Okay, I need you guys to be paying attention!
Monday, June the 15th, get that hog or cruiser out of the garage and take it to work. Yes, brave the weather, traffic, bugs, whatever and come out for Ride Your Motorcycle to Work Day.
Yep. This has been going on since the Nineties, but I just found out about it two years ago. The guy that came up with this way back in ’92, Fred Rau, was the editor for the old Road Rider magazine. He thought that it was a great idea to demonstrate-
- The number of motorcyclists to the general public and to politicians.
- That motorcyclists are from all occupations and all walks of life.
- That motorcyclists can reduce traffic and parking congestion in large cities.
- That motorcycles are for transportation as well as recreation.
- That motorcycling is a social good.
The first annual Ride to Work Day event was proposed in Road Rider magazine (now titled Motorcycle Consumer News) in the May 1992 issue. Here’s what Fred Rau had to say in 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.”
From what I was able to learn, the original date was in July, but starting in 2008, they switched it to mid-June. (Like I need an excuse to smell unburned hydrocarbons). This is a great way, especially given some of the silliness that our way of life has dealt with in the last month, to show that we really are a large group, but more importantly, we are everybody. Loud pipes may save lives, but showing our numbers is just a great idea.
That is actually a great idea, it’s just too bad that I missed it.
I never really liked riding my bike to work on regular days though. Where I live it would seem as though no one has enough consideration to look away from their phones, coffees and other distractions to not run me over.