Love connection
GUIDO reckons you should get your juices boiling and ride the bike of happiness...
It's possibly
not a common thing, and I've written about it before, but I adore every morning.
Don't get me wrong - some days I'm badly hung-over or arise to the ugly thought
of a day that has far more tasks than minutes. And groan.
If it's raining cattle grids outside, I just might take one of the cars to work.
But so far you can count the number of days that happens over a year on the
fingers of one hand. Because I always regret it.
This might sound like a semi-religious thing, but it's really a combination
of convenience and happiness.
Convenience partly because I'm a city-dweller (Melbourne) and have got used
to the casual contempt you can use to deal with traffic. This afternoon was
as good an example as any. The Harley Sportster 1200C is not exactly cutting-edge
commuter material, but fine for the job. Sleaze through the lanes, be a little
pushy at times, and don't break anything. If there's a trick to lane-splitting
in peak-hour traffic, it's be polite but firm and don't rush it. Home in 20
minutes, versus an hour the rest of the fools tolerate.
As for happiness, give me a helmet and a motorcycle, plus a new day and two
corners (even in the city), and I'll show you happiness. This is the least complicated
thing on earth.
I was appalled to hear (over dinner and excessive drinks at Chateau Guido) the
other night that two very experienced riders and clever people I know were feeling,
well - reading between the lines M'lud - scared about riding generally and stuffing
a bike into a corner in particular. They blamed the ageing process and were
curious to know if this was universal.
No, was my immediate reaction, and I know this would be backed by Spannerman
and others whom I respect. There's an Anzac line that's trotted out each year,
which says that age shall not weary them, and it should be applied to the living
rather than the dead.
When asked, the gents concerned admitted they rode infrequently - once a week
at best but more likely once a month, or less. And that's the problem, for two
reasons. One is they've pushed riding back in their lives as something they
feel as though they have to do. The lack of familiarity and frequency means
that every ride becomes an increasingly uncomfortable adventure.
While we're similar ages, the only thing we had in common was the acceptance
that bouncing back from an injury becomes slower as you stack on years. But
I don't share their lack of confidence in riding. If anything, my skills have
got better over the years and my capacity for enjoying a ride (any ride) increased.
This isn't through talent - my coordination is ordinary. The riding skills come
through experience and regular use.
I'm lucky because I've turned my riding into a part-time job of sorts, testing
bikes and playing with new toys. However a friend of mine in the UK also rides
every day and his favourite game is to make use of demo rides to keep himself
current. He'll have a ball on the latest-gen sports bikes like the FireBlade,
which also got my juices on the boil recently. (Very fast, super accurate, and
my local bottle-shop boyo reckons "chicks go for it, mate".)
Like me, every now and then the UK friend falls victim to a demo model's charms
and buys it. He's more sensible and keeps just one bike in the garage, while
I have several. In either case it's expensive and represents a commitment -
a very expensive connection. But we both love it...
Guy "Guido"
Allen
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