Interesting post for sure.
I think Rev hit the nail on the head with his first post. It's about the FUN...the freedom of actually being out there. Exploring, discovering, and at times, reminiscing. It's fun, yes...but to add to his point, for me, riding is much deeper than that. Yeah, sure you can go romping and discovering in your car...but there's just something different about going someplace new when you're on the bike. WWJD's notion of doing more sport-touring sounds like an absolutley delightful plan.
For myself, I was out two years (I know, I know...not much) from riding. Almost everyday was a perfect day to ride...and it killed me inside. Every time I heard a bike, my head would immediately turn to source out the direction from where it was coming from. I could almost flawlessly tell what the general size of the bike before I ever saw it. I could identify what bike it was almost on sound alone.
All that time, I was watching, hoping, praying....that I'd get back on two wheels. Yeah, I saw friends crash and friends die. Visited more of them than I would have liked to when they were in the hospital. But all the while, I was still hoping I could get back on the bike and relive what I had been missing out on for so long. Not so much the freedom of being out in the open air an all that...but moreso the freedom of mind. The peace of mind that I was able to achieve through riding.
My brain most of the time runs 100 miles per minute. I mean everything is goind on at once. I remember songs, things people said to me, things that happened to me, things that happened to my friends, stupid things I've done, etc. Never a quiet moment, much to my dismay. I've tried relaxing an meditating, but that just doesn't seem to work.
The first time I rode on out on the bike, it was bliss. Nothing filtering in from my mind...just the sound of the engine and the sound of the wind. For the first time in my life, my mind was blank...completely devoid of all the things that I had been trying so hard to either control or get rid of. Can you imagine how I felt when I'm kneeling down at church and then for some odd reason or another, some stupid song busts into my head? Not only do I have a hard time concentrating on what I should be there for, but I also have a hard time getting rid of the song.
There's always some kinda noise going on in my head. In order to get rid of one noise, I have to replace it with another. Which is exactly what the bike did for me. Now, there were no more memories of regretful things I had done or said...no more of the maddening ruckus of jumbled memories and such that I had been fighting for so long.
For the first time, I had found peace of mind. My mind gone and lost in the song of the Busa's 1300 cc's...totally preoccupied with everything else around me. The sound of cars behind, beside and in front of me...the smooth mechanical melody of a well-running engine....the wind rushing through and around my helmet...the wind hitting my body. As if that wasn't enough, my mind was also tasked with other functions: The feedback of the bike...the flow of the bike's weight through and around curves...the sensations the tires relayed back to me about the conditions of the road...the engine's response to my throttle hand...shifting, braking, searching, analyzing...all within the span of a few seconds.
At this point, I can only assume that I'm preaching to the choir. You all know about the tasks invovled with riding, but how many of you have actually taken the time to
really see what it is that you're doing? It's like eating...yeah, every day we feedourselves for nourishment, but how often to we take the time to really
taste what it is we are feeding ourselves with? When was the last time you allowed yourself to be in such a state of awareness that you could taste almost every ingredient in what you were eating? For example: when was the last time you allowed yourself to taste the salt in the cereal that sits in your bowl? Sure, you've had this cereal many times before, but when was the last time you truly allowed yourself to
taste it?
For me, that's one of the things that riding brought out for me. Every sensation is almost like a rediscovery. Sure, you can hammer the throttle and blast down the road at triple digit speeds...yeah, you can lean like you're the next VRoss down in the canyons. If that's what motorcycling is to you, then that's all well and good...that is, afterall, your choice.
For myself, however...it's much more than that. It's somewhat paradoxical...but it's true. In losing myself in all the little tasks that it takes to be an aware and a passive-aggressive rider, I free my mind of all clutter and noise. What my soul has yearned for...what it has needed...for the longest time, it has now achieved through sensory overload.
In having nothing, I gain everything...and it is in being nothing that I come to be relieved.
Just my thoughts, at any rate.
<!--EDIT|PACIFICBUSA
Reason for Edit: "peace, not "piece""|1152251003 -->
