The horse has received half his setback into the ranks of the obsolete at the hands of the motorcycle. The first cost of a good horse exceeds that of a motorcycle, and its maintenance is decidedly higher. The horse must be fed and cared for. Give the motorcycle a bit of gasoline and a mite of oil and it is at your service for a mile or a hundred miles. The horse is slow, the motorcycle is swift. The horse has a mind of his own - you are the motorcycles. The horse must be shielded - it is subject to exhaustion and you feel for it, and half the pleasure of your drive is spoiled through consideration for the brute which pulls you. Not so with the motorcycle. It has no nerves, it never falters, it is as willing at the days end as it was in the early hours of the morning. The horse stops on the bad hills - the motorcycle eats them alive.
Gasoline is Cupids best friend, and the motorcycle is the little Gods choice of gasoline gigs.
The twentieth century has heard the call of the motorcycle and answered it. Even the automobile has been forced to admit that it has a real peer in its agile little contemporary.
Here is a little schedule for you - not that it is the best. It is simply given to suggest to you what can be done with a motorcycle.
Up at six thirty.
A five mile spin in the country before breakfast.
Back in twenty minutes, allowing time for dressing, etc. You have two big healthy lungs under your shirt, both full of ozone; color in your cheeks that wasnt there yesterday, red blood in your veins, and an appetite like a horse.
Seven thirty - you are off for work with fight in your eyes - ready to meet the old world on his homeground and make him say Uncle. You feel fresh and clean - for there are motorcycles as clean as enclosed coupes.
Eight oclock - you are on the job like a glutton. Let them bring on their perplexities, their trying moments. You are equal to anything, you have absorbed enough horse power to talk you over any hill that the boss can take in his big limousine. All day long you go ahead cutting and slashing.
At five oclock you have a hundred percent day on you back track with a song in your heart. That is satisfaction. The other fellow wonders what has gotten into you. Let him wonder.
Home to dinner, on your motorcycle, then an hour or two in the wide open, and then to bed where you will sleep like a six month old child.
The next day you repeat the dose - put another dent in old Nemesis.
Now multiply this one hundred percent work day of yours by six, just to get an idea of what you can do for yourself in a week, after you have taken to the motorcycle.
Multiply this day by twenty-eight. Figure out where you will stand at the end of the month, and then multiply it by twelve. This gives you a line on your first big motorcycle year. It means success - a roll top and push buttons, if you care for those things.
The other fellow has been lost in your dust.
For the sake of your health, your chances, your balance at the bank, your tomorrow - get a motorcycle. A motorcycle will take you up on Easy Street.
*Excerpts from You and the Motorcycle; Excelsior-Henderson circa 1914