The Day I Won the Motorcycle Lottery

I spent years scratching lottery scratchers and buying super lotto quick picks tickets thinking what I wanted is a million bucks, but what I really wanted was a motorcycle. I just didn’t know it yet.

The Predicament

It was an unusually warm Southern Oregon summer and I was getting more than a little tired hitchhiking to and from work. I can’t say that I’d had any really bad experiences hitching rides, just a lot of mediocre ones. If you’ve ever spent much time on the highway trying to get a ride you’ll know what I’m talking about. I’m thinking about the time a guy stopped fifty feet past me and waives me to hurry up. So of course I grab my backpack and start sprinting down the side of the road only to have him take off the moment I get an arms- length from his bumper. What can you do?

Then there’s the guy who was totally wasted when he stops for me. Had I realized it, I wouldn’t have got in for the ride. That ride was more like an amusement park roller coaster ride than a car ride to work. I made it safely, but if there was every a day I knew I needed some wheels of my own, that was it.

The Proposal

One evening after work one of my friends approached me with a proposal. “I have this motorcycle,” he said, “It doesn’t work, but if you wanna take it and get it fixed you can have it.”

The bike in question was an early 1980’s Honda 350. My friend offered to drop it off at the local motorcycle shop and I would get a call when it was ready. I was fine with that. I was really tired of hitchhiking.

A week later, my ex dropped me off at the shop after I’d received a call telling me the bike was ready. I plunked down $125 and waited for them to bring the bike out to the front of the shop. I had no idea what I was gonna do. I had never driven a motorcycle in my life and the last time I was on the back of a bike the driver scared the crap out of me. I wasn’t even sure how to start the thing.

Fortunately, the shop guy started it up so I could hear it run. One problem solved. My biggest concern was to not look like a total beginner. I said a silent prayer and got on the bike. At that moment, I didn’t know if a dream had been realized, or a new nightmare had begun.

Scared Out of My Mind

The motorcycle shop was right off the highway so right away I needed to get up to 55 so I wouldn’t get run over by the traffic. The plan was to follow my ex to my house just to make sure I got there in one piece. I did, but I got there in first gear. Nobody told me how to shift a motorcycle and I could not figure it out for the life of me. I didn’t get up to 55, but at least I didn’t get run over-- sure had my share of dirty looks, though.

The enormity of the situation didn’t hit me on the ride home. I was so stressed about shifting that I scarcely noticed the ride. When I got home I called my friend to ask how to shift. It was pretty simple, of course, I just needed to be told.

Freedom 

Right away, I got back on my bike and started it up. I eased out on a country road and kicked it into second gear. It felt pretty darn good. I looked down at the road passing by between my legs. I felt pretty darn scared. The road was so close. It was so fast. I looked back up. The sun hit my face and then it hit me. I had just won the motorcycle lottery.

I’ll never forget the sense of freedom I felt being out there in nature without a ton of steel and glass surrounding me. I could hear the wind in my ears; I could smell the flowers as they rushed by and I knew I was free. It didn’t matter where I went just so long as I went. It didn’t matter what the weather was like so long as I was out in it. I loved the feel of the cool rain as I sped along the wet roads. I loved the smell of winter permeating my soul. I loved to ride.

I was hooked. Five motorcycles later and I still have the love for riding, no less than the first day out on that Honda 350. Sure I had my obligatory accident, but it didn’t diminish my love for motorcycles one iota. Yeah, it’s in my blood now-- ever since I won the motorcycle lottery.

 

Mike Regans enjoys motorsports in Jacksonville, Florida.  He is an authority on the best ATV battery and Motobatt motorcycle batteries.