Reflective Riding - A Winter Pastime

Astral travel is best described as an out-of-body experience. It is one that assumes the existence of an astral body--different from the physical one--and that one is capable of traveling outside it. If anyone accepts this to be true, it would be the dedicated motorcyclist in winter.

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If you've watched the video Riding September or any of the dozens of similar such compilations, you get where I'm going here. Recalling the images of a past summer's adventure with your buddies, whether in your mind or on your iPhone, can serve as an effective means of forgetting that snot has just frozen your nostrils shut while you are out there shoveling the driveway. This in itself can be an out-of-body experience. It's during these special moments, when you bring the shovel back in and realize the annoying object under the vinyl cover and moving blanket that is preventing you from hanging it back on the proper hook, is your beloved Triumph.

MUSIC VIDEO RIDING SEPTEMBER from Arthur & Clement on Vimeo.

It's hard to imagine, right then and there, that you'll ever get it started again, let alone actually ride it, that you need one of these reflective rides of days long past.

Like that summer day when the sweat was running down into your boots in that Piggly-Wiggly parking lot in Hiawassee, Georgia as the whole group idled patiently, waiting for your moto-brother to get his earphones in and gloves on. You are the one who can't even wait patiently while your wife drops a Redbox movie and yet here you sit without a care in the world on thumping red hot steel and a acre of molten asphalt.

You waited all year for this and here it was. Two hundred miles of the finest twisty mountain roads lay in front of you. Back at the cabin, pasta and cold beer were in your future. The promise of whiskey, cigars and laughter lasting long into the night while you relive the blur of scenery along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

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But this also is a time of reflection. For hindsight and learning from your mistakes and experiences are as much a part of the ride as the roads you try to master. The best riders can learn as much at 10mph below the speed limit as they can when the radar gun hits triple digits. The context varies but the content remains constant.

Sure, here in Colorado there are those days when the gods of Indian summer smile on you and you are gifted that perfect late November weekend. Days like these are abbreviated and very special. A buddy has business in town, shows up a day early and brings his gear. Instead of three or five days you have three or five hours. In retrospect, it's not unlike the feelings I have in regards to my marriage or raising children.