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Some thoughts from a ride to the chip shop...
(being some free-form rambling that made it through my head while I was going to get my chips, or while I was eating them)
Fear is intoxicating. It's the adrenaline I suppose. As I left the car-park I absent-mindedly went to pop a wheelie, forgetting that the road is soaking wet. So I span the back wheel and stepped the back end out. Scared myself silly of course, that gut-wrenching 'oh shit!' moment when you know you just handed control of your life over to fate. I stayed on top of it and wiggled back into a straight line, you'll be pleased to hear :)
I did it again on the way back. On purpose. Wasn't as much fun when I was expecting it mind you, but it was still quite a giggle...
I didn't start riding a bike for the high speed thrills though. I'm not sure how sad this is, but the sole and only reason for me getting a bike originally was image. That 'rebel' thing. I knew people who were in a bike club, and after I got on two wheels myself, I prospected with them for a while, was eventually voted in, and rode with them for a good few years.
Of course, within a few months of getting on two wheels, I'd have bitten anyone who suggested taking my bike away from me :) That's why I started doing all the political work through MAG - because there are plenty of MPs who do seem keen on taking my bike away from me.
I co-founded and ran the North Bucks group of MAG until I went to university, at which point I didn't have enough free time to do the job and sadly the group folded a year or two later. I still run the website for MAG's Thames Valley region and I contribute to letter writing campaigns etc. I'm also a life-member of MAG - I think it's always going to be important to have someone keeping an eye out for what daft anti-biking legislation is being proposed this year... and getting it fixed.
Anyway. These days, when I get on my bike, I have various different reasons. Occasionally it's just practical - most particularly, it's a lot easier to park the bike some places. The vast majority of the time it's mostly (or entirely) for the fun of the ride - the wind rushing past, the sun on my face, perhaps a cute pillion passenger's arms around me :)
But sometimes, when I get on the bike alone, I do it for the fear. I do it to ride just that little bit faster than I'm 100% comfortable with. I guess the advanced riding training I did a few years back didn't entirely take in that respect - although it's probably kept me alive while I've been out playing silly buggers. They frown upon pushing your limits. They expect you to know them and ride within them, not play with the edge like Wile E Coyote in a Road Runner cartoon, stepping off the cliff and back on again before gravity notices.
The days when I ride for fear, looking for the edge and poking it with a pointy stick, those days are very very few and far between. But they're some of the moments in which I feel most alive.
Yeah, I know. To quote Skunk Anansie, "I'm still just a cliche". It's true anyway.
Final thought: these chips are really quite good :)
Fear is intoxicating. It's the adrenaline I suppose. As I left the car-park I absent-mindedly went to pop a wheelie, forgetting that the road is soaking wet. So I span the back wheel and stepped the back end out. Scared myself silly of course, that gut-wrenching 'oh shit!' moment when you know you just handed control of your life over to fate. I stayed on top of it and wiggled back into a straight line, you'll be pleased to hear :)
I did it again on the way back. On purpose. Wasn't as much fun when I was expecting it mind you, but it was still quite a giggle...
I didn't start riding a bike for the high speed thrills though. I'm not sure how sad this is, but the sole and only reason for me getting a bike originally was image. That 'rebel' thing. I knew people who were in a bike club, and after I got on two wheels myself, I prospected with them for a while, was eventually voted in, and rode with them for a good few years.
Of course, within a few months of getting on two wheels, I'd have bitten anyone who suggested taking my bike away from me :) That's why I started doing all the political work through MAG - because there are plenty of MPs who do seem keen on taking my bike away from me.
I co-founded and ran the North Bucks group of MAG until I went to university, at which point I didn't have enough free time to do the job and sadly the group folded a year or two later. I still run the website for MAG's Thames Valley region and I contribute to letter writing campaigns etc. I'm also a life-member of MAG - I think it's always going to be important to have someone keeping an eye out for what daft anti-biking legislation is being proposed this year... and getting it fixed.
Anyway. These days, when I get on my bike, I have various different reasons. Occasionally it's just practical - most particularly, it's a lot easier to park the bike some places. The vast majority of the time it's mostly (or entirely) for the fun of the ride - the wind rushing past, the sun on my face, perhaps a cute pillion passenger's arms around me :)
But sometimes, when I get on the bike alone, I do it for the fear. I do it to ride just that little bit faster than I'm 100% comfortable with. I guess the advanced riding training I did a few years back didn't entirely take in that respect - although it's probably kept me alive while I've been out playing silly buggers. They frown upon pushing your limits. They expect you to know them and ride within them, not play with the edge like Wile E Coyote in a Road Runner cartoon, stepping off the cliff and back on again before gravity notices.
The days when I ride for fear, looking for the edge and poking it with a pointy stick, those days are very very few and far between. But they're some of the moments in which I feel most alive.
Yeah, I know. To quote Skunk Anansie, "I'm still just a cliche". It's true anyway.
Final thought: these chips are really quite good :)