Free Wheelin'

As a voracious reader, I get a lot of odd magazines each month. Archaeology, Smithsonian, and some of the more mainstream - Car & Driver, Popular Mechanics, etc.

I recently received a sample copy of a British magazine called New Scientist. This mag contains pages of mini-articles, theories, facts, and tidbits. Under the column head 'Mind' was an article titled How to Have a Good Day.

Who does not want to have a good day, right?

I dove in. The article by Elizabeth Hlavinka talked about a study done by the University of British Columbia in Canada. Here a professor named Dunigan Folk and his colleagues wanted to distinguish what separates a good day from a bad one, or even an average one. The article touched on general socializing, and work hours – with 6 hours not affecting your day, but after that things get more crappy exponentially.

They talked about commuting time. I remember Tony Robbins once saying that you want no more than a 20-minute commute. This article stated just 15 minutes. It went on to say that a longer commute was preferred during the COVID epidemic, but afterward, it became a bit of a downer for the day.

The road on which we live, in Sussex County, New Jersey is mostly lightly traveled for much of the day. But starting around 6:30 am, and for the next hour or so, there is a steady stream of commuters heading to work. This repeats later in the day when folks are heading home.

During riding season many of the cars are replaced by motorcycles. Who do you think is having a better day?

When we are not on the road our commute is a stroll downstairs to the War Room of Backroads Central. But I know when I steal a ride, even on a “Production Day”, my day is sooo much better.

We riders have a decided advantage over those commuting in cars, sports cars notwithstanding.

As the adage states; car drivers are watching a movie, motorcycle riders are starring in one. I know some riders who have to travel south from the northwest end of our state each weekday. The main road, Route 15, always gets jammed when passing through the towns heading to "Down Below", (what we call anything south of Jefferson), but these riders all have their little backroad routes that they take to get to and from work… and, with enough speed, they easily can jump the latest sinkhole. Who says Jersey doesn't have its natural wonders?

What is a wonder is why more riders do not use their bikes on a daily basis?

We are not the only one who think this; Andy Goldfine and Aerostich have been pushing a National Ride to Work Day for 33 years, and it all came about because of a tee shirt.

Ride to Work Day was inspired by the “Work to Ride – Ride to Work‘” tee shirt Aerostich was selling out of their much-missed catalog.

In 1992 these items inspired motorcycle magazine editor Fred Rau to write an editorial calling for a national ride to work day.

The first annual Ride to Work Day event was proposed in Road Rider magazine (now titled Motorcycle Consumer News) in the May 1992 issue. This is an excerpt from that “Ride to Work” editorial:

“You may remember several months ago when Bob Carpenter, commenting in his ‘Two Up’ column, mentioned how neat he thought it would be if there was one day a year when everyone who owned a motorcycle used it to ride to work. That comment was prompted by a T-shirt produced by Aerostich RiderWear that simply said, ‘Work to Ride, Ride to Work.’ Everyone seemed to think that a national ‘Ride to Work’ day was one heck of a good idea.”

The first Ride to Work Day event date was July 22, 1992. For several years various motorcycle businesses informally promoted every third Wednesday in July as Ride to Work Day.

This tradition continues with the date of Ride to Work Day happening every second Tuesday in June. This year that is June the 10th.

Even if you do not normally pull your motorcycle out each day to go to work – do so this June 10th. You might find, at the end of this day, you feel pretty good, things are a bit better, and you are having a very good day.

Maybe you should Ride to Work more often. We do.