WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

How many times have you been on approach to one of your favorite few miles of roadway, maybe along some twisty backroads that you know like the back of your hand, and as you come over a rise, there is one car or pick-up truck driving at 10 miles under the limit?

This occurs with some regularity, that we have come to think it is a Deep State plot against us personally.

I picture a computer-filled War Room, with Men-in-Black deftly manipulating traffic around us.

“Okay, Corolla - old man with hat, make a left in 3,2,1…

Now, plumber's truck, pull in front of those idiots from the right, on my mark, and hit the brakes!"

Another younger female technician calls out, “All looks good, Colonel – satellite shows they have just had to slow by 15 mph! His vitals read elevated epinephrine, angst, and general pissed-offness. Hers are off-the-charts."

“Good job, crew… good job. Keep him slow and steaming.”

Okay, maybe that is really not happening, but we tend to notice the slight disappointments in life, and rarely the little wins.

I have taken to softly accepting when I have keenly oblivious drivers in front of me. Especially on weekends, when they can be literal Sunday Drivers.

Sunday drivers believe the mirrors are for applying makeup and checking their teeth after lunch. They are on a bus or train the other six days of the week.

Knowing, without a foolish pass, that I am stuck, I will try to run through upcoming curves with finesse and smoothness. It's like practice.

This practice, all the time mindset, is an ethos I think some of us adopt intuitively. Some riders never think about their actual riding when they are out on the road. They drive their bikes, rather than ride them. They think about their day-to-day lives, their kids and grandkids, or about work, or sports… and their lives that never seem to change. 

Their skill has never changed either.

Some folks get up every day and hit the gym, happy to push themselves for an hour. Others have to be dragged there. You can pick them out at the gym. The ones making every set or step count – the others watching a Tick Tock video.

When Shira and I are riding together, we chat back and forth, and often the talk is about our riding… the line we just took, the braking or trail-braking just used, the deer up on the hill, which could mean there are some more along the roadside using an RCD (Romulan Cloaking Device). We try to stay ‘Situationally Aware.’ Do our minds drift? Sure, on occasion, but for the most part, we are in HPM. (Happy Practice-Mode)

This was on my mind a few months back when we were riding two-up in Virginia, and I asked her... When does practice stop and real life begin?

She honestly answered that she did not know. But when it happens, she would tell me.

It was a self-fulfilling prophetic query; 20 minutes later, my bike's rear wheel tagged something on the road, which caused some major trajectory issues. That Virginia mountain sweeper instantly transmogrified from just another practice curve into a rabid and snapping dragon with sharp teeth that looked very much like stainless steel guard rails. The bike went from 'on rails' to on a water slide.

If this were Hollywood, we’d stop this incident in mid-frame and have the announcer, Morgan Freeman, describe what was happening, and what could occur - twice. 

One involves some heavy-duty CGI with the bike, and both Shira and I have a brutal collision with the dragon-teeth Armco. The other clip was a slow-motion split-screen showing my eyes widening with that WTF shine, and then peeling, and looking far through the turn to the exit of the sweeper… hundreds of feet down the road. The bike safely being brought back under control and trajectory.

There was a LOT of discussion on this incident… as soon as the adrenaline cleared the bloodstream. 

The WTF realization and effort to recover seemingly happen at the same time. They do not, but in the human scope of time perception, they seem to happen simultaneously.

So here is the thought for the month.

Ride your machine like every mile, every turn, every acceleration, and braking task matters. Because it does.

Try to fall into the paradigm that practice is fun. Practice is good. Practice can make perfect – or as close as you will need to be to make the next practice.

When does practice end and real life begin? I can't say for sure – but you will know it when it does – and you'd best have gotten all the practice you can to be ready for it.

Ride far. Ride smart. Ride the Backroads.