Great reflective post, enjoyed reading that. You'll take that night to the grave - and ultimately the reason why we should ride. Excuse the cod/pop psychology but like life, riding - it’s all in the journey as opposed to the destination – and about how you get there and savouring the experience, is why I‘d love a cruiser for the road.
The problem with riding performance motorcycles is the tendency to explore the limits even though most road riders struggle to come close to exploiting the capabilities of a one litre hyper sports bike without ending up in intensive care, or upside down in a field with their head up a cows arse. Without meaning to sound ‘up the arse’ myself I find fast riding zen like, but mainly on track because in the UK the roads are overcrowded battlegrounds and fraught with hidden dangers. I owned a Harley for a while which was great on a Sunday afternoon, taking a partner out to a country pub for a ploughman’s (-an Anglicised term which perhaps sounds slightly dubious to my cousins in the New World) - or the occasional run to the coast. Every fantasy garage should have one. Not to suggest that one’s level of vigilance should be in any way be compromised by what bike you are riding and where, it’s very much the unexpected that causes accidents.
I miss it. I miss the sound, the grunty motor, the minimalistic spartan black, the pedigree, the individualism, the zeitgeist and a legitimate excuse to wear my black Brando, Levi’s, engineer boots and shades. I also loved riding the thing and noticed that it turned infinitely more heads than my R1.Toured on it too, although the limited range was frustrating.
At some point, I have resolved to fly out to Miami, hire some agricultural machinery and trundle down to Key West to see Hemmingway’s house and then the other great American scribe ‘Knockers on the way up to the Cape (he doesn’t know this yet). If I can time this with the inaugural launch of the SLS then my pilgrimage to NASA will be complete although it may well be before November 2018. Having left no stone unturned in the American West and notched up tens of thousands of miles over the best part of the decade, my only regret is that I did not do it on two wheels. No particular desire to visit Florida, bar the desire to see the VAB, a Saturn V and be photographed next to a Rocketdyne F1 engine.
This is a very amusing read. Ian Mutch formerly of MAG….
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-America-Ian-Mutch-ebook/dp/B00TBVBGKC