CLUELESS REBEL

under construction....

     Riding a Harley is like having a flying dream in a thunderstorm without the rain. It is a psychic experience more than just riding a motorcycle and yes there is a reason for that. The reason explains why most other bikes are not the same. Harley's though truly do recharge your soul and science can back this up.

     It was back in the early eighties that I had first figured this out. Back then I was riding a 51 panhead I had restored. I had done years of metaphysical studies due to being forced into out of body experiences a couple times. My third one happened later... Hit a deer at highway speeds while riding my Panhead. (pic below.) All these were severe accidents, in the first one I was left for dead by the paramedics. The second one I was half way to the gate when they smacked me upside the head and told me to quit whining and get back down here. The third one with my panhead I was down to my last 25 seconds according to a nurse I knew who worked at the hospital back then.

     When you go out of body it really jars your perception of reality. Knowing you are here and seeing your body over there is pretty strange. This is why most people, and there are a ton of them who have had these experiences, say the same thing. The weirdest part is you quickly realize dying is one of the most blissful things you will ever do in life. The best part is if you are lucky and get to come back to the miserable mess you created in your life you won't believe it. Your whole perception about your life suddenly becomes more delicious than you could have ever imagined. No matter how bad it is. This taught me that my life was more about my perception that actual reality.

     It is also why committing sewercide is such a regrettable choice. Because if you are even half assed competent and succeed you don't get to come back. At least into the same body which really sucks. One reason is the line-ups to get a body down here are long so when you do finally get one you definitely don't want to waste it!!! It would be like going to Disney land and then leaving at noon to beat the rush that will leaving at closing time!!! Your life might be a fucking mess but you can't tell me you are that stupid!!!

      Anyway there is some science behind this whole bullshit Harley spiel I have here. It all has to do with brain waves. Your brain like most peoples brains when it is in what is called the alpha state is firing off at about 14 to 20 cycles per second. The alpha state is where you get all your great ideas, insights along with feeling very calm and relaxed. It is where most great inventors and artists etc long to be because it makes you feel connected to something greater as in a source of inspiration. Strangely being in this state can do more for you soul and life satisfaction than a million shares in Apple ever could. Yet most fools are chasing the shares???

     Now what is really strange is that a Harley's engine doing 60mph is firing about 20 times a second. OK the math here might not be dead on for all you anal retentive types out there itching to bark hoping someone will finally listen to you but it at least gives you the idea. It is actually firing 40 times per second but they fire so close. First one fires and then 45 degrees later the other fires. Then it does the exhaust stroke... This is why saying potato... Potato... Potato... Pretty well sums up the noise they make when idling. So it is more like bang-bang........ Bang-bang....... Bang-bang.... Based on that it is like firing or cycling 20 times a second. Once again remembering this is home science here...

     So if you were freaking out to the point of killing someone your brain would be firing off at around 60 cycles per second if it could. If you then got on your Harley and got it up to 60mph you would start to notice a real calming effect. This is because your brain starts to harmonize with the 20 cycles per second that the engine is firing off at. In fact at one point I had a cassette tape that played music but in the back ground was a beeping sound that went off at twenty times per second. You could barely if at all hear the beeps. The tape was designed to calm you down because some guy hopped up on crack figured out that our brains tend to harmonize with their environment.

     This is something that women know about their periods "harmonizing" with their best friends periods. Nature is funny like that. If you hang around someone who drinks a lot pretty soon your drinking habits match his. Well it turns out a Harley is just a very expensive version of this tape that also makes your brain go into the alpha state.

     Of course on top of the audible part of it all your body also gets immersed in the vibrational part. Especially with the older bikes. The sissy tails and two wheeled cars Harley makes now are not quite the same thanks to vibration dampening but it is still there even then. At least to some degree. This adds to the audible experience in a huge way.

    Now the main reason for this is because Harleys have a lot of torque due to their long piston stroke. Because of the long stroke they don't have to rev as high to get the power that shorter stroke engines do. Most imported bikes rev hugely higher. This means their engines are firing off more than double that of Harley's. This is more in the frequency of a raging asshole about to kill bus load of handicapped orphans in front of him at the McDonalds drive through. After being exposed to the high revving frequency the riders brain starts to match with it.

     When I first figured this out it explained why every time I took a, now vintage, sport bike I used to have out for a putt it always turned into a life threatening race against time situation with the throttle wide open, the tach pinned on the redline and the speed controlled with the gears. OK it was definitely not a super bike but man did it rev. 

     Of course now it is even wilder. A four cylinder revving at 5000, half of it's ten thousand redline, is firing off at around 166 times a second. 

     Now if you have ever rode one of these high revving bikes for very long you will know what I mean. I have often heard riders of these tell me every time they decide to go out for a nice laid back ride they end up flooring it and going like a maniac. One guy told me it was like he just couldn't help himself. Which, even though he did not know it, was actually true. Once his brain started to match the cycles of the engines high revving then the throttle got opened up. Eventually he told me he had to sell his bike as he had a wife and kids to think about. I heard that story more than once.

     You see high revving sport bikes can't attain that same vibrational space that Harley's do. This is simply because with their shorter stroke they need the high revs to access their power band. More like five to ten thousand rpm. At this rate the brain starts to match the engine and like I said above starts to wind the person up into a fit of aggressive anger. This partly explains why it is often so hard to go "cruising" on a sports bike. Yet with a Harley it is a piece of cake.

     When it comes to sport bikes though the high revs do turn out to be an advantage. You see the high "cycles" of sport bikes tend to put your brain into the gamma wave region. Gamma waves are where you are processing hard logical stuff like learning a new language or deciding based on speed, traction etc if they can make the corner. This could explain why even more sport bike riders don't kill themselves. Their brains are in hyper think mode. Course it appears from my research that sport bike riders are the most likely to die of any motorcycle type. Especially the 1000cc or under class. Part of that could be the "big truck little..." well you know what I mean syndrome. Except using speed as the way to make up for other... uh... Shortcomings.

     Now even though these days hyper-think seems to be trendy it is a known fact that true genius comes from inspiration which happens when the brain is in a quieter place outside of constantly thinking. Which is the Alpha state. The greatest inventors of mankind pretty well all knew this and often strived to get there often.  

     Of course I am not saying there is anything wrong with riding like a maniac at least on left hand turns. (in Canada left hand turns put you in the outside lane. If you overshoot your abilities they you head off into the ditch taking out road signs and power poles or doing some air time down into the canyon..., and not into the people using the other lane.) If you got no wife or kids even better. After all pushing the boundaries is a ton of fun. Especially if you have read my post on Daredevils and why they are so afraid of life and have dealt with those issues.

OM.... OM on the road.....

     Now there is another cool thing about Harley's that makes them similar to a group of meditators "omming" If you make omming sounds before going into a meditation it feels good and does calm you down. When you get in a group and "omm" it is incredible. Your omming gets lost in the crowds and it all starts to reverberate together. This is an incredibly delicious experience. The same happens when you get a few Harley's riding together. When you are all doing seventy miles an hour, riding close the sound starts to reverberate off of each other creating this really incredible experience. Especially for the guy at the end of the line!

     Now a lot of times Harley riders with really loud pipes are just looking for this experience. You see the sound is so delicious that you start wanting to hear it all the time. At seventy miles per hour most of the sound is going back so you don't hear it as much. Thus the louder your pipes the more you get to hear it yourself. If you are on a highway with very high curbs you tend to want to ride close to the curb so the sound will have something to bounce back off of so you can hear it better. Tunnels are also delicious. This is the one and only perk to riding the tedious Cocohalla highway here in BC as it has high cement curbs.

     Now I admit some Harley owners are just like yappy little dogs that have "look at me" syndrome. Unfortunately they think everyone is looking at them when they ride by because they are envious or scared. The truth is people only look out of automatic brain impulse. Our brains are designed to look out for us and will often start moving our heads before we even notice the sound consciously. This is why they will spin our heads around just as fast when a rusted out junkie's Chevy with no muffler drives by. It is all automatic impulse that has nothing to do with envy, fear or being impressed.  

     Most Harley riders though are just seeking that harmonizing sound that Harley's give off whether they consciously know it or not. The truth is they are not intentionally out to irritate you like a lot of people think. At least not the "yappy little dog" ones anyway. The more miserable someone's life is the more they crave that "connection to God" sound. Thus if they have a Harley the louder their pipes often are.  

     Now are some people out there who will buy a Harley and quickly sell it without knowing why. OK... some just because they find out that bikes are too scary for them. The "cool factor" is just not worth being that scared. They would do the same with any brand of motorbike.

     Others though it's because when you go into alpha for any length of time you start to get strange ideas. Realizations that you never thought about before. Sometimes scary shit like I hate my job, my boss is an asshole and I know dam well my wife is cheating. Or maybe even worse like. I want to quit my creative day job and pursue my dream of becoming a corporate lawyer. They know dam well their bank, wife and 2 point 5 kids would not like that one iota. Thus they consciously or unconsciously realize it is the bike that is causing those thoughts and decide to sell it. After all it is the only way to get the realizations to stop and get back to the "normal" thoughts they had before they bought the bike.

     Now all this is of course is fine as someone has to handle the responsible desk work required to keep all those Harley's and other things we need in life running. We all can't be riding around on our Harley's daydreaming in alpha.  

     Anyway now you know why Harley's have a mystical aura about them and why most of their riders often want loud pipes. They are not trying to annoy you while you are all tucked into your "safe space" they are trying to connect with God, the universe or whatever the hell it is that's responsible for this show down here.