Architect Stephen Teeple rides an Aprilia sports bike. He has 5 motorcycles.Dave LeBlanc/Globe and Mail
ghost riderWritten by Rush drummer Neil Peart in 2002, the song failed to capture the zeitgeist the way Steppenwolf did. born to be wild, written in 1968. Part’s “Story of a ‘Wandering Hermit’ Living in a Nameless Land” [motorcycle] A “quest” to find inspiration and meaning after the tragic loss of a daughter and wife feels too much compared to an anthemic singalong about a “true child of nature” who is “looking for adventure.” It’s too raw and too personal.
But motorcycles in the 21st century are very likely to be about tranquility, problem-solving, and the opposite of adventure, both personally and professionally. In his e-book, Meditation on a bike: Beyond carbon emissions to the pinnacle of enlightenmentAuthor John P. Metzger argues that “we live busy lives, so we need to meditate by moving our bodies,” and that the modern motorcyclist’s ability to concentrate “keeps us from cold and hunger.” He compares himself to a mountain-dwelling monk who never loses, or an “American Sun Dancer.” Those who have overcome “extreme and prolonged pain in the quest for vision.”
Something that gives me a headache. But as a writer stuck in my own head, I agree. When she turned 50 in 2018 and rediscovered motorcycle riding, I noticed a fundamental change from when she rode motorcycles in her 20s. External concerns about who was watching disappeared and were replaced by how the bike and I combined to bring my mind into my world. The state of Zen. As the exhaust roared, my worries melted away, and most of the awkward sentences I had been chewing became smooth on their own.
As we meet more and more bike-obsessed architects through our Globe Real Estate column, we’ve come together to discover an intelligent hermit who takes to two wheels to find peace and meaning. I found myself forming a small army of people.
“I think of architecture as a summation of episodic moments that lead into a larger realm of experience, and that’s exactly what riding a bike represents,” he said at his home in New Mexico in 2018. said Antoine Predock, an American architect and avid biker, when I visited him. ”Inside the building…you’re a pedestrian and you’re moving slowly, but you’re still experiencing this kind of kinesthetic, choreographed exposure to space. ”
Architect Antoine Predoc on his 1951 Vincent motorcycle.handout
Mr. Predock, who designed Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum for Human Rights and died on March 2, 2024 at the age of 87, took his motorcycle riding very seriously. He honed his skills at the racetrack, calling it a “sport, art and technical enterprise,” adding that he was “part of the landscape” while often coming up with architectural solutions.
“Once you get up to speed, it’s like a 400-pound gyroscope plummeting through space,” he said. I feel like I’m dancing. ”
Award-winning Ian McDonald, 70, got his motorcycle license at age 50 (he wanted a motorcycle at 16, but his father, a transport safety official, rejected the idea). exercised the right). Like Predock, McDonald was able to get his brain into a “neutral” state while riding his BMW R1100S Sport bike.
Architect Ian McDonald’s BMW site workJordan Chitley/Handout
“Your mind starts wandering to some amazing places,” says the Toronto architect. “I don’t have a cell phone. I turned down offers for earphones and speaker kits and GPS. …You’re in a kind of abstract space, and problems that you weren’t even consciously thinking about suddenly appear and suddenly you solve them.” A plan will emerge.”
Stephen Teeple, 69, who grew up in Woodstock, Ont., and bought his first motorcycle at the age of 15 from a member of the now-defunct biker gang Paradise Riders, is unsure of his mental state. (He has five): “A sports bike can go up to 315 kilometers per hour. It’s very light and very agile, so you just think about it,” he says. I say with a laugh. “On the other hand, Beazer [his BSA Thunderbolt 650cc], just cruising, concentrating on the landscape…concentrating on the dynamic flow within the landscape. He added that some of his best thinking comes when his dog Levi joins him in his Ural sidecar built in Kazakhstan.
Stephen Teeple’s BSA bike.handout
Sustainable design specialist Terrell Wong switched to an electric Zero DS after her BMW F650CS was crushed by a firetruck (the firetruck was spinning slowly and couldn’t see her). Because of this, she was able to “turn upside down like a cow” and watch her front wheel collapse), and because “architects are always thinking about the past to create the future”, the bicycle Riding, she says, is a time when she can “switch off her brain” and focus on being present and “staying upright.” ”
Motorcycles also helped the self-described “very blonde and very feminine” architect early in her career. Arriving at the construction site, the bike gives the macho workers “at least one question about her” after the initial shock wears off, and from there “about the technical aspects of what I’m doing on the construction site. She says she had a “conversation with him.” She’s Alive” follows. “I definitely know more about construction sites than people who don’t have a bike,” she jokes.
Terrell Wong and his Zero DS electric bike.handout
Interestingly, gender doesn’t seem to matter. When I ask Teeple if his new customers are surprised when his helmet comes off, he simply says, “All the time.” When I asked him if he knew why, he stopped, thought, and drew a blank.
“People look at you warily as you approach,” MacDonald says with a laugh. “When you flip up the visor, they look at you with relief and say, ‘Oh, it’s you.’ It’s funny.”
reason? Like it or not, an educated, thoughtful, creative person who designs and builds things, despite not being “naturally wild”, still carries a rebellion on the shoulders of every motorcyclist. is wearing a cloak. But motorcycles, like great architecture, are complex and amazing works of art and engineering.
MacDonald, who decided to buy his first bike while stuck in traffic in front of the now-closed McBride Cycle store in Toronto, says he thought the first time he saw the BMW. It’s so beautiful that you can just put it in your living room. ”
“They can have their own uniqueness, their own quality, but they are made up of a very minimal number of parts and components,” Teeple adds. “In some ways they are very simple, but they can still be fundamentally different from each other.”
Yes, it’s minimal parts, but when you add them up, not only is the sum even greater, but the motorcycle becomes the ultimate meditation machine for creative thinkers.
favorite road
Terrell Wong, Stone’s Throw Design
Valkenburgstrasse is really nice. …It’s near my villa. We walk many paths from our cottage to Port Carling. [Ont.]From Lake Bays to the fancier parts of Muskoka. You can’t go wrong.even if you take [Highway] Route 118 is just a simple road, but it starts going up and down and there are trees everywhere. 35 is great because it’s fast…you get an open view of the lake and trees. The good thing about my bike is that it’s a dual-sport bike, so I can ride it off-road as well. ”
Ian McDonald, IMA
“I only ride when I have to go somewhere,” he says with a laugh. But one day, when MacDonald was in his BMW showroom with about seven other men, he overheard one person ask another: “Where is your favorite road?”
“And all of a sudden you have a crowd. Everyone has a favorite road…and surprisingly, the consensus for their favorite road is South Bay Road from Highway 400 to the marina just north of Honey Harbor and And I know the road, and it’s just like a snake and windy as hell.”
Stephen Teeple, Teeple Architects
“I like Front Road between Port Dover and Port Rowan. [Ont.] or lakeshore [Road] From Port Dover to Port Burwell or beyond, until the land is almost level. I think the name of this ride is “Ontario’s Garden Ride” or something like that? ” [It’s actually “Ontario’s Garden Route” and can be found using Google.]
“Obviously, everyone loves Forks of the Credits.” [Road in Caledon, Ont.]But getting there is just a hassle and you have to deal with suburban traffic. ”
