They say that the brain is the largest and most important sexual organ in the human body. Since sex and motorcycles are so seemingly intertwined I figure it only stands to reason that this means that the brain is also the most important part of our human anatomy when it comes to riding. The past couple of weeks while I’ve been laid up with the flu I’ve spent quite a bit of time reading the newest round of motormags and I’ve been struck by how unavoidable the race for modern technology has become. It’s not a question of what it will be, but rather when. The fact that newest round of Japanese motorcycles are starting to ship with fly-by-wire technology simply blows my mind. Who would have ever thought this sort of Buck Rogers like technology would one day exist in our driveways? Yet today while riding it also occurred to me that no matter how much modern technology these motorcycles may exhibit nothing ever happens without seeing the events that are unfolding on the other side of our helmet visors, processing this information in mere nanoseconds, and then somehow amazingly enough not only recognizing what has to happen but also actually making it happen. Both mentally and physically. The whole process happens rather instantaneously yet if you stop and think about everything that we as riders have to do in these micro-blips of time it’s astonishing. Clearly these new technological achievements were created to help cut down the time it takes to work our way through the entire process of riding yet nothing will ever replace the one piece of hand-me-down technology that we were born with, what’s inside our heads.
Heading up the coast this morning I was very conscious of how cluttered the mind can become during the holiday season. There seems to be so many extraneous thoughts that can creep in during this time of the year. So many dissimilar threads that can range from mere to-do lists and run all the way to engaging reflections about the past year. The focus it takes to work one’s way through this jumbled mess sometimes just feels immense. It amazes me that with all this junk rolling inside you can actually still ride. That the human mind has the capability to actively process what it’s doing right now and somehow shelve these other thoughts for another time and place.
Mulling this over while running up and over Mullholland, I realized for the first time I’m now closer to the guys in the back of the pack who remember the way it used to be than I am to the hot shots with the newest baddest latest greatest two wheeled rocketships. Today, yesterday, the year before, these are the days that I will remember. These are my bits of time to relish. This is the moment in time that I will reflect on years later when someone asks me what it was like to ride when I was younger. That memory won’t be some sort of supercomputer motorcycle but rather a bike built from a tweener generation.
Yet we’re on the cusp of the next generation of riding. A time when bikes will continue to get lighter and faster and ultimately get easier to ride. Soon fly-by-wire technologies will not only be the norm but also just the surface of the next wave of goodies that comes straight out of the box. Things we’re already seeing deployed on a limited scale will become the everyday norm; Bluetooth, Airbags, Electronically controlled suspensions, built in GPS, improved ABS systems, and who knows what else. These days the sky truly seems the limit.
Eventually at some point all of these techno-head gizmos will become so proficient that no one will ever consider going back to the way it used to be. Back to the time I remember. Back to relative modernism and not space-age preflight. For the first time in my life I’m looking over the horizon and realizing that the next mile is probably someone else’s ride to cherish. That while I’ll appreciate everything that these soon to be modern motorcycles will enable me to do, I will only do so because I know how far they’ve evolved during my lifetime.
Like almost everyone else this time of year seems to bring out these highly reflective thoughts and feelings, yet this year feels quite different than last year. Time it seems continues to move on with or without my blessing. No matter how much I’d like to just be left alone to do my own thing, the clock continues to tick. Certainly it does with bikes, work, personal lives, and my generation as a whole. For the first time that feels like a rather scary thought. The group I came up with is moving on. We’re growing up. We’re immersed in the real world and I suddenly find myself caring about the conversation that’s going on at the grown up’s table. It’s pertinent to my life. To my job. To my existence. The days of feeling carefree and miniscule pressure are gone. Realistically I suppose that those days were left behind quite a long time ago, but when something actually occurs and when you realize that it happened can sometimes be two very different events.
Looking ahead I find myself feeling rather suspicious about it to be honest. I’ve spent my entire life rushing to get to this point and now that I’m here I don’t know what to do with myself. The more I hit the road and ride the greater I feel the divide between the fragments of my life. Some things have turned out exactly the way I wished they had and yet others have not and I find myself wondering what happens next?
Some other pictures from Today’s Ride…
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