A Short Love Letter to Riding

 

Motorcycling means different things to every motorcyclist. For me, exploration, solitary escape and the thrill of speed are what mostly captivates me about it. But specifically, my favorite part of riding is surfing the corners, the twisties as many call them. There's just nothing like approaching a corner, hearing the engine brake with a mighty roar while progressively pulling brake to slow down then progressively letting off as you try to follow the race line as perfectly as you can using all the tire you can, just edges away from breaking traction. As you approach the apex, G forces start to increase, your head and the rest of your body get heavier as the velocity change leaves you fighting to stay in proper position. As you roll on the throttle approaching the exit, you hear a visceral engine waking up again while the bikes trying to buck you off, your quads are tensing and pressing on the pegs to keep you from sliding back in your seat. You're precisely rolling on just enough throttle to come out of the corner as fast as you can just enough to not break traction, though sometimes you do just for a bit more excitement. 

And there, you've did it, after you've successfully wrangled a 400lb beast with the delicacy of handling a potentially lethal short-tempered serpent while mixing a perfectly-balanced blend of physicality, g-force, precision and danger in a delicious euphoric smoothie, you can very quickly but more safely relish the feeling until the next corner when a roller coaster of both emotions and blunt forces invade your senses to dance with the devil once more. It's probably the closest you can get to riding a real rocket or a self-controlled rollercoaster ride, there's nothing like it. And that's my description only riding a 600cc supersport (105hp) and 650cc (~72hp) sport/standard bike, not a 250-300hp 1000cc MotoGP bike. Though my description of forces in cornering won't be as different with the latter bikes, tires and suspension make more difference there, but of course the acceleration comparison would be more like 'faster than 99% of cars on the road and fast enough to get in trouble' vs 'untouchable and how is this even legal?'. Yes, there are street-legal production bikes approaching 200hp like the BMW S1000RR, even if I could afford the $25,000 price tag, that I'm much better off not having because the power of horsepower corrupts me absolutely to a dangerous degree sometimes.

I don't experience the described thrill as often as I'd like to anymore since I'm older now and more cautious, and I've paid that price before with a back that still bothers me to this day, but I experience it often enough and to enough degree that I can still get a regular taste of it, which is good enough for me these days. Of course I have to be very judicious as to where, when and to what degree of fun I let myself have on the bike. I'm not as foolish as I used to be with wheeled toys but I admit, I'm not perfect, I do fall into temptation sometimes. That said, I think I'm fairly level-headed while riding, most of the time, and make sure I don't jeopardize the safety of others. But what's not level-headed, I'd say, is Isle of Man, which is just insane. Isle of Man isn't a modern track with modern safety features as run-off zones to safely and slowly slide to a stop, it's a part-time public road/racetrack. These guys are riding 200+mph just inches past brick walls and street signs. It's the most deadly motorcycle race that still exists. Check your jaw once in a while so it doesn't drop to the floor: 

Or here's something something fun. Turn the volume down on the racing video and crank it up to 11 on Prodigy's Spitfire video. I want to go this fast too when I have Spitfire playing in my head while riding. Or try Bush's Machinehead with the video, either one's a winner.