I get to thinking...

When I haven't been out riding for a while I get to thinking; I start thinking about where we are going next, I start thinking about when can we take a couple of days off and go for a decent long ride. We both work so rides are pretty much confined to holidays and weekends but we do ride almost every weekend.

I go into the garage and have a look at the big red machine, I will clean it up a bit and maybe sit on the saddle and think about riding.There's not a huge difference between these two pictures, maybe just 200kms and it's all about setting the bike free, getting it out on the road.

Let's face it, a motorbike is not just an alternate means of transport - okay maybe if you live in the city and you have a scooter or a small bike that's different, but here I'm talking about the big bore motorbikes; 500cc, 750cc or 100cc and upwards.

Motorcycles are food for the soul, they are a soothing balm for the troubled mind, if you have had a tough or stressed day just get your bike out of the garage and get out onto the road - you won't be stressed for long I can assure you.

Look at these two pictures;

They were taken a good few years ago, but we were on a road trip and I was carrying a disposable braai, some thin boerewors (sausage) some bread and a bottle of wine in a cooler bag. We were younger then so I'm thinking the wine was not very dry, probably a Riesling but we stopped in a laybye and had a lunch of boerewors and toast and a bottle of wine and I remember seriously considering going into Ixopo (and I wont bother trying to explain how to pronounce that!) to get another bottle of wine, but common sense prevailed and we pressed on.

But how cool is that?!

When you are planning a ride don't show your plans to a non biker because they will ask questions like; "Why are you going that way, through all of those passes when if you stick to the national road it will be much quicker?"

If you have to explain it, they won't understand.