Twisting Asphalt - A SoCal Ducati Motorcycle Blog

I’ve got to admit; lately I’ve been a pretty horrible slacker when it comes to posting what’s been going on. Something about this time of year seems to bring a massive amount of procrastination out. That’s been true as far back as I can remember. The holiday season has always been a mental struggle of sorts. Perhaps it’s the cold air and the harsh winter light, or maybe it’s just the incessant holiday commercials that make me want to do nothing but hibernate instead of actively trying to be creative. Surprisingly no matter how good things seem to be right now – and they’re very, very good - the adventure of the day-to-day feels an awful lot like the last several miles in a marathon when you’re mentally and physically depleted.

Sunday I tried to combat this odd sense of lethargy with a short loop through the western edge of the Temecula Wine Region. Covering parts of several previous loops, I shot down Rancho California, before popping on to De Luz Road and taking it nearly all the way to Fallbrook before coming back around on Sandie Creek Road. As some of you might recall long time reader Ford mentioned this loop quite sometime ago and while at first I wasn’t completely sold on it, the more I get to know these roads the more enjoyable I find them.

I suspect that part of my hesitancy is a continual mental juxtaposition between what it felt like to ride the Santa Monica Mountains and what it feels like to ride around here. I don’t mean to continually bring it up, but the more I mentally work my way through the transition, the more aware I keep becoming of what it is exactly that I enjoy or I miss or perhaps more simply feel on a personal level.

On Sunday, I found myself breaking the loop down in a very methodical manor. In some respects it was a mental exercise that wasn’t all that far removed from how one treats a track. First there’s the short jaunt on the freeway, then there’s a quick shot through a relatively built up area, then you hit the beginning of the back roads – but the first chunk carves its way right through a collection of working farms and the road suffers because of that: it’s bumpy, it’s paved poorly, you’ve got side cross traffic, and there’s a ton of crap on the road – yet eventually you end up on a ten or twelve mile stretch that just screams. The kind of curving road surface that begs for a sportbike. It’s fun, it’s twisty, it’s fast, relatively well paved. All the attributes of a great ride.

The more I broke these various sections down the more keenly aware I kept becoming that each segment brings out different emotions. The freeway jaunt for instance is really no longer than the relatively straight shot up the Pacific Coast Highway that takes you from Santa Monica to the great canyon roads. But because the scenery is so different my initial reaction was to feel less than excited while riding it. Yet now that I’ve done it a few times, I’ve come to the realization that while the imagery is obviously not the same, that’s more than alright because the route offers something the PCH doesn’t. I-15 early in the morning offers the opportunity to really crank up the speed. Maybe double or triple what I’d do on the coast. Of course hitting a hundred on a superbike in the straight line isn’t particularly hard nor is it challenging – but it’s still fun. There’s a perverse pleasure that comes from looking down and realizing that you’re doing eighty and all it takes to hit triple digits is a small incremental twist of your wrist. Suddenly the cars next to you, which at first glance appeared to be moving fast, seem downright slow in comparison.

Of course the reason you ride a sportbike is not to just let it rip on a straight away, it’s because of the way it works in the corners and by the time you actually arrive at the curviest section of De Luz Road I kept finding myself smiling. Because suddenly it all made sense. Yes, the route to get there is visually different, but the result is still the same. You end up braking, downshifting and carving corners in a wildly fun manor and that’s the joy. That’s the rush. That’s what brings you back each time. And Sunday it all made sense, there was a security in not only the way the bike was handling, but in the way I was seeing the road. Suddenly what was at first unfamiliar, now seemed and felt comfortable. Truly for the first time.

I suppose in some respects this sort of comfort in my newfound surroundings echoes yet another tenant of this time year – reflection. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find that December brings out a certain kind of rearward contemplation. My mind has a way of drifting backwards to what’s gone on during the past year. Obvious for me this year has been filled with all sorts of adventures, change, and never imaged excitement. And as I’ve worked my way through the instability, the end result has been a new sense of not only accomplishment but also a wonderful grounded sensation. There’s something magnificent about knowing where your feet are standing. It’s a feeling that offers a kind of certainty that has often times felt like it was missing in my life. In some respects it’s perhaps a sense of normalcy.

Of course that begs the question of what exactly is normal – and I honestly have no idea how to answer that because of the dynamic nature of life. This past year has continued to offer different and unique opportunities, some of which I’ve spent my entire life dreaming about and others that have simply come straight out of the blue. I suppose that’s where riding fits in – there are parts you dream about and parts that simply come your way and it’s the combination of these two extremes and the connection that they make that offer the satisfaction and enjoyment.

Popularity: 4% [?]