Riding

I have been commuting for just over a year now on my fazer, every day facing the 30 kilometer ride to work, and home, and everywhere else. What an amazing experience, albeit it at different times scary, beautiful, thrilling, exhilarating, wet, cold, wet and cold, lonely, content and many others besides.
This last year has seen me take my wife and kids for rides, experienced many biker events, my favourite of course being the Toy Run www.toyrun.co.za, an event where bikers across the country collect toys for various orphanages for christmas.
Being part of Think Bike www.thinkbike.co.za and the marshalling team has also been awesome. The team spirit, leadership and comaraderie, as well as the professionalism of those involved, and generosity too, has been an inspiration to myself as a person. I cannot describe 5AM on a cold winter morning, out in the Magaliesberg hills, cyclists gathering to race, and a line of steel horses to look after their non motorised cousins. Wherever i go, and there are marshalls, i know i am amongst truly great people. We do many events freely, knowing that our presence there helps avert tragedy. That is so rewarding in itself, the fun we have seems too good to be true!
One funny aspect of these cycle races is the total difference between cyclists and bikers. Cyclists are such prissy little beings, whereas bikers ... well ... yes.
Riding the same route everyday i s fun o, usually at the same time. I've got to know so many people on the route, hardly a day passes i do not see a friend on the way to work. Mostly only a toot and a wave, but that is so much more than the caged mentality a car provides. This morning, i managed to say hi to a fellow tb marshall, who uses a car to get to work, and had stopped at the same robot as i. Further on, an unknown biker on a honda and i exchanged greetings, and agreed that it was a nice day, and not too cold. Then a young punk on a gs nearly rode into me, he was pushing too hard, and not thinking far enough ahead enough either. His type will fall sooner rather than later. A scooter joined the highway further on, and was also far too confident for his own good. A scooter is very maneuverable, and in traffic can easily keep up with bigger bikes, however there is a limit as to how fast you can go, i don't know how to "calculate" it, but it's there, that barrier beyond which you do not have enough space to stop. The scooter pushed it, and when someone jumped lanes, mr scooter got a big fright. He avoided falling or crashing, but the word contortionist comes to mind when i recall the way that scooter wiggled. I thought he'd fall.
There is no other way to travel really. Being one with your environment, taking each day as new and different, and dangerous, is the right way to start the day. Every single motorbike commuter i know agrees that when you get to work, you are refreshed, awake, and most certainly happy to be alive. It allows your mind the respite it truly needs, from whatever else may plague your thoughts, gives you space for your mind to reach for each horison, and take note of the things between them.