I rode a motorcycle for the first time at 18, and for many years it was my main form of transportation.

In San Francisco a car is nothing but an expensive hassle. There's nowhere to park, traffic sucks, and you get ticketed almost every day if you don't have a garage to stash your car in. But a motorcycle is freedom, mobility and FUN!

In San Francisco I split traffic like you see these fools doing, but I couldn't blaze through stoplights like they do. I did wedge through tiny little cracks between cars though. My side mirrors sometimes scraped the sides of buses. But i knew just how wide I was, and what I could get away with. Some of the shots in the video above made my palms sweat...those traffic slots are soooo narrow!

I stopped riding five years ago, after a minor accident on the way home from work. A car pulled out of nowhere on a blind curve, right in front of me. I jammed on my brakes and went down on my right side, whacking my shoulder. I rode home all full of adrenaline and freaking out, and when I saw Dan I burst into tears, got hysterical, and that was the end of an era.

We were leaving on a trip to Italy just a few days later and I couldn't even lift my suitcase. My shoulder hurt for a long time. I realized that I wasn't 18 anymore, and I was driving a vehicle where the mere act of trying to stop quickly could cause me to wipe out and get hurt.

Plus, there's really no joy, no advantage in riding here in suburbia. There's plenty of parking, and I can use the carpool lane with my hybrid car, or simply by virtue of always traveling with one or more children.

But when I'm in San Francisco I get frustrated with being trapped in a car. I get all itchy to ride a motorcycle again. It's just so darned much FUN. Crazy maybe, but a blast. Nothing beats doing jumps off the Jones St. Hill!