From Range to Road

Internal combustion – the ultimate accessory.

— To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar

Welcome to my little corner of the interweb. My name is Karan Andrea. I live in Western New York, and I started riding motorcycles in 2011. I was 45 years old, and I had never been around bikes all that much. Never rode dirt bikes. Never had a parent or relative who rode.

When I was 19-20 years old, I dated a guy for a minute who had a Yamaha Virago, and I rode with him a few times. I loved it, but once we broke up, I wasn’t on a bike again for 25 years.

At that point, I had a friend who had a bike, and was going through a rough patch in life. The only solace he had was riding, but he had a hard time getting himself to leave the house to go for a ride. I started asking him to take me for rides. I’d cover the gas, and we’d ride for hours.

After a while, he said, “You know, if you like riding that much, why don’t you go get your license, and get your own bike. That way, you don’t have to date some a$$hole in order to get to ride.” My answer was, “I can do that?” It never occurred to me that I could actually learn to ride a motorcycle. I had no idea how one learned to ride. I didn’t know any women who rode, although that wasn’t a huge factor because I’ve always done things that were non-traditional for a woman.

He told me about this class you could take, and I went for it. I was a nervous wreck. I have NO idea how I actually passed the riding evaluation, but there I was. An endorsed rider with no friggin clue how to actually ride. This is not a shortcoming of the class at all. The riding class teaches you how to operate a motorcycle, and teaches you the basics of safety.

The only way to learn to ride a motorcycle, is to RIDE a motorcycle. Karan, meet anxiety, anxiety, Karan. The next three years were a struggle. I bought the wrong bike, was getting (no) help from the wrong person, and I just never felt comfortable riding. But I wanted to ride SO BAD I refused to give up.

My stubborn streak is a mile wide, and in this case, it served me well. Just five years after I got rid of the wrong bike, I’m a certified Motorcycle Safety Instructor, and I’ve fallen in love with vintage bikes, and long-distance riding.

My journey has been a difficult one, and if I’d had better resources sooner, I certainly would not have struggled like I did. Every day, I see new riders post questions, state their fears, describe their temporary setbacks, and share their little (and sometimes big) victories. This gave me the idea to write a blog, and let my struggles become the textbook, if you will for riders who survived the motorcycle range and got their endorsement, and are now trying to learn how to ride.

Welcome.