111 Best Motorcycle Quotes

The thrill of being a motorcycle rider is one of a kind. Starting from your first motorcycle, riding is an experience that is unforgettable and filled with great memories. No wonder millions of people have so many things to say about it.

What is it that inspires you to ride? Here are 111 of the best motorcycle quotes from other thrill seekers for inspiration as you take a good long ride today.

Some of the most popular quotes

1. “Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting.”- Steve McQueen
2. “That’s all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel.” — Robert M. Pirsig
3. “To be a great motorbike racer, the most important thing is passion for the bike.” — Valentino Rossi
4. “On my tombstone, they will carve, “It never got fast enough for me.” — Hunter S. Thompson
5. “There are two types of people in this world, people who ride motorcycles and people who wish they could ride motorcycles.” — Anonymous
6. “Driving a motorcycle is like flying. All your senses are alive.” —- Hugh Laurie
7. “People are like Motorcycles: each is customized a bit differently.” —- Anonymous
8. “Life is like a bike ride sometimes it is high speed on the highways and sometimes low speed on rural roads full of potholes and any way you have to complete it.” — Anonymous
9. “If you have a problem you can’t stop thinking about, take a long motorcycle ride.” — Anonymous
10. “People change, things go wrong, shit happens, but the rider goes on.” — Unknown 
11. “‘I don’t really feel like going for a ride today’ – said no motorcycle rider ever.” — Anonymous 
12. “No hour of life is wasted when it’s spent on two wheels. ” — Anonymous
13. “Young riders pick a destination and go. Old riders pick a direction and go” — Anonymous
14. “If you don’t ride in the rain, you don’t ride.” — Anonymous
15. “The only good view of a thunderstorm is in your rearview mirror.” — Anonymous
16. “Some call it adventure; we call it life” — Anonymous
17. “If you want to be happy for a day; drink. If you want to be happy for a year; marry. But if you want to be happy for a lifetime; ride a motorcycle.” — Anonymous
18. “Sometimes it takes a whole tankful of fuel before you can think straight.” — Anonymous
19. “Why are motorcycle dealers closed on Sundays? Because Sunday is for worship… Catholics go to church, motorcyclists go to the track.” — Justin Skalka
20. “All girls like guys who are tough. Obviously, riding a motorcycle – I don’t want to say that there’s a bad boy quality – but there’s definitely a tough and macho thing about a guy who rides a motorcycle and that element of danger. That’s really sexy.” — Marisa Miller
21. “You might be a biker if you recognize your friends by the sound of their pipes.” — Anonymous
22. “Keep your bike in good repair: motorcycle boots are not comfortable for walking.” — Anonymous
23. “In a biker’s world, there are no strangers, only friends we have not met…” — Anonymous
24. “It’s not a gang. It’s a loose association of rugged outdoorsmen.” — Anonymous
25. “The perfect man? A poet on a motorcycle.” — Lucinda Williams
26. “Sometimes the best communication happens when you’re on separate bikes.” — Unknown 

Short motorcycle quotes

27. “If the bike isn’t braking properly, you don’t start by rebuilding the engine.” — Unknown
28. “A bike on the road is worth two in the shed!” — Anonymous
29. “You don’t need an antidepressant; you just need a Harley Davidson bike.” — Anonymous
30. “Bikes don’t leak oil, they mark their territory.” — Anonymous
31. “Never ride faster than your guardian angel can fly.” — Mother Teresa
32. “A motorcycle is an independent thing.” — Ryan Hurst
33. “Everything looks better from the inside of a motorcycle helmet.” — Anonymous
34. “You’re never lost on a motorcycle.” — Anonymous
35. “A zest for living must include a willingness to die.” — Robert A. Heinlein
36. “Anything that gets your blood racing is probably worth doing.” —- Hunter S. Thompson
37. “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.” — Anonymous
38.  “Any good rider knows, it’s always ride-a-clock somewhere.” — Anonymous
39. “It’s not about the kind of motorcycle you ride but how you ride it.” — Anonymous
40. “I was born in a middle-class family but My Enfield made me royal.” — Anonymous
41. “The Freedom Avatar is a biker.” ― Foster Kinn
42. “Doesn’t matter what you ride, give respect to get respect” — Anonymous
43. “We all like motorcycles to some degree.” — Bob Dylan

Motorcycle quotes about travel

44. “If I’m out trailriding, I have a favorite motorcycle. Riding on the road, I’ve got a favorite. If I’m jumping, I have a favorite, and if I’m racing, I have a favorite.” — Evel Knievel
45. “From the point of ignition. To the final drive. The point of the journey is not to arrive.” — Neil Peart
46. “But it was nothing, a paper seal slipped in assembly, easily put right. You could stop the oil if you took the trouble. That was what British bikes liked, a bit of trouble. They thrived on attention, like certain people, and repaid you for it. Not a bad relationship to have.” — Ted Simon, Jupiters Travels: Four Years Around the World on a Triumph
47. “I now know, by an almost fatalistic conformity with the facts, that my destiny is to travel…” ― Ernesto Guevara, The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey
48. “You’re never lost on a motorcycle.” — Anonymous
49. “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” — Anonymous

Funny motorcycle quotes

50. “Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.” ― Anonymous
51. “If you don’t follow your dreams, you might as well be a vegetable.” — Burt Munro, The World’s Fastest Indian
52. “My bike is my gym, my wheelchair and my church all in one. I’d like to ride my bike all day long but I’ve got this thing called a job that keeps getting in the way.” — Bill Walton
53. “My mother went into the Peace Corps when she was 68t. My one sister is a motorcycle freak, my other sister is a Holy Roller evangelist and my brother is running for President. I’m the only sane one in the family.” — Billy Carter
54. “Most motorcycle problems are caused by the nut that connects the handlebars to the saddle.” — Anonymous 
55. “When I take off my helmet after a long motorcycle ride, I look my best. I’m glowing and have a little helmet hair.” ― Eric Bana
56. “It’s like a first date without the awkward silence.” ― Harley Davidson Ad
57. “If you’re going to repair a motorcycle, an adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you haven’t got that you might as well gather up all the other tools and put them away, because they won’t do you any good. Gumption is the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going.” — Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
58. “Do you know what the sexiest thing in the world is? A grandma on a Harley.” — Anonymous
59. “The motorcycle is a device created by the team of God and Darwin to rid the world of useless young males.” — P. J. O’Rourke
60. “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy you a bike.” — Anonymous
61. “Forget the glass slippers. This princess wears motorcycle boots.” — Anonymous

Motorcycle quotes by famous riders

62. “You do not need a therapist if you own a motorcycle, any kind of motorcycle!” – Dan Aykroyd
63. “You live more in five minutes on a bike like this going flat out than some people live in a lifetime.” — Burt Munro
64. “A woman who rides a motorcycle is in tune with the universe, a candidate for high adventure.” Celestine Sibley
65. “The older I get, the faster I was. There are old bikers and there are bold bikers, but there are no old, bold bikers.” – Evel Knievel
66. “Find your speed, maintain your velocity, keep it up, keep it consistent, and stay in the pocket.” — Sonny Barger
67. “Try to remember the reason you started riding a motorcycle in the first place. For me, it was a couple of things but mostly rebellion.” — Sonny Barger
68. “Racing is the only time I feel whole.” — James Dean
69. “A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.” — Robert M. Pirsig
70. “The first thing I ever rode when I was a kid was a motorcycle, so I knew how to drive a motorcycle before a car.” — John Travolta
71. “Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba.” — Hunter S. Thompson
72. “Racing motorcycles is just a way of life for me. It’s what I know, it’s what I’ve always done, my family does it, my friends do it, and it really is more than just a job. It’s a passion. Bikes are a way of life for me.” — Nicky Hayden
73. ““I think it’s very true. It’s like dancing. You have to work together, dance together, and if you’re fighting the bike constantly and going against it, you’re not going to go fast. When you’re really going fast, you’re moving with the bike and it’s all one motion” — Nicky Hayden
74. “People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it’s safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.” — Alexei Sayle
75. “One of the things that make motorcycling so great is because it never fails to give you a feeling of freedom and adventure.” — Steve McQueen
76. “Every time you get on a motorcycle, you feel grateful. You just feel grateful that you’ve got the ability to get on a motorcycle and to go be free, and I think with a lot of that gratefulness, comes the thought of: ‘You know, I should be doing something about this. Let’s help.’ I just think it’s a byproduct, of how the bike makes you feel.” — Gordon McCall, Why We Ride 
77. “If you have a sense of destiny, don’t let anything stop you from making it a reality.” —Dave Barr, Why We Ride 
78. “I didn’t understand the thrill of speed until I went to college and got my first motorcycle.” ― Vin Diesel
79. “The motorcycle adds great value toward our quest for individual experience. It offers a means of recreation and self-expression that is unlike any other. The motorcyclist can experience travel without the confinement of an automobile, being able to smell the fragrances nature surrounds us with, and feel the subtle temperature changes we never noticed before when cocooned in a car. ” ― Armand Ensanian, Discovering the Motorcycle: The History. The Culture. The Machines.
80. “The center-point of riding a motorcycle, and of life itself, is Freedom.” ― Foster Kinn, Freedom’s Rush II: More Tales from the Biker and the Beast
81. “My first car was a motorcycle.” ― Adam Carolla
82. “Riding a motorcycle is a tribute, a tip of the helmet as it were, to our rugged ancestors who challenge us through the dust of centuries, proof that we have succumbed to the safety nets of civilization.” ― Foster Kinn
83. “On a motorcycle, you can’t really think about more than where you are. There’s a freedom that comes with that – from stress, worry, sweating the small stuff.” ― Laurence Fishburne
84. “Peter Fonda is the reason I became a motorcyclist. I saw Easy Rider and I bought a motorcycle the next day, and I rode it all the way from LA to San Francisco.” — Nicolas Cage
85. “Women, in order to recharge their batteries, gather in groups. They can recharge their batteries with their sisters. I tend to recharge my batteries in solitude, therefore the motorcycle trips. I need to be alone. As a matter of fact, I have to be careful. I could turn into a hermit.” — William H. Macy
86. “I know it sounds strange – a blind teenager buzzin’ round on a motorcycle – but I liked that; that was me. I had always been nervy, and I always had a lot of faith in my ability not to break my neck.” — Ray Charles
87. “If I weren’t doing what I’m doing today… I’d be traveling around the world on the back of a motorcycle.” — Donna Karan

Inspirational quotes 

88. “Animals travel on all fours. Mankind on two. Motorcycling is not a means of transport but an ideology, a nomadic way of life.” ― Amit Reddy
89. “Every time I start thinkin’ the world is all bad, then I start seeing some people out having a good time on motorcycles and it makes me take another look.” — Steve McQueen, On Any Sunday.
90. “Riding is an art as well as a craft and no amount of explanation can take the place of experience.” ― Theresa Wallach, Easy Motorcycle Riding
91. “It’s your road, others can ride it with you, but no one can ride it for you.” — Anonymous
92. “Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass: it’s about learning how to ride in the rain!” — Unknown
93. “Saddlebags can never hold everything you want, but they CAN hold everything you need” – Anonymous
94. “Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul.” — Anonymous
95. “A motorcycle is more than a means of transport, it’s a way of life.” — Anonymous
96. “We only regret the rides we didn’t take.” — Anonymous
97. “Stop trying to fit in when you were born to stand out.” — Anonymous
98. “The road listens. It believes in you.” ― Foster Kinn
99. “The boat is safer near the shore but that’s not its purpose. The same goes for a motorcycle.” — Anonymous 
100. “Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.” — Haruki Murakami
101. “A certain amount of danger is essential to the quality of life.” — Charles Lindbergh
102. “When a great adventure is offered, you don’t refuse it.” — Amelia Earhart
103. “I don’t believe in taking unnecessary risks, but a life without risk isn’t worth living.” — Charles Lindbergh
104. “It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” — Ursula K. Le Guin

Safety and motorcycle riding quotes

105. Anybody can jump a motorcycle. The trouble begins when you try to land it. — Evel Knievel 
106. “The street is no place to race.” — Mick Doohan
107. “Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived.” — Anonymous
108. “Thin leather looks good in the bar, but it won’t save your butt from “road rash” if you go down.” — Anonymous
109. “If you can still hear your fears, drop a gear” — Anonymous
110. “Motorcycling is not, of itself, dangerous. It’s however, extremely unforgiving of inattention, ignorance, incompetence, or stupidity.” — Anonymous
111. “What do you call a biker who doesn’t wear a helmet? An organ donor.” — David Perry 

Conclusion

As a rider, I find great inspiration in the feeling of community and camaraderie that is in the biker community. And these quotes remind me that I am in good company. So, I hope they resonate with you too.