Return to riding.
There’s nothing quite like being on a motorbike, the feeling of being able to power through some great roads whilst being exposed to smell and feel your surroundings is like none other. Riding has always been a way to unwind for me; having tried some group rides early on, I realised this wasn’t for me with riding company now replaced by good music.
These feelings were amplified today tenfold after getting on my GSXR for the first time after a 6 month hiatus following an unfortunate incident at Eastern Creek Raceway in December (Now that I think of it, I don’t really use my time on the racetrack to unwind…but this is an exception). A large part of the time off riding was accounted for due to being overseas however it wasn’t until I had everything on the bike ready to go and started getting geared up in my leathers that I realised how much I really missed this simple pass time. The bike may be a bit ragged now, the gear a bit dirty from the off; but it all still gets the job done !
After asking my dad to take a quick video of a ride by my house to mark my ‘first ride’ (see below, excuse the poor camera work) I made tracks for my one and only playground of the Old Pacific Highway in Sydney.
Having done numerous roads in the states NSW and Victoria, this is undoubtedly my favourite in Australia and hence have traversed it in excess of 200 times; allowing me to retain a good mental map of each bend in my preferred ‘stages’. In addition to unwinding, this also gives me the opportunity to work on my lines every time I visit to become smoother and hopefully slightly quicker.
This patch of road is usually frequented by 100’s of motorbikes on any given sunny weekend and today was no exception as I saw when passing a plethora of bikes on the way to the Old Road. Giving the returning riders a ‘nod’ common in the community as a sign of comradery made me feel even better to be back into riding.
After an initial lap through at a modest pace through to Road Wariors Cafe at Mt. White I put my MP3 player back to my most preferred riding tracks (Cubaton now that I’m back from Cuba…)and legged it back to Stage 1 which lies between Pie in The Sky and Brooklyn Bridge.
Before starting on my laps of this stage, I was surprised to meet a few other riders I know from the track also having a pie at PITS; a timely welcome back into the community.
And with that, I began my laps :D. A bit hesitant at first, once I got the feel back, i was back to getting knee down in my favourite parts :D. A distinct difference in rush even though I had done this exact same road late on a Saturday night the previous weekend in my car; a completely different machine to try and take through a road such as this one.
Although I have no video or images from today, I’ll end this with one of the only videos I have of me as a 3rd person riding the Old Road taken last year (2011)