Thank you to David Strong, who asked me in an email:

You haven’t really mentioned your relationship with the hack recently in your Blog i.e how you feel when you hop onto it, warm it up etc?

I’ll do my best to answer that, David.

Certain things, people and activities in life just feel right. You have yours; I have mine: The touch of Jodie’s hand. Whipping up a batch of food (or a batch of homebrew). Writing and working on websites. Even a little DIY around the house. Commuting to work on a bicycle. Living in Oregon.

And riding my Ural.

See, the motorcycle bug bit me hard back in 2005. I got it from my dad; after not having a motorcycle while my brother and I were growing up, Dad got back into motorcycling while I was in college. It didn’t hit me. ave for a fun day trip in 2004 on a Honda Crystal 125cc in Thailand, I had no interest in motorcycles.

Until one day, I did.

I held out for the right bike. Originally I’d planned to get a Honda Rebel 250cc. I blogged about it extensively over on Antsaint.I took a basic riding course and got my motorcycle endorsement. I did a lot of research towards getting Rebel, right down to listing out all the Oregon dealerships I was going to hit up for pricing.

I wound up getting a house instead. (What can I say? I needed a garage.)

When I decided to get the Patrol, I felt it was right. But when I got the Ural in February 2008 — saw it for the first time, sat on it for the first time — I knew it was right. Knew inside and out, balls to bone to brain. That motorcycle was made for me.

That feeling has not changed.

When I throw a leg over and sit down at the controls of my Patrol, I am not just sitting down on a motorcycle. I’m just stepping into another part of me, an extension of me. Weapon martial artists talk about how the key to working with a weapon is to let the weapon just be an extension of your hand, of your body, and I believe motorcycling, and motorcycling on the right motorcycle for you, is the same thing.

When I get on my Ural, it is part of me. It is an extension of me, brains and heart to engine and gears.

We’re part of one another, and I’m exactly right where I should be.

That is what it’s like whenever I get on my Ural.