It was 1987, during the summer. I had purchased my Honda 550-four two summers earlier but had never taken an extended road trip with it. The only place I had ever taken my bike was to and from my job and around the town because of time constraints and personal circumstances. But it was bright and early one Monday morning when my brother called on the phone to see if I would like to go on an extended road trip with him. How could I pass it up?
And just thirty minutes later there was a knock at my front door and my brother was there waiting for me. He was standing there with a brand-new pair of riding glasses shielding his eyes, leather gloves in his hands, and a wry smile plastered all over his face. When I asked about his glasses I discovered that they had cost quite a bit more than what I would have paid for them.
He told me that you had to pay for a good pair of riding glasses because it was a bad idea to ride with normal sunglasses; but because I thought I knew better, I decided not to take his advice.
Guess what? He was right.
Without any riding glasses, I found it to be a real eye opener as I travelled along the highway at 65mph. Or should I say, an “eye closer”. I found out very quickly that the wind came right over the rims and dried out my eyes something terrible. And even with the glasses right in front of my eyes, I was still getting hit with things like debris, bugs and even little pebbles.
After about fifty miles, I was desperately looking for somewhere to get off the interstate so I could invest in my own pair of riding glasses.
By the end of that day I was the proud owner of a new pair of riding glasses. And if I ever planned to ride faster than 55mph again, I made sure I had these glasses with me. When the time came for me to sell my bike, I made sure to pass my brother’s advice on to the buyer and recommended that he buy a pair of riding glasses. I hope that he took my advice and didn’t find out the hard way; the way that I did.
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