power.
You got to be careful on this.”
And I did have my first accident on that bike.
Now, that first accident wasn't serious.
I hit some gravel at a slow speed, drop the bike on its side, scratched the bike a little
bit, but I was okay.
And, you know, to be honest, I've got to be super careful because there's so many things
outside of my control when I'm riding.
Even if I'm an excellent driver there, I got to worry about other vehicles, I got to worry
about road conditions.
Now, obviously in today's video, we're talking bikes.
If you've got a favorite motorcycle that you've owned or you want to own, guys, I want to
hear you down in the comments.
What is your dream bike?
What is the bike that you had that you absolutely loved?
I'm laying out my three bikes in this video, but I want to hear about yours down in the
comments below.
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Now, my second bike was a Kawasaki Vulcan1500.
I picked this one just a year after that first bike.
I'd saved up my money.
I wanted something nicer, something a little bit bigger, heavier stronger that was lower
to the ground.
Actually, relatively easy to ride.
Now, that Kawasaki Vulcan was a beautiful bike.
Not only did it look good, that thing had power.
So much torque with that bike, I mean, I could throw some -- somebody heavy on the back and
it wouldn't slow down.
I mean, that thing could move.
Unfortunately, within two months of buying my first new bike, I totaled my first new
bike.
Now, this accident was a lot more serious, not just because I totaled that vehicle, but
also because I had a passenger on the back.
Basically, I was taking a turn and all of a sudden, there was a vehicle stuck right
there in the middle of the road and I locked up my brakes like I had been trained to do
actually in that safety class I took.
And I kept the bike up, but we probably hit the back of that Winnebago 15 miles an hour,
20 miles an hour and it crumpled my forks, brought the whole bike together.
We flew off the bike and actually hit the soft part of the Winnebago and then fell on
the ground.
And believe it or not, we walked away from that incident with nothing more than just
sore muscles and a sore body, despite not even wearing helmets.
[0:05:00] Now, you think hitting a Winnebago having
a near-death experience would dampen my love for motorcycles.
No, not at all.
I took the insurance payout and I rebuilt the motorcycle and decided, you know what?
I'm going to ride out to California for my sister's wedding.
She's in Los Angeles.
I'm in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Just graduated, I had two days to get there.
And guess what?
I just rode straight.
I think I slept on the side of the road one time.
It's like a 30- hour straight drive not counting gas stops because that thing had to stop every
like 120 miles for gas, but I made it.
My face was sunburned and I, in the wedding photos, you can actually -- I look like a
raccoon.
Point being, I just loved it.
And I loved the freedom that came with riding a motorcycle.
Everything I needed in one bag on the back of my bike and it was true.
I mean, the ladies loved motorcycles.
It was so easy to go somewhere and just there was something to always be someone that wanted
to jump on the back of my bike.
After college, I joined the Marine Corps and there was a good year that I was going to
be off in training, I just didn't have the need for a motorcycle.
So, I sold the Kawasaki Vulcan and I realized very quickly you do not really get your money
back on these type of motorcycles.
I think I had like $6,000 into that bike and I got $3,000.
So, lucky I had paid it off.
But, yeah, I realized very quickly that this isn't something that you, yeah, these are
not investments.
So, I finished up the base’s school in Quantico, Virginia with the United States Marine Corps
and I knew my path.
I was going to be a student naval aviator and I was going to either go – I was going
to go down to Florida -- Pensacola to be specific, then I was going to be in Corpus Christi.
And, I knew, hey, this is great weather for motorcycle riding.
So, before I left Pensacola, I picked up my next bike, a 2000 Sprint ST.
Now, that same year, Tom Cruise came out with the movie, Mission Impossible 2.
And I didn't buy the bike because of that movie, but when I saw Triumph in that movie
and it was very similar to my bike, I had the Sprint ST.
I mean, I was just like, wow, what a great decision.
And I can tell you, I fell in love with this bike because it was everything I wanted.
Having gone through a couple bikes, I realized I wanted something that was sporty, but at
the same time, I wanted something that had performance.
I wanted a bike I could take on long trips, but I wanted something that looked good and
young and just, yeah, just it screamed sex appeal.
So, if any of you guys are veterans or you know someone that served in the military,
one of the biggest benefits is 30 days of leave per year.
Now, you don't always get to take it if you're deployed, but this stuff can build up.
And usually for me between duty stations, I would take 30 to 45 days just simply off
and I would plan it so that, you know, you could just disappear.
And that's exactly what I did when I showed up to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.
I checked in and I'm like, “Hey, I'm out of here for 45 days.”
I jumped on my bike and I just started riding west.
I had family out in California, but I was camping on the side of the road.
It was an adventure.
Everything I needed, right there on that Sprint ST.
I went up the west coast, you know just enjoying the beaches, camping out, saw friends up in
Bend, Oregon.
You know, it was [Jason Styles], me and him riding our bikes together.
I went then across, you know, the west, went through, you know, Montana, then down over
back, went to see all my friends over in Iowa.
Spent probably a couple weeks there hanging out and then made my way back down to Texas.
And it was my first epic trip, just living on that motorcycle.
And, again, it was the freedom, it was the ability to be able to go almost anywhere.
Gas mileage was pretty good and we're not really worried about that, but it was just
so much fun.
Because when you're riding a motorcycle, especially a sports bike that's got a chain on it, as
soon as you give a little bit of gas you accelerate, that thing just moved.
I could pop that thing on a wheelie if I wanted.
I could d, yeah, I didn't do too many stoppies.
But, let's just say I was having fun with that bike.
And I did put it down a couple times.
Nothing serious, but they were oftentimes just, you know, dropping the bike in the gravel
a little bit of oil, so I was always realizing that, hey, I got to be careful here because
I could really hurt myself on this thing.
And, here's the thing with motorcycles.
You can be the best rider in the world, but all of a sudden, you get hit by a storm, it's
very different when that wind and that rain is hitting you that hail is hitting you on
a bike than it is when you're in a vehicle.
Even a small car, you've got those four rubber tires on the road.
With a bike, all it takes is one slick area and all of a sudden if you're going 55, 65
miles an hour, yeah, you can be seriously injured, if not die instantly.
You realize all of a sudden that you are a couple inches from this being something serious.
And then, there are the times you are stupid.
So, I remember I got my tires changed on that Triumph Sprint ST and I took it out of storage
and within half a mile of the shop, I just brought it out of from storage, I decided,
hey, you know, I'm in a little bit of fun, I'm going to really give it some gas.
Well, those tires were a lot slicker than I expected.
I learned very quickly do not do that on, yeah, I basically, you know, lost control
of the bike.
It fell over on its side and it ended up busting uh the clutch, so I had to push the bike half
a mile right back to the shop.
And it was in for another couple weeks before they could get that fixed.
And, you just, yeah, those things are powerful.
It's like -- it is unlike anything, but it is so much fun.
It is an addiction.
[0:10:04] So, for those of you guys that have followed
my channel, you know the flight program did not work out for me.
I blew out my sinuses.
I ended up getting assigned to third battalion first marines out of Camp Pendleton in California.
So, I moved over to California and that's when it got even crazier.
I don't know if they can still do it.
Let me know in the comments if you're still allowed to do this.
But you could split lanes back in 2000, 2001, 2002 in California.
And I remember we'd be just in standstill traffic and I would be going 55, 65 miles
an hour just right between vehicles.
And there was always an incident when somebody would get in too close or it would be closer
than what I expected.
And I have these bags on the back of my bike, hardcover bags.
And I remember just like getting hit occasionally a little bit.
It wasn't -- it didn't bother me too much until – now, looking back, I'm like, “Wow.
That was super close.”
But, yeah, that's when I put on the majority of probably the miles, just back and forth
traffic in Southern Cal.
I would go for a weekend ride, just put on like three to four hundred miles just on a
Saturday, nothing else to do.
And I loved, again, being able to have a crew of other bike riders and we got a bunch of
military guys and we would go just all over Southern Cal.
There were so many beautiful things to see there.
That being said, when I finished up my time in the Marine Corps, I decided, you know what?
I am going to go see everything.
I'm going to do one of these epic adventures that everyone talks about.
So, I'm going to go do the four corners.
So, on motorcycle lingo in the United States, the four corners are the four edges of the
United States.
Hitting this, this is an epic like 5,000, 6,000-mile trip.
It's something that most people just never have the time for.
Again, I had built up a bunch of leave.
I was on terminal leave with the military, so I had like 60 days and I was getting paid
for it.
I'm like, you know what?
I'm just going to take this trip.
Put everything in the storage.
And, I, from San Diego area started heading north.
I knew I was – okay, I had friends up in Seattle and had people maybe I could stop
and see in Bend, Oregon.
I had just friends that I had stayed in touch with for years.
And I was just sleeping on couches.
I was sleeping, again, on the side of the road.
It was just something, you know, when you're single, you don't have anything.
I had no family.
I had a girl I was dating, you know, who's now my wife.
But at the time, you know, I was just like, “Hey, I'm just going to go have fun.
Whatever happens happen.”
And I kept going.
I decided to make it a little bit bigger.
I went up to actually Victoria up in Canada.
And there was some beautiful parks, ended up taking some boats around, met up some friends
up that way.
And then, from there, I started going across.
Went in and out of Canada, the northern United States.
I saw Glacier National Park from both sides.
I can tell you Glacier is, well, it was amazing.
I took my family a few years back, but that time I went, I think the Glaciers were much
larger and it was, yeah, it was incredibly beautiful.
Just one of the most beautiful trips I've -- areas I've ever seen in the country.
Now staying up north, but in an easterly direction, I kept stopping and seeing friends.
I had plenty of friends in Wisconsin, over in Illinois, then, you know, Chicago, then
popped over to Michigan.
I didn't know as many people up in the northwest area.
But, I started to have -- went back up into Canada, crossed over went over to Montreal,
then from there, made my way over to Nova Scotia.
Just really enjoying that part of Canada.
I had never been up there, just beautiful.
So many things to see.
I ended up taking a CAT, which I don't think they do this anymore.
But, it was a CAT ferry across over to Bar Harbor.
And that was where I stayed Maine.
And I don't know what it was about Maine, but i just idealized that state for the longest
time.
I just love the idea of its location of it just simply having that cold weather at the
same time, the beautiful summers.
I spent a lot of time on the coast, where I loved the look of it, just the all the different
lighthouses.
I stopped at this one bed and breakfast and just ate lobsters in like every night I was
there.
It wasn't as inexpensive as I thought it was going to be, but it was well worth it.
And then, started making my way down the east coast.
Stopped in Boston, went over to -- what -- drove through Rhode Island really quick.
I was pretty much trying to on this trip I realized it -- I might as well hit all lower
48 states.
So, I had kind of randomly hit a lot of the ones in the northwest and then, the north
central.
Now, I was making sure I decided to go through all the entire northeast.
And that's exactly what I did.
I went all over the place, you know, hitting Rhode Island, going to New York, New Jersey.
I got out of New Jersey pretty quick.
No, just making fun of you guys.
I love New Jersey.
But, went through New York City, then kept moving down south.
And it was funny, it was like I wouldn't like really stop in Delaware, I just drive right
through.
Not that there wasn't anything to see in Delaware, but I just wanted to -- I decided this trip
was going to get longer and get more fun and I was just going to hit every state in the
lower 48.
So, that's what I did going down all the way south to Florida.
And when I went to Florida, I realized, you know what?
I got to go as far down as possible.
I think it was at this point that I decided, you know, I'm going to do that full four corners.
So, I went all the way to the lowest part of Florida that you can get to.
There's this marker there that I got a picture of me with my bike.
It was hot and it was awesome and it was a great time.
And then, I started making my way back up north.
[0:14:57] Now, I realized that I needed to go over to
all of these states, you know, like Tennessee and Kentucky and stuff.
I just needed to drive through them.
And, again, I was staying at any time there was a military base.
One of the interesting things is since I was still in the military, I could stay on base
relatively cheap at a BOQ.
And that's exactly what I would do if there wasn't a base, I would find, you know, $25,
$35 a night just random motels or camp on the side of the road because I had all my
gear.
And was just going up and down trying to hit every state I could.
Now, being from Texas, I had to spend a little bit more time there.
I had friends over in Austin, Dallas, down in San Antonio.
We even went down to Nuevo Laredo just to check it out with a buddy of mine.
We were going all around there.
I remember flying across West Texas and I'm from Midland, Texas, so there's not too much
to see out there.
But I was going like easily 140, 150 miles an hour.
Again, not always being super smart on the bike, but, man, it just felt good.
I remember I would douse myself with water and then, I had these vents on my jacket that
would just open up and suck in some of that air and that was the only way I could cool
myself down.
But, yeah, I spent a couple weeks in Texas, then went over to New Mexico, then started
going way up all the way over to Colorado and then across hitting the states that I
hadn't hit right there in the southwest.
And I can't remember if it was Colorado or Wyoming, but it was one of those states I
had a random woman come up to me.
She wasn't really my type, but I did appreciate the compliment.
She just looked at me in all my leather gear, she looked at this bike and she says, “Man,
you know, this look just screams come [bleeping sound] me.”
And I was like I appreciated it and, you know, it kind of -- I have to admit that was another
beautiful thing about a motorcycle is that it seemed anywhere I went, I was back in Iowa
visiting friends at my college town.
Let's just say that, you know, it wasn't difficult to get lucky.
Random girls would jump on the back of the bike or girls that you knew somewhat pretty
well, but they like, “Hey, give me a ride.”
And you're going for a ride and then you ask, “Hey, well, I'm not going back to the bar.”
And they're like, “That's fine, I'm sticking with you all night,” you know.
Those incidents seem to happen quite a bit more than they ever did happen without -- I
mean, the motorcycle let's just say whenever a woman gets on it and she feels the engine
going, she's got her legs around you, there's just something that seems to happen.
So, about three months after I had started this trip, I returned home to Southern California.
I was staying at my sister's place and I just, you know, it took a little bit of time to
rest, but, yes, in three months, I pretty much hit all lower 48 states along with some
territories up in Canada.
It was a trip that looking back I'm very happy I did.
At the same time, come to find out, you know, that would be the last time that I would take
a major trip on a motorcycle.
And within a year, I was selling that motorcycle.
Again, didn't really make my money back on it.
It had over a hundred thousand miles, but ended up selling that bike.
And to this day, am not riding motorcycles anymore.
So what happened?
Why did I stop riding bikes?
Why did I give up motorcycles and to this day have not started riding again?
And, there were two incidents that happened.
It wasn't just one thing.
My son was born on August 29, 2004.
So, about a year after I returned from that trip, all of a sudden, I had this new person
who was in my life and I realized when I held him for the first time that the success or
what he was going to be able to get out of life depended so much on me, being a father
that was around because I didn't grow up with a father that was around.
I actually had a friend in college whose father died on a motorcycle accident and didn't grow
up with him.
And two days later, after my son was born, one of my best friends from childhood, I knew
his name is Cody.
He was an amazing runner, he ended up dying on a workplace incident.
And I wasn't able to go to his funeral, I was on the other side of the world.
My wife had just had our first child and she needed me she needed help.
It was something that was very painful for me to have this life and then death situation
all within about 48 to 72 hours.
And to realize how important my life is now for my wife, for my son, and how fragile life
is.
Because so many times, again, I, you know, talked about these accidents I had and I didn't
even talk about all the small ones.
I remember I was going into work one time and I rode my motorcycle to work when I was
in the Marines and I was under the weather not feeling too good.
I was literally like 500 meters from my -- to my -- my base.
I was at Camp Horno, you know, also called Camp Porno right there in Pendleton.
But, basically, I was having trouble I was just a little feverish and I hit some water.
And I remember even seeing it coming, I'm like, I got to be careful there.
But, I was going slow.
When you drive a motorcycle slow, it doesn't have as great a balance and I just slipped
right in there.
And it upset me so much, I'm thinking, gosh, what could have been so -- I could have easily
broken a leg.
You -- I also didn't always wear a helmet.
And part -- that was one of the reasons I went to sports tours is I felt I would be
more inclined to wear a helmet on a bike that I just, yeah, cruiser bikes there's just something
about not wearing a helmet, especially if you live in Iowa or you live here in Wisconsin,
home of Harley-Davidson.
[0:20:07] No, a lot of people do not wear helmets.
They're all about, you know, freedom.
You know, but really to me, it just drives up insurance prices and it's stupid.
But, I was that stupid person, so I get it.
Point being, I loved riding motorcycles, but I loved my son more, I loved my wife more.
And I realized I'm going to take this risk out of my life.
There are many other things I can do and I can enjoy myself many other ways, but this
right here is just, you know, they're called donor cycles for a reason.
I get it.
And, statistically, I knew playing those odds eventually something was going to happen.
And it wasn't even me, it was going to be somebody else.
I had one time somebody actually back up their car in L.A. traffic and hit me and knocked
me over.
And that was, you know, a small car.
What if that had been a big truck that was backing up and couldn't see me and could have
crushed me?
This stuff has happened.
And so, you start to realize, you know, I'm going to reduce risk.
I'm going to still live a life that I love.
And, you know, I've told my wife, once, you know, we just had another kid, so I guess
I got -- I'm waiting 17 years now, but I've, you know, I've waited what already, you know,
quite a bit, you know, 17 already, so not a big deal.
And I'll get into sports cars probably.
But, yeah, I'm eventually going to get back into motorcycles.
I've even looked at maybe those trikes, I've looked at, you know, getting into something
that, you know, maybe, I'll go with jeeps, you know, something that's a little bit more
open.
Point being is i love my son, I love my wife more than I love motorcycles.
And I think it's great to have those things especially when you're young to go out there
and take risks, to be able to enjoy that stuff.
But, I do think sometimes in life we've got to make these choices.
You've got to make a decision, you know what?
I am going to take this off the table, so that I can deeper and more fully enjoy this
right here.
So, for me that was the reason I gave up.
And, again, if you've had to give up motorcycles or if you've given something up because you
love something more, guys, I would love to hear from you down in the comments below.
All right, gents.
So, what video to watch next?
How about how I lost everything?
In this video, I talk about getting fired, losing my job, and how I recovered, how I
was able to find the silver lining, which I had to admit was very, very difficult at
that time period.
But, yeah, check it out this video right here, guys.
I think you’ll enjoy it.
It’s one of my better ones.
Yeah, check it out.
Boom, right there, click it.
[0:22:29] End of audio