<This was my old riding journal
that I sort of kept when I used to be into motorcycles. I
randomly got a motorcycle license and did a good solid year of tooling
around (primarily on 2 BMW F650s)>
I don't know why I started riding, some idyllic musings I
suppose. I've never been interested in bikes before, I don't like
machines, heck I've never even changed the oil in my car.... I guess
the best excuse I've come up with for getting into riding is, I can, so
why not? The freedom of pursueing an activity that fundamentally
is associated with freedom of movement and of the road. I wanted
to roam simply to see what's there and beyond. I have a vision of
myself as an explorer in the days when the world was wide open, as a
captain who sails forth, picking a heading at will merely to see what
lay beyond... I have a
vision of myself stumbling across unique geographys and locations from
which I can utter: " O'brave new world, that hath such wonderful things
in
it." I think maybe riding offers me a hold of that
vision. Maybe the vision is a fantasy. Maybe I'm futilely
idealizing the words of Edward Said in his masterpiece: Orientalism, that I'm in
search of "a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and
landscapes, and remarkable experiences". Maybe I'll stop riding
when I find this, or realize it doesn't exist. Or maybe not.
And maybe I should revise the last paragraph so it doesn't make me
sound like a bad GQ-article wannabe writer. And maybe I'll
confess to the real reason why I started riding: sitting in LA
traffic makes me want
to rip my arms off and beat myself to death with them.
<so apparently my love for riding
was so strong that all it took was a relocation to where there was no
traffic, my last ride was in Jan of 05, 7 months and 9 thousand miles
after I first got my license>
Malibu
Canyons
... very much lost. (7/16/2004)
- This was my first real
attempt at the kind of riding I want to do, the enduro solo adventuring.
1,300 Miles
in 2.5
Days into Baja Mexico ... on road and off (late July 05)
- This was pretty crazy, I more
or less did part of the Baja 1000 course, met Coco(you fellow adventure
riders know who I'm talking about), and almost didn't make it
back. Oh, one more thing, I didn't have knobbies for the course!
Enduring 1000
miles in a day on an Enduro. Story of bike #2
(November 04)
- Flew to Alburquerque.
Drove back in a single day. Solid Iron Butt ride.
<Margo> || <Main>