I've had truckers stop to help me. During the 1st big gas crisis I was driving from Pensacola to Malibu. In a Texas downpour an unseen piece of debris hit the underside of my car and poked a small hole in the gas tank. Got it fixed in El Paso then headed west. Just after hitting New Mexico suddenly the car wouldn't run going over 35mph. A trucker and his fellow driver stopped to help, then followed me all the way to a truck stop in Deming at 35mph. 2 days later and rust flushed from the 4 barrel carb I was back on the road thanks to the truckers watching out for me.

There are two types of people who will stop almost always for someone who has broken down on the road. Bikers will stop for bikers, and Blacks will stop for Blacks. Of course, almost every man will stop for a pretty girl, but we can't really count that as he's hoping for something different than the girl stopping for him if he's broke down.

Let a White man in a car break down and once in a blue moon someone will stop. I think it is more the feeling of bikers and Blacks of facing adversity that brings out their offer of help.

I'll admit, I see a car broke down on the road, I too will drive on by. Yet, I will still stop to inquire if a biker needs help whether on my bike or my truck. I bet if I saw a 'Who is John Galt?' sticker on a car, I'd stop then too. Kindred spirits facing adversity, it does work to bring people together.

Great article (inspirational) and features. I grew up on motorcycles. Had several before I had a drivers license or car... Sold my last bike a few years back...
Glory days!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AHI4DL2B...

At the risk of over-simplifying, motorcycling certainly carries with it the image of rebellious romanticism. This common public perception, fanned for commercial value by many, did not predate motorcycling's artificial portrayal thru silly and violent 1950s-1960s Hollywood B-films. Previously, it was about inexpensive, fun, transportation. Many of us still see it that way.

But, fact is, there's an entire generational movement back to activities that touch the nerve of raw simplicity characterized by the pre-digital era. And, there is good cause for resistance to the over commercialization of technology - a common awareness of the very unhealthy anxiety levels we suffer in today's pressure cooker world, where disconnecting is practically impossible.

The motorcycle press is full of editorial opinion and articles about the joys and heartbreak of hands-on 'wrenching' required of classic bikes. It yields a deep personal involvement and satisfaction that simply can't be experienced with the artificiality of laptop, SW-dependent, service code diagnostic maintenance that modern machines require. And this, given that you can even afford the prerequisite technology entry fee into the ethereal world of closed system, oxygen-sensing, fuel-injected, ECM programmed, modern engine management.

The appeal to the world of the 'analog', completely rational or not, recognizes how, as a society, we've come to recognize our being overwhelmed by technology dependence, an addiction so debilitating that we are, for example, rendered catatonic when we discover we've left our iPhone in another room.

Whether it be motorcycling, rock climbing, bicycling, mountaineering, caving, hang gliding, running, whatever, get out there and do it - digital free! It will invigorate your soul and make you so much more productive and stress-free when you re-enter the fundamentally bizarre and alien infrastructure of the modern world.

great story, overman. there should have been more eye candy for the girls though :)

Technology has brought with it suffocating dependence and the evolution from analog to digital has increased that dependency. That is why so many of us who ride (rather than drive) embrace machines that our fathers and grandfathers rode - ones with points and condensers, or magnetos, carbs rather than FI, cotton wrapped wire harnesses rather than CANbus.

The point is to experience the aesthetic of actually contributing to controlling the experience, to the degree that these classic machines will permit, each with its own particular personality.

Ride safe my friends!