“Road Ramblings”
By: Lost McGoon

Main Entry: 1 soul
Pronunciation: 'sOl
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English soule, from Old English sAwol; akin to Old High German sEula soul
1 : the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life
2 a : an active or essential part b : a moving spirit
5 a : the quality that arouses emotion and sentiment c : spiritual or moral force

Does a motorcycle have a personality? Can a machine have a soul? I often say that a motorcycle has a soul. Is it true? Hell if I know, but they definitely have a moving spirit, a quality that arouses emotion and sentiment.

How many times have you started a project with one direction in mind, and as the process moved along it evolved and changed, until the day you were finally finished; you sit back and realize the end result is nowhere near what you started with in your mind. Is that the inner soul, the inner voice of the machine that has dictated where the project ended up? Or is it solely the guidance of the builder that affects the outcome?

How is it that two machines can come down the assembly line one after the other, yet each machine will have its own quirks and differences? You can put two "Identical" bikes side my side and they will run differently heads up, one will warm up differently than the other, one will act a tad different through the gears, and one will act differently on the top end, and yet they are "Identical" machines.

Can you attribute these differences solely to the riders? Or is it more the synergy between the rider and the individual machine? If it is the synergy, the interaction between man and machine would it not stand to reason that the machine would have to be an active part of that equation?

I travel to rally's and see a lot of the "billet barges" all the chrome you can hang from a bike and then some, they have no soul, but are merely a mass conglomeration of parts that exist together. Then you walk further down and you see a bike, it calls to you, it has a soul. that machine has an identity of its own, be it a rat bike, streetfighter, chopper, or bobber. What is the difference between the two? One had a ton of money thrown at it, and one you can almost see the heart someone poured into it; The late nights in the garage, the bloody knuckles, the gallons of sweat. Which bike will tell you more about itself and about its rider? The Chrome abomination screams nothing at you its inner voice is stifled. You see an outward expression of a parts catalog. The other tells you a tale of where it's been, what it has seen, and the experiences it has had.

So I like to think that every machine begins as a blank slate. It has its own personality, but it is deep inside. It takes the right person to come along and pour in the right mix of Blood Sweat and Heart to activate the inner soul of the machine. And once that inner soul has been awakened the true heart of the machine is exposed and the synergy with the rider can become an unstoppable force.

Next Page - "Chasing Sprockets," by Dan Karns, a.k.a. sprbeast

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