Buying a Handbag is Not Like Buying a Motorcycle

I like to examine my motivations in buying a motorcycle, which goes a long way toward explaining the type of motorcycles I buy, but also how many and how often I buy them. I need to know this, because buying motorcycles could easily become an obsession for me. I have spoken to people who said they owned more than 50 motorcycles. If they were lying, their stories held up well under cross examination.

I think of it this way. Do I buy a motorcycle because I need one, or want one?

Let me break it down further. Do I buy a motorcycle for the same reasons a woman would buy a handbag? These reasons, as I understand it are:

- because putting stuff in pockets makes her look fat
- because it goes with her (current) outfit
- because it is the latest thing
- because everybody wants one
- because it is made by the most popular French fashion designer
- because it will make her the envy of all her friends
- because owning one will make her the centre of attention every time she enters a room
- because people will notice her with it on the street.


Or do buy a motorcycle for all the reasons a woman never buys a handbag, which again, to the best of my knowledge are

- because it holds the stuff she wants to carry with her
- because the bottom fell out of the last bag or the hand strap broke.
- or, because the last one was stolen

So one of these sets of reasons would be practical, and the other set is wishful thinking. The wishful thinking reasons are promoted in all advertising, whose main goal is to part me with my money. If this is why I am buying a motorcycle, no price is too high, and I must have a new one at least every year.

But because I think of myself as a practical person, not easily duped, I try to think before I buy (usually). I think about whether I need this motorcycle or not. And by thinking this way, I usually manage to avoid having more than six motorcycles in my garage at any one time.


Picture: One more reason to buy a handbag, to wear it on your head. From the Isaac Mizrahi Fall 2009 Fashion Collection. Women do not usually like to be told to wear a bag on their head, except by famous fashion designers.