Motorcycle Theology, Part 1

I have recently been thinking about getting my motorcycle license and buying a bike. There are numerous pros and cons for going through with this as well as jumping ship. I would like to address what I feel are the larger issues.
Foremost, I want to discuss why I would like to buy a motorcycle in the first place.

• Ease of parking: It just seems almost to practical for someone living in a city. State College, and many other towns (and more so cities), reserve a considerable amount of parking spaces for motorcycles. Take a look around at all of the empty spaces around, specifically in the prime parking locations downtown and on campus. Also notice that most of them are free.
• Low cost of ownership: Compared to the cost of a car (2008 Honda Fit = $16,700) to a decent bike (2005 Yamaha R6 = $3500, on the higher end, for example). Also compare the cost of insurance of a car (Fit = $900/year) to a motorcycle (most of the guys I know pay between $150 and $300/year, depending on if they have a car on the same insurance policy or not).
• Additionally, a 400lb motorcycle is going to get one heck of a lot better fuel efficiency. Additionally, they are significantly cheaper and easier to work on than a car.
• Fun to ride: I would be lying if I didn’t mention that it would be a TON of fun to ride. I love riding my bicycle. But sometimes it would really be nice to not have to pedal so much.

Why now? Pennsylvania has a great program for teaching inexperienced bikers how to ride. For no cost to the biker, the state provides a 250 bike for use in a 4 day safety class. This license is transferable to other states, some of which charge for the license. Being that there is a 95% chance of me moving our of the state in the next few months, now sounds like a perfect time.

The downside to motorcycle ownership is most obviously a compromise in safety. This is the issue that I want to address in this blog. Being that I’m out of time (I have to go to class), I’ll look at the theological implications of doing something that we know is “unsafe” in part 2.