Again

Today I repeated the same loop as last week. It was again a simple getting to know you session with the Bullet. However I took a different route home from Healesville, taking Myers Creek Road to King Lake and back into the city. I became more confident, trusting the feel of the engine to tell me what it wants. Perhaps I have become more attuned to it and so sensitive to its needs. But this allowed me to push its parameters also. Riding the Bullet, as I stated last week, is very different to riding a modern motorcycle. The key to riding a Japanese bike is revving. If such a bike is not doing what I want - say maintaining its speed up a hill, or speeding up - I simply rev it harder and it will comply. And on the road the rule of the modern vehicle is that one travels at the speed limit. It is not until I sit on a vintage vehicle like the Bullet that I realise how rushed and "come on! come on!" the modern road has become. On the Bullet if I need to rise a hill, I forget about the speed limit and focus on the gear that will get me up that hill. This might not be the gear for going at the speed limit, and so I accept that regardless of what the posted limit is, this is for me and my machine a 60kph incline and that is the speed I shall do. I am reminded of travelling in my Dad's old truck through hilly Tasmania.

Today was a beautiful green autumn day. Pleasantly warm but never hot. Calm. Blue.

Again the adjective that came to me to describe this motor cycle was "wonderful!" It is a wonderful machine. I sense myself grinning as I ride. It is a joyous machine.