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Are Bikers like Cowboys?

craigatcsi

By craigatcsi
in Watering Hole

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craigatcsi

craigatcsi

Posted
Posted

While riding this past w/e thru the rolling hills of Western Iowa, admiring the Fall colors, I saw a couple of people riding horses thru their fields.

 

This got me wondering if bikers could've been Cowboys in a previous life.

 

From my own experience, I am in heaven when on my bike out in the countryside with no one else around. The wind, sunshine, even the rain makes me feel at home. Even though I am a 'city boy', I feel more natural out riding the countryside.

 

I know this is stretching things, but my mind wanders the whole time when I am out riding.

 

craigr

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hipshot

hipshot

Posted
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Absolutely, Horsepower is ...well horsepower. I dont really differentiate between the 2 modes of transportation, I could believe that I was a Cowboy in a past life....or a Caveman

:confused24:

 

 

Brad you couldn't have been a cowboy, in a previous life.

 

 

 

 

everyone knows you can't work cattle on a "CLYDESDALE"!

 

 

 

 

SORRY the devil made me do it!:stickpoke::stickpoke::backinmyday:

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Guest tessa c2

Guest tessa c2

Posted
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yah, it is kind of simular, i find it is to slow of traveling now a days, but i often, will say when i ride the bike into work in the morning, and it is crisp out,that the ride in was like riding a green broke colt, the cool, moist air just makes the bike perform a bit different, a bit snappyer than usual, these are the mornings when a grren broke horse will up and try piling you into the dirt, just because they are feeling good

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saddlebum

saddlebum

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been riding horses and bikes most of my life. the big difference is you don't have to clean up after the bike, and a whole lot less work. riding the trails is enjoyable, but i would rather be on a bike. a bikes a whole lot cheaper all the way around. :2133:

Unless u ride a harley

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mini-muffin

mini-muffin

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I aint sayin nothing either ...except:

as long as they didnt come down from brokeback mt.......cowboys are ok in my book.......:whistling::whistling:

:rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf: I'm glad I didn't post anything about that statement either, just get me in trouble. (Course I seem to be trouble a lot)

 

Margaret

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hipshot

hipshot

Posted
Posted
While riding this past w/e thru the rolling hills of Western Iowa, admiring the Fall colors, I saw a couple of people riding horses thru their fields.

 

This got me wondering if bikers could've been Cowboys in a previous life.

 

From my own experience, I am in heaven when on my bike out in the countryside with no one else around. The wind, sunshine, even the rain makes me feel at home. Even though I am a 'city boy', I feel more natural out riding the countryside.

 

I know this is stretching things, but my mind wanders the whole time when I am out riding.

 

craigr

 

 

Craig.

since no one has seriously answered your question, let me take a stab at it.

 

in my opinion there is NO similarity between the two.

on a bike , you pretty much ride WHEN you want to . go WHERE you want, only IF you want to.

 

cowboying, ain't that nice.

up before daylight, in the saddle at first light, ride 'till you a$$ is raw and so sore you can barely walk.come in , just in time to feed, eat supper, go to bed, then get up in the morning and do it all over again.

when you are done "working cattle", you fix fences, or build new ones, repair cattle pens, dig out the cattle guards by hand, "pull calves" for cows who are having trouble giving birth, etc.

then there are the colts to break and train, tack to repair, "bosses" to answer to, wives who CONSTANTLY belly-ache about NO MONEY!

 

 

the list goes on forever!

that is why i quit being a "working ranch foreman".

as for the quiet country rides, enjoying the scenery, etc, THAT AIN'T WHAT A COWBOY DOES.

lol

just jt:scorched::snow::bowdown::backinmyday:

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eagleeye

eagleeye

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Ya know, I was just about to say that riding a bike was exactly like being a cowboy. That is how I have always felt about riding, since I started riding, 45 years ago, then I read JT's post and was going to disagree 100%, but he's dead on.

 

Steve

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Smokee

Smokee

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We check on our mount the night before and make sure she's well shod, well fed and that the saddlebags are evenly loaded. Then, early in the morning we strap on our leather boots and chaps, a good warm jacket and our gloves, and most of us pull our hats down low and solid on our heads. Then we ease our mount out of her stall and let her warm up slow as we head for the trail...then it's off for a day of riding as free as the wind!

At the end of the day, we feed our hungry mounts, wipe 'em down and put them safely back in the stall. We kick back with our feet up and sip a cool adult beverage with our compadres while we talk about all places we went and the things we saw...and about our mounts and how each of them ran that day. Sometimes we do that under the stars with a nice fire burning or maybe in a cozy cabin with the fireplace lit. Then finally we drift off to sleep with those visions of today in our heads, mixing with anticipation of what tomorrow's ride will bring.

No, there's no similarities there...I must have been mistaken.

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craigatcsi

craigatcsi

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We check on our mount the night before......

 

No, there's no similarities there...I must have been mistaken.

 

THAT is what I am talking about!

 

NOT the working part. Some of us 'city boys' don't know and don't want to know about the hard part of being a cowboy. I only want to know the riding & being free part.

 

When I get a chance to be around a horse, I can stand there for hours, just petting or feeding grass to him. I have always been very envious of those that were either raised around &/or have them now. I have paid to go 'horse-back riding' 3 or 4 times in my life and LOVED it each time - even though you have to stick to a trail and can only walk the horse. If my health was better, I would like to do a 'Dude Ranch' of some kind for a week of just riding and being around horses.

 

craigr

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cowpuc

cowpuc

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Having raised 4 kids in the sticks of upper Michigan and having tasted the freedom of our great country with one of them at a time on the back of my scoot has always brought about thoughts simular to the starter of this threads thoughts..

Up before dawn, breakfast of fruit from the bag hanging on the antenna,, ride the prairie/mountain two tracks,, stop and pan gold for a few hours,, pull into a small western town about 1 hour east of Jackson Hole Wyoming.. Can feel the dirt on my neck cracking as I turn my head to answer the lady with the Cowboy hat on behind the counter.. Yes mam,, gallon a water - box of granola - bag of Jerky and just a minute,,,,, Wahooo (daughters bike name she earned by making it 4000 miles without complaining) - you want some gummy bears (her fav).. Sure Dad she says - I smile at her when she smiles at my question cause she is COVERED in prairie dust and her eyes look like racoon eyes where her goggles left em clean...

After we pay for our gas and groceries we meandor back out to the old 84 Royale that just cleared 135,000 miles on the ode.. Having learned longggg ago that you always saddle up from the right side, my daughter headed that way.. About that time a Cowboy riding a gorgeous Mustang all solid in dark brown color except for 3 white feet comes around the corner of the old building we just walked out of.. The old guy smiled at us, tied his reigns to a hitching post beside the building and walked over to Wahoo and I..

He asked where we were from. My daughter being only 12 was still shy and she kinda winced at me like we were in some kind of trouble.. I pulled my googles back off (dont always wear them but on this particular day it was REAL windy and prairier dust in the eyes aint much fun) and told him we were from Michigan.. He asked how long we had been out - 17 days I said.. He said it looks like you two Cowboys are having a blast.. I told him that he was right on target and I told him thanks for the compliment of calling us Cowboys.. He said that it has been MANY years since he had actually seen folks like us that still practiced the real art of Cowboying and that it did his heart good to meet us.. I asked exactly what that meant to him.. He said he could tell by looking at our bike and us that we didnt take to moteling and that the water jug hanging from the antenna and bag of apples under the jug told him we also probably lived off the land and only came back to civilization when necessary - I smiled and told him he was very observant.. He asked what I would do if we were miles back in the mountain and the bike died.. I laughed and said,, what would you do if you were miles back on your ranch and your horse died?? He said he would walk out.. I told him that I had always told the kids that if we did get into a broken bike to the point that I couldnt fix it that we would give the bike to some Indian kid and take a bus home - he laughed and said "you know what - just from the little bit I have talked to you I can tell you are serious - and I was... I also told him that he was correct about not being motelers either,,,, that there is just NOTHING like riding morning till dark and dropping the bag on the desert floor whereever you happen to be after riding 16 hours... He laughed and asked my daugher if she got bored sitting back there... She smiled and said "life with my dad has never been boring..

That all REALLY happened back in the early 90's.. Fast forward to last year...

My other daughter was home for the summer from Medical School (Manhatten/Cornell) and she chose to do a 3 weeker out to Sturgis and then Montana on the bike instead of flying to Europe.. It had been several days of hard prairie riding on two tracks, and we ran into a couple of Lakota Indian women at a Farm fueling station out in the middle of nowwhere.. They had a little boy with them about 6 years old that couldnt take his eyes off us.. I walked over to him, wiped some of the dirt off my face and smacked my pants so the dust flew off and you could see blue jeans again.. He was well trained and didnt answer me when I asked where he was from..

His mom smiled at me and told me they had a farm about 20 miles away that they raised miniture horses on.. She then says "so where you two cowboys from".. My daughter told her and the ensuiing discussion lasted over 2 hours.. In the end we got invited to thier farm for dinner and offered a barn to sleep in ANYTIME we wanted to stop!!!

I do agree with JT about the real Cowboy issue.. Years ago I did a 2 month journey up into Nova Scotia then down the coast,,, coming up out of Texas and across Nebraska shortcutting to Washington State to visit a family friend I did some real digging into finding the ol Chisom Trail... If you dig around a little you can still find monuments that have been placed that show the actual route that REAL Cowboys did their thing... If you do as I do and spend some time sleeping on the earth in those areas you will be SHOCKED at how difficult those guys had it.. The "trail" runs across our country on the east side of the Rockies - do you know what that means??? Muggy - so muggy at night you cant breath , sticky, bug laden, heat and then dont forget those cattle drives were HUGE so STINKY they did!! There is a spot on the red river that Cowboys used to push those grass eaters across and while the cows were crossing the cowboys used to walk across the river on the cows backs - NO SMALL UNDERTAKING for sure....

Anyway,,, even though real cowboying is gone forever I still lean more toward that philosophy way more then the whole "biker" ideal and always have,,, guess its just a flaw in my charector..

Cowpuc

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