Pawprints

The latest rants and raves about riding.

The Inertia Effect

Getting started riding this year can be a bit of a pain. The weather has been awful. And by awful I mean awful by BC Lower Mainland standards. Heck I have just seen snowfall in March. Keep in mind that Vancouver trucked in snow for the Winter Olympics in 2010. Having ridden my bike through some genuine crap, I don't feel the need to repeat it.

I've also been dealing with deadbeat renters, home renovation and repairs, along with some repairs on the bikes in the garage. All this can consipre to cut into your riding time. It can become easy for work and chores to become routine. And the routine is easy to do, you set yourself in a rut and it becomes hard to break out of it. Why work to break out of it when it is easier to stay in the rut and just go with the flow.

The trick is willpower. Sit down and plan a ride. Plan something that you might actually really want to do. I once read the worst advice ever was "to keep your dreams just out of reach, so they'll always be there". What a load of bollocks! Seriously what's to gain? So you can roll in to the retirement home, bitter about not accomplishing any thing? You have to eat your dreams like a ravenous wolf. You stalk it, take it down and eat it with gusto. Then you look around for the next tasty dream.

Laziness kills the hunt for dreams. So you can keep hunting through not stopping and keeping the momentum going. Or you can let the momentum slide and be creative in getting it going again. I keep tossing around the idea of getting back into off-road racing. In order to do it, I'd have to train and get back into racing shape. And why load up the RM when I can get on the Strom in the driveway and head out. So one idea I was tossing aroung is making a how to ride adventure bike video series. And since most techniques are based on off-road riding skills, it would be fitting to do some stuff with the RM. Voila, I'm back on the bike.

I am itching to get out there and explore. I have my Strom geared up for more off-road style riding. And that is my second point, once you have set a goal. Identify what steps it takes to accomplish the goal and then take those steps. You can take those steps at your speed and leisure. You don't even have to take all the steps in a row, you can do the conga if you want to.

Also let your friends know. Peer pressure is a powerful thing. They can either nag you about that dream ride you were planning or eagerly anticipate the stories that you will have once you're done. The latter is part of the motivation to keep the site going.

Also you can get acquainted with those kinds of riders who have done what you have done. Reading books, joining a club, attending presentations or watching travel videos can do a wonderful job of introducing you to riders who have done spectacular rides because they really wanted too.

And all the while you must think to yourself "I can do this". The rest is just reinforcement.

So where and whenever you ride, enjoy it.

Mike

PS: For a wonderful waste of time, check out these podcasts. You can get them for free on iTunes or you can download them off their websites.

The Pace Podcast: Chris and James do a quite sensible chat about motorcycle and related news and reviews.

Wheelnerds Podcast: Todd and Chuck bring out their juvenile senses of humor. Not everyone may find it funny, but I sure do. They also do some cool interviews with notable motorcyclists. And there is some decent stuff between all the giggles.

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