A Malibu Loop in The Morning

Looking down I was at 8,500 RPMs and I’m doing 75 MPH coming down Mullhulland when it finally hit me, having a fully broken in engine is as close to pure bliss as you can get. Coming off of two back-to-back hetic work weeks, the sensation of being thrown back into the saddle and having so much new found power on hand was just simply awesome. There’s something magical about how these bigs act when they’re close to the redline. They scream. They kick. They act so frigg’n alive it’s unreal. From 8k all the way to the line they morph from mild-manor sportbike into entirely different beasts. The sound was intense. It’s loud. It’s racey. It sounds like a sportbike all of sudden. And that’s when you’re on and riding. I can’t imagine how much louder it must sound if you’re just watching it go by… Once you get used to the raised decibel levels then you notice the vibrations. This bike shakes. Not in a ‘oh shit parts are going start falling off sort of way”, but rather in that very visceral “there’s a lot of life under this hood” mentality.

I have to admit I felt pretty rusty – which kind of surprised me since just a couple of weeks ago I racked up around 1,000 miles over a ten day period – but perhaps it’s simply the laws of nature at work – out of sight, out of mind. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that it feels like I ride the best and enjoy it the most when I’m riding consistently, weekend after weekend. So even though I was only able to get a short ride in – just being back on the bike was not only relaxing but also hopefully knocked a bit of the rust off for tomorrow…