“So you ride a motorbike then?”

I've had countless conversations over the years that have started in this way. The question is often followed by “But aren’t motorbikes dangerous?” - at which point I often feel like head-butting the nearest wall. Do you ever get the feeling that non-bikers simply don't "get" us?

Most of the time these are the lazy questions you get in chit-chat at parties or other social situations. My response is mixed. Usually, I’ll try to gauge their level of interest, consider my mood, and then determine whether I want to have the conversation at all. Very often I'll bat a few easy answers back on the assumption that they're really not that interested - though sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised that the conversation is taken further and there is genuine interest aside from branding us a menace or some kind of social outcast incapable of uttering anything other than "Uggg". I'm exaggerating of course but it seems to me that a real difficulty does exist here - it’s really not easy to describe to non-riders why us bikers do what we do.

So why do we do it? I could come out with all the usual cliches about the sense of freedom, the closeness to nature, exposure to the elements - the sense of being IN the world, rather than just passing through it inside a metal cage. And you know what, it's all true. I was able to buy and ride a bike much sooner than I could have ever afforded a car but that doesn't detract from the fact that I ride primarily for the sheer enjoyment of it - always have done and always will. Very few will understand the therapeutic benefit of just heading off into the distance with nowhere to be other than the right here, right now.

Naturally, I accept that it comes with its downsides - I could be killed tomorrow by a school run mum in a people carrier who is yelling at her kids, talking on the phone, applying make-up, while trying not to spill her coffee. But that's part of the deal - and, if I'm honest, part of the attraction. Bikers who have been riding for years inherently know they had better be more aware of what’s going on around them than anyone else they are sharing the road with. It's part of the challenge.

People who point to the danger of motorbikes know nothing about them or the attraction of riding. Why does an F1 driver or aerial stunt pilot do what he does? Because he loves it. He doesn’t need some risk-averse snail telling him it’s dangerous, he already knows that. The good news is that the risk element will very likely keep the ranks of bikers at reasonable levels.

My favourite riding season is late-autumn, when you start to see less bikes around. You get the sense that when you give a nod or wave to someone riding in the off-season, that they’ve been riding a while, and this isn’t just a weekend hobby for them. So, although I welcome with open arms anyone who wishes to join the biking clan, I’m not one to actively encourage anyone to do so. People need to find their own way and their own motivation.

The truth is, motorbikes are not for everyone. And I like it that way.