Reunited

So last month I was bragging about my new bike and how much it was going to save me in parking.  I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Finally, I thought, you made an adult decision and bought something you could actually use.  Maybe I'm finally growing up...

Well, not so fast.

While the little Honda may have sipped gas and may have been too ugly to steal, it had some issues.  There were a number of parts broken or missing but like I said, it was $800.  I wasn't going to get perfection for that price.

The Honda had one major flaw, though, regardless of its price: it wasn't my Triumph.

You see, days after I bought the Honda, my Triumph showed up here in Denver.  All the new bike excitement disappeared and old friend bike excitement took over.  It was like being reunited.  The Honda was immediately put on the back burner and unceremoniously sold a short time later.

My Triumph and I have had some adventures together.  There were boring commutes, exciting backroad blasts, rides in the rain, crashes in the mud; overnights, trips, etc, etc.  That bike and I have had a lot of fun together over the last five years.

Being away from it for a few months really got me thinking about how easy it is to get attach to an object.  Let's face it, there's no reciprocity with a motorcycle because it's just a thing.  It's not alive; it has no feelings.  I can't help but feel a bit of kinship with my machine, though.  I can't help but feel every trip, no matter how mundane, is a trip with a friend.

I mean, we're sharing the same experiences and while the bike lacks the ability to verbalize its memories, the scars on the bike tell the story.  There are a host of scrapes and scratches on the left side of my Triumph from when we crashed in West Virginia.  Those scratches really bothered me at first.  My Triumph was so pretty, so new and the marks gnawed at me.  I felt sorry for the bike.

After some time, the marks started to grow on me.  This was now my bike.  Triumph made thousands of black Bonnevilles in 2008 but only one is mine.

This one, with the scratches and the droopy turn signal, is mine.