You work to afford to ride, now ride to work

You work hard for the money to buy your motor, pay the insurance, keep it up, fix it up, soup it up. Now damn it, ride to work to let everyone know why you're there.

The annual Work to Ride, Ride to Work day -- June 21 this year -- is nigh to upon us and every SOB is encouraged to take advantage of the publicity by taking the motor to the office.

Hey, there's take your daughter to work day, take your son to work day and even take your dog to work day, why not your bike?

The day was started years ago by Andy Goldfine, creator of Combat Touring and Aerostitch Roadcrafter suits and the line of high quality motorcycle gear. It's now a nonprofit organization aimed at increasing awareness of riders by increasing riders showing up at the office.

"Motorcycle riders are a minority. Commuting and transportation riders are a minority within a minority," he said in a recent editorial in The Daily Rider. "Motorcycles will someday be more widely recognized as good solutions to many social, urban and environmental problems."

Maybe so, but I bet they'll be recognized as fun first.

"Everyday motorcycling and commuting has an enormous unrealized cultural potential," he said. "We want to carry these ideas forward and teach them to as many road users as we can.  I start by choosing to riding to work."

Jeffersonian SOBs, of course, are lucky. We hav several options of parking for free downtown, including at the Market Street garage, on the Water Street parking lot and two separate on-street sites just off the downtown mall where spots have been reserved for PTWVs, powered two-wheel vehicles. The parking folk get it and so do some former and current officials, including Mayor Dave Norris who once rode a Piaggio scooter, until it was stolen and wrecked.

Our coworkers, however, may not get. The idea of riding on June 21 is to let them know they know someone who rides. Perhaps they'll look harder when driving to make sure they're not taking down a friend. Perhaps, they'll get interested in bikes and, like the true evangelistic riders we are, we can convert them and save their vehicular souls.

It's worth a try. It's definitely worth the ride.

T