Morning rides and countrysides
With spring making its way back into our lives, I’m sure many have already begun the tedious tradition of “spring cleaning”’. And with such tradition, many bikers dust off their motorcycle gear and haul out their hogs from hibernation to get ready for summer rides.
And let’s face it there’s nothing better than shaking off the working-week’s stress by firing up your old pride and joy and heading off on a Sunday morning breakfast run with a few mates.
But it seems the perception of motorcycle breakfast runs has changed somewhat - I, for one, liken it to an early morning cruise through our magnificent countryside, admiring the scenery while escaping the hustle and bustle of city life.
So when I finally had the opportunity to participate in a Sunday ride shortly after receiving my motorcycle licence a few years ago, I was over the moon. We set off en route to most bikers’ Sunday hangout: Hartbeespoort Dam, meeting up with my dad’s friends along the way because riding in a pack with fellow bikers is always a blast, especially the “old school guys” who ride Nortons, Moto Guzzis and BSAs. They seem to understand the meaning of a Sunday drive… Heck most of these gentlemen came from the golden era where you had a separate vehicle for Sunday cruises. Safe to say we were on a go-slow, which suited me just fine, the roads weren’t in the greatest condition – a situation that remains unchanged.
While coasting along our group of at least seven-strong, were overtaken by a pack of hooligans flying at immeasurable speeds, weaving in and out of traffic. The gaps they squeezed into left a trail of destruction because now everyone else found themselves braking to accommodate them nudging in, essentially, choking what was a steady pace.
I’ll admit the sweeping bends are definitely fun, however competing for position with cars means it’s safer to hang back and let’s face it - we are not all racing drivers so why pretend? Besides, since when did a Sunday wander become a race? I can’t grasp the idea of leaving my house for a ride only to reach the destination 10 minutes later because I drove like a raging bully!
And this riding style seems to have an ever-increasing following. On a recent trip to Harties I again found myself being overtaken by a trio of hoodlums, only to be passed again seconds later by another crowd of speed freaks clearly breaking into the 200km/h zone. How can anyone de-stress from a week of heavy work by racing along at frightful speeds? Has our fast-paced lives made us incapable of enjoying anything at a leisurely tempo…?
It’s no wonder then, after almost every weekend, you’ll hear in motorcycling circles that someone has died after participating in some sort of breakfast run and sadly these deaths are usually speed-related. Whether it’s a result of the biker losing control or colliding with another vehicle, the harsh reality is speeding with any machine dramatically reduces one’s reaction time and no matter how good a rider, the incident becomes unavoidable.
There is nothing worse than arriving at an accident scene and seeing debris scattered for kilometres - and realising it’s someone’s loved one. It doesn’t matter how well other motorists drive, they cannot always anticipate a speed demon swerving and chopping lanes at high velocity.
It’s for this reason that more and more bike groups organising events are trying to move away from the hooligan attitude some bikers carry to outings. “Bottle and throttle don’t mix” is a common motto you’ll hear when tagging along on a ride with various crowds who promote roadworthy bikes and endorse responsible riding by flat-out not inviting hooligans and trouble makers. This is possibly the only way to discourage the culture of speeding on rides and the unruly chaos that follows, by simply stating: you’re not welcome!
And if a rider can resist the urge to speed, and merely enjoy the ride and the wind, I guarantee when you’re done your mind will be clear and your faith restored, because although four wheels moves the body, only two wheels can move your soul. And with an ever-increasing number of businessmen, and women, trading their weekday attire for riding leathers, motorcycling is again becoming a relaxing fashionable trend. Why wouldn’t it be, when your knees are in the breeze it’s easy to forget what you do for a living and people from all wage brackets come together over a single love: motorcycling.
Besides, only a biker knows why a dog sticks its head out of the car window… what freedom!
