Domestic Bliss

Yet to leave Sydney, but the masses are breying (right?), so I'll write about the 'domestic scene'.

Like everyone, it seems, I don't ride enough, so I've made sure to hit up some of the local tarmac over the last couple of days before I leave. I can't even remember the last time I did any real riding: RNP a few months ago would have been the closest, but I was scrubbing in new tyres.

The Mindset: Got it or you don't. (Or in between.)

Yesterday I wasn't riding so well. I don't know what it was - I blamed rust - I just didn't feel comfortable, and I sure as hell didn't go quickly. I was boring myself! It was a lovely route we took: some excellent, tight and twisty stuff, if a little suburban (I might get around to posting maps of some of the roads up here on the Beaches - I will do it sooner if somebody asks about it). But it didn't click. It may have felt slow, but it didn't feel like I could go faster... - I lacked confidence in my ability to go faster that next step down the road, I think. In short, I was riding like a nanna.

I left a friend's place at 2am the next morning and - voila! Everything was great! There wasn't a great deal of nice road between there and home, but I milked it and finally enjoyed myself. The difference, I think, was that at two, whilst not overly tired, I was relaxed enough that I could want to go forward, without really worrying about how average I may have been riding now.

I don't really know how to articulate this, but the one stand-out aspect of riding well is that the focus of attention is the need to go forward. Sometimes it comes with a lust to get to the other side (not the same thing as trying to go fast, which is focussed on the present-state rather than the future), sometimes just with a relaxed confidence and clear, midnight mind.
I refuse to call this 'the zone', but you may: I don't think it is a helpful vocabulary.

And today? Well, I don't know. Any 'lust' was tempered by a conservative approach to the conditions, the 60kph speed limit and thinking about my riding partners. I certainly had no midnight mind. But it wasn't trashy, just in between...

There are no solid conclusions in this world of motorcycling.


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@JohnSBaxter
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