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Posts Tagged ‘Seattle motorcycle’

As a writer and business professional, my natural tendency is to test the limits and share my experiences. These qualities cross over into my passion for riding motorcycles.

Humbling moments on the road can hurt for motorcyclists.

Obviously, BestScenicRoutes.com is my personal effort to not bogart the best scenic routes and to share my experiences of the open road. As for testing the limits, well that is a constant endeavor to find my limits and expand the boundaries they create while riding.

It took several years of riding motorcycles with self-taught skills before I learned the value of taking a motorcycle safety course. In fact, after several years of riding, I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course as a means of rating my abilities to properly operate a motorcycle.

The basic course was a humbling experience. It was during the course that I finally learned what counter-steering was and how it worked on a motorcycle. Proper cornering techniques of outside-inside-outside improved my abilities in the twisties. The course also taught me the difference between an everyday stop and a quick-stop – just keep squeezing the levers.

I went into the BRC thinking that I already knew it all. I left that weekend with skills that have saved my hide more than once. Developing motorcycle skills is a continual effort. Similar to professional programs that encourage continued education to keep up to speed.

As riders, we pride ourselves on our motorcycle skills. It is pride that can get in the way of our development of skills. Humbling experiences open our minds to the possibilities that there is always room for vast improvement. These experiences can come in the form of motorcycle safety courses, track days, riding with skilled riders or even a good book on motorcycling. There are many opportunities to learn if we just open our minds and absorb the information that is around us.

As soon as evidence of over-confidence creeps into my everyday riding, oops moments appear. That’s when I actively seek out a humbling experience to keep me grounded.

Pushing limits and learning skills is what motorcycling is all about. The key is to not get humbled while deep into a corner on a high mountain pass when options are limited and risk is high. These types of humbling experiences hurt.

How do you test your limits? How do you recognize when you’ve exceeded your abilities? Share you experiences and perhaps a few of us will be humbled by them.

Are you interested in taking a motorcycle safety course? Find a listing for all motorcycle safety testing locations at the bottom of the article: Nearly 40-percent of Washington State Motorcycle Deaths are Unendorsed Riders

Do you enjoy reading the articles at BestScenicRoutes.com? Every donation helps keep my motor running.

Riding is a creative outlet for me. It takes creativity to come up with new places to explore. Sometimes it takes a bit of planning to get the wheels turning, but then something unravels the best laid plan and real adventure begins. Other times riding without a plan is the ticket to new discoveries. I often open topographical and road maps for inspiration. The roads that I enjoy discovering are ever changing. Some forest service roads change so quickly that even a two-year old map is now out of date. New gates aren’t always present on old maps. That is why, even well thought out rides can become sans plan.

Inspiration for motorcycle rides can come from seemingly odd places. Recently, I have found inspiration for motorcycle rides while flying. The flights out of Seattle’s SeaTac airport typically fly past Mount Rainier and over the Cascade Mountains. Upon take off, I scan the ground below for possible roads and trails. This allows a very broad picture of the road characteristics below. The amount of corners, elevation changes and even possible water crossings can be seen from the window seat of a jet liner.

A work trip had me in Las Vegas recently. The morning flight with a window seat had my eyes tracing possible paths out of Sin City and quickly onto lustful mountain roads that may even lead to snow-capped mountain peaks just a short distance from the strip. Perhaps a winter motorcycle trip through the Nevada and Utah deserts is next year’s cure to the socked-in Pacific Northwest winter. Yes, we can ride year round, but a sunny ride through the mountains with temperatures in the 60′s and 70′s sounds perfect to me. A work trip suddenly inspired me to daydream about possible rides through the Sierras, Reno and on to Las Vegas.

As my flight out of Vegas climbed high into the sky it revealed the vast beauty of mountains meeting flat desert valleys over and over again. The mundane sections of this region would heighten the pleasure of each mountain crossed. Excitement built up inside me as the possibilities presented themselves from 5,000, 10,000 and 30,000 feet. My nose was pinned to the plane’s window as the strip faded from sight and a more rural, enjoyable playground presented itself. Oh yes, a winter ride through the desert might be just the ticket next year.

Shoot, I hope this inspiration doesn’t lead to too much planning. I do believe there are ample discoveries to be had, if I can resist studying too many maps in the next several months. In fact, work may have me in Vegas again next winter. A ride to and from may just be in order. You never know from where inspiration for the next great ride will come. The trick is to open the mind and let the daydreaming begin.

Where do you find ride inspiration? Can you resist the urge to plan the “perfect” ride in order to actually find adventure and new discoveries?

Pick a direction and let’s ride.