Mark Barnes - Great Ambassador for the RS

[Grumpy Goat]

Ever since Mark Barnes became a regular columnist in the BMW Owners News magazine, his beloved RS has gotten a lot of publicity and I am sure has elevated the model in the periphery of the typical BMW owner.

Long fed up of seeing only GS stuff or K-bike stuff, of airhead this or that, and nothing about the RS or even the S-bikes, it is so refreshing to not only see the odd picture of his bike in much nicer settings than I typically get around here, but his articles tell of his love affair with his bike that we as owners already know and understand. This is a screenshot of his article in the current issue:

   

[Lee]

Not sure if I've read any of his articles in the ON.
I'll check it out.

[Grumpy Goat]

Not sure if I've read any of his articles in the ON.
I'll check it out.

I find many of his articles not so easy to read with minimal effort. I usually read ON at bedtime when I don't want to exert my brain. I find I like Ron Davis's column best at that time, maybe followed by Jack Riepe ...

I know Ray is a big Mark Barnes fan ...

[Ray]

Not sure if I've read any of his articles in the ON.
I'll check it out.

I find many of his articles not so easy to read with minimal effort. I usually read ON at bedtime when I don't want to exert my brain. I find I like Ron Davis's column best at that time, maybe followed by Jack Riepe ...

I know Ray is a big Mark Barnes fan ...

...right....
Just the opposite of you, when I read one of Ron "Everyman" Davis's books (collection of columns), I stay up way too late to read more and more, until I finally get dressed (about the time Darrell gets up) and go for a ride. This in spite of Ron's dry and Wisconsin-bred, even-keeled style of writing. He gets it.

Like Ron, Jack really "gets it," and although his outrageous style seems to get away from him at times, I enjoy his gonzo literary wanderings that feel like a ride all by themselves. They too could keep me up at night (if not cause nightmares). (Now if only he could get himself in shape to give us another decade of amusement.)

I've never met or communicated with poor Mark Barnes, who, like Pirsig, doesn't "get it," but insists on taking us all along on his mental explorations and queries into why he rides. Some of it is fun (like his list of physiological benefits of riding), but many of his columns somehow degenerate into pseudoscientific psychobabble.

If I want to fall asleep quickly, I read one of Dr. Barnes' books.

A little surprised that he hasn't stumbled across this forum while searching for answers to mechanical questions or simply googling his own name. Of course with pseudonyms, he could be anyone of us....

[Grumpy Goat]

Ray I think you are absolutely correct on all of them.


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[TriangleRider]

Using addiction as a metaphor for riding a motorcycle seems a little tone-deaf in 2022.

[Ray]

Using addiction as a metaphor for riding a motorcycle seems a little tone-deaf in 2022.

The psychologists and touchy-feely folks love to think of behaviors they don't understand - like riding motorcycles - as an addiction. Mark Barnes loves to label motorcycling as "inherently dangerous," at least according to promotional releases for his book. Thus, his apparently unanswered question - "Why do we ride?"

They also like to label as addictive, behaviors over which they don't have the willpower to control. You've seen all the articles in the tabloids that point to our addiction to eating, salt, fat, sugar, sex, etc.

If after millions of years of evolution it feels good, and stimulates pleasure centers in our brain on functional MRI, then it is now labelled an addiction - for purposes of funding, legislation, or selling books.

Let's put the pleasure of pulling off a 1G turn with a little air under the front tire coming off the apex, right up there with most of that list..., but agreed, like everything else on the list, not something I can't go without - hardly an addiction.

(By clinical definition, an addiction is something we do, even though it causes harm. There's still time, but I haven't broken anything in the more than 50 years I've ridden motorcycles for fun and transportation and fun transportation.)

[Ray]

I find many of his articles not so easy to read with minimal effort. I usually read ON at bedtime when I don't want to exert my brain. I find I like Ron Davis's column best at that time, maybe followed by Jack Riepe ...

I know Ray is a big Mark Barnes fan ...

...right....
Just the opposite of you, when I read one of Ron "Everyman" Davis's books (collection of columns), I stay up way too late to read more and more, until I finally get dressed (about the time Darrell gets up) and go for a ride. This in spite of Ron's dry and Wisconsin-bred, even-keeled style of writing. He gets it.

Like Ron, Jack really "gets it," and although his outrageous style seems to get away from him at times, I enjoy his gonzo literary wanderings that feel like a ride all by themselves. They too could keep me up at night (if not cause nightmares). (Now if only he could get himself in shape to give us another decade of amusement.)

I've never met or communicated with poor Mark Barnes, who, like Pirsig, doesn't "get it," but insists on taking us all along on his mental explorations and queries into why he rides. Some of it is fun (like his list of physiological benefits of riding), but many of his columns somehow degenerate into pseudoscientific psychobabble....

"Oh, NOW I get it! - Mark Barnes ON - May 2022
So opened my Owners News today, turned to Mark Barnes column, and voila - a great review of the RS, creatively contained in the story of his journey to ownership and refinement of a used 2020.

And..."Now I get it - no wonder the Beemer crowd routinely traverses continents! I've enjoyed motorcycle travel in the past, but never felt much desire to ride continuously for days on end. I guess I never had the right bike for it....

Most of you have known this feeling for decades. I'm embarrassingly late to the party...."

But he's here.

Party on, Mark....