Headline, January11, 2014

''' MOTORCYCLI​NG OF THE 

ENLIGHTENE​D ROAD-WARRI​ORS '''

Just taste the flavour : ''That morning we'd ridden like lunatics, snaking down perfectly surfaced, endlessly twisting roads that seemed to pass straight though Darwin's Origin Of Species.

Hanging over the road, the unchecked growth of myriad exotic plants blotted out the sun. In the air, beetles the size of tennis balls buzzed like bombers, their backs painted like Jackson Pollocks.

This was Borneo, the highlight of more than a decade spent exploring the world by motorbike. I grow more convinced by the day that I'll never better it.''  

Isolated by your helmet, your speed and the need to concentrate, the bike focuses the mind on what really matters    -the right here, right now.

Men have been aware of this undeniable truth since its invention, in the closing years of the 19th century.

One enlightened road-warrior wrote in 1917 : ''Motorcycling is the very best tonic in the world for ordinary folk. It completely distracts the mind from business, studies, or domestic worries.''

Cars are easy,  lowest-common denominator transport; everyone drives. But cars keep the world at arm's length, blocking out everything but the view with glass and steel.

On a bike you feel the heat of the midday sun through your jacket, taste the thick, fragrant air before a rainstorm and can't fail to sense the wild majesty of landscapes such as the Sahara and America's Great Plains.

It's a well known and well-worn cliche, but bikes are also freedom. They can overtake other road traffic at will, letting you set set your own speed regardless of everyone else's.

They can pour through queuing cars like water. And in the right hands, they can go anywhere, from the peaks of Morocco's towering cathedral dunes to the most isolated corners of Borneo's forested interior.

Sure, if things go wrong, salvation can require a high-end phone and a friend with a car or a helicopter, but that only adds to the thrill. You're on your own.

In a seat-belted, air-bagged, complex and largely risk-free 21st century, bikes are alluringly, lethally simple. Very few have anti-lock brakes. One or two have traction control.

The consequences of your actions are immediate and uncensored, for better and for worse.

Bikes are fast too. Even very ordinary commuter bikes are fast. This is a good thing. As the late Hunter S Thompson put it:

''Some people will tell you that slow is good, but I,m here to tell you that fast is better. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles.....''

But of course the risks are a part of motorcycling's PR problem  -say that you ride for thrill and adventure and suddenly everyone has a brother, uncle or friend-of-a-friend who got it wrong.

And taken out of context the risks do seem pointless   -why do it? Then you try it.

It's not flying, but it's close, and it's no coincidence that a disproportionate number of pilots ride bikes. The sensitivity required to control them is similar, as are the fluid, three-dimensional sensations and the elation that comes with doing it right.

It's that really matters   -not the middleaged outlaws with tasselled handlebars and black T-shirts bearing dubious slogans, who do nothing for biking's image.

And Motorcycles make more sense the further you go. Blasting around the same old local back roads is fun only for a while. Britain has too many towns and not enough country. Riding off-road is also illegal on all but a few trails.

Continental Europe has spectacular roads that go for hours, scaling the Alps and spearing the Pyrenees with endless kilometres of sun-drenched tarmac. And then there's off-road riding.

Pack a water tank,a jerry can of petrol and a GPS and the world's vast wildernesses are yours to explore, no laws, no boundaries and no speed cameras   

But travelling by bike can be hard, it can be dangerous and it has robbed perfectly sane people of their money and their careers. But the seasoned bikers say, that the hard bit isn't 800 mile days,the calloused hands or the crashes.

The hard bit is going back home to utter boredom!

With respectful dedication to all the Motorcycling students of the world. Especially, Ali Aizaz, Ehsan Khalil and Vishnu. See Ya all on  !WOW! the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Brilliant Students Ecosystem '''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless