As it turns out I skipped out of work early today in order to get a short afternoon ride in. Given the reaction to the show it somehow only seemed appropriate to get up into the canyons and enjoy life for a little bit. Yet at the same time I felt ridiculously guilty for doing it even though there was nothing going on at work. It’s remarkable how many times during a given week my mind will drift off and start plotting a weekday escape but all to often they never come to pass. I guess the reality is that like most things in life there’s always something else to do or another bit of business to take care and somehow I just intrinsically know that if I push those papers off to the side of the desk they’ll haunt me during the ride. Yet today was different. Today wasn’t about speed or knee dragging or becoming a better rider. Today was about allowing myself to smile.
One of my greatest personal failures in life is that I rarely take the time to enjoy the moment. Somehow they have a way of whisking away before I’m ready for them to leave. My mind is somehow wired to simply move on. There’s a former Hollywood producer that once coined the phrase, ‘Win, lose, next’ and rarely have three words so aptly described my mentality. I look at some of my friends and often times admire their ability to let things sink in. It’s a gift they don’t even know they have. Yet today was different because it was sinking in.
As MotorMilt and I worked our way across The Santa Monica Mountains, I found it easy to just be there. And even though it wasn’t the warmest or the sunniest day, somehow it just felt right to ride. It felt like it was where I was supposed to be at that exact moment in time.
I was by no means at the top of my game and thanks to the recent rainfall around here there was a remarkable amount of debris in the road. So I very consciously dialed it down and allowed myself to take in the sights and the sounds that surround you while you’re riding. There are so many things that I admire about the Malibu Canyons, but perhaps the greatest single attribute that they offer is the solitude of the road. From one corner to the next there are so many different kinds of entrances and exits that it’s hard not to lose yourself in the act of carving your way from one end of the road to the other. And in that moment, it’s just you and your thoughts battling the asphalt.
We spent most of the ride working our way up Las Floras, over Saddlepeak, doing a short jaunt on Las Virgines and then popping across the ‘playground’ section of Mulholland until we eventually made our way to the Agoura Deli for a late lunch. Through the entire episode I kept thinking about the word ‘passion’.
It’s a far more unique attribute then I think people give it credit for being. In my mind it’s a wondrous and remarkable word. Passion is something that I strive for and something that I’d like to believe affects everything I do. I’d like to believe that every action or choice I make is somehow influenced by it or created from it. In many ways, I believe it’s one of the cornerstone tenants of my life and a concept from which I think one can draw inspiration, creativity and determination.
Obviously motorcycles and sportbikes have become the dominant passion in my life. I find it hard to imagine how I would exist without them and more specifically without riding them. I don’t ride because it looks cool or to get chicks. I ride because somehow it’s become the defining characteristic of my soul. It’s how I evolve and how I find peace. It’s a sport that I respect far more than a number of other things in life. Every time I get on the bike I’m keenly aware of how small the difference is between being safe and being stupid. Walking that line and juggling those choices is a thrill and it’s also a skill. Something that one has to practice and something that I’m not sure there is a way to perfect.
Video Clips from Today’s Ride
And here are some more picts:
A few folks have written in asking about the new video camera set-up, so I thought I’d snap a pict to show where and how I’ve been mounting it.
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