EL LOCO DIABLO

Its 6:30 in the morning, the time when the morning mist is just about to clear and the sun is sleepily peeking out from the clouds, the air is cool and there is an ethereal golden glow lent by the sun’s ray’s shining through the clouds. My bike is standing there as if greeting me with a morning pleasantry, the light makes the body look as though the paint is still fresh, I have a small smile in my heart. I get on top of it and thumb the starter; the engine comes to life with a metallic whirr and then settles in to a baritone idle. The engine note blends in with the sounds of the morning along with the rustle of the trees and the chirp of the birds. I let it idle for just a few more seconds before I engage first and roll the bike out smoothly and amber about till I get onto the nearest tarmac (Since where I live most roads are still dirt tracks). Then I slowly start increasing my speed, the revs increase between my shifts, clutch gets dumped, shifting becomes quicker, braking becomes stronger. The bike now starts to demand that I put my full attention to it, I immediately and get into a position where the bike responds the best to my inputs. Heart beat rises, pupils dilate taking in as much information as it can, muscles tighten and the communication delay between my bike and me reduces to a minimum, my motor actions start to work involuntarily and react so quickly, that if I happen to see a obstacle the motor nerves almost instantly makes me drop a gear, start braking and maneuver around whatever is there in my path. The bike compensates wherever me as a rider lack and I compensate wherever the bike lacks, it’s a symbiotic relationship like every other where matters of the heart are involved. You are awarded when you trust the machine and when you do trust, it affirms your faith with the bike.

Hence I’ve actually learnt to, If can say this so myself, become a better rider just by listening to my bike better. And in my opinion in order for the rider to improve in his quality, his bike is very important.

And this brings us to the actual thing I was wanting to discuss on this thread here, all relationships both with man and machine are bound to sometimes draw thin with time, sometimes you are just bored by the monotony of it all, especially in my case.

As I narrated in the previous paragraph, I would actually at one point of time look forward to go college just so I could ride the bike a good 12km flying at 70-80kmph. But as time wore on with the pressures of the mundane lives catching up to you, I could no longer hop on my bike and just ride away from it all every weekend. Blame the rising expenses or society’s view on what I do, but whatever it was I simply couldn’t continue doing what I once thought would never be taken away from me. Generally I’m not someone who romanticized my bike, I’m maintaining it well but I didn’t look beyond the fact that for all it was just an inanimate object, because I thought it would be silly to get depressed whenever I crash my bike, in turn it was my ability to communicate with my bike that I nourished and loved my life with.
And this “communicative ability” in my case, is starting to wane out slowly. When I started to confine my riding from any extraneous activities, other than running errands for myself or for the family. But I still try to take it and turn it around, because we as riders seem to love the connection with our bikes, so no matter what I’m still loving my bike. Lately the bike fell under the weather what with the badly worn out tires, and everyone knows you can’t give it your full with tires that don’t grip, so when I changed my riding style to a slightly milder tone. I immediately found that albeit being comfortable, a small wall started creeping up between me and my bike, if you see any everyday commuter on his bike you can see that the rider is not actually “riding” it but just making it “take” him from here to there by effective use of the bike’s controls, it’s like how some of us work, we may not love our jobs but still be able to do it. And I slowly started falling into that vicious cycle, try as I might I just couldn’t find the urge or passion I used to have when I first started out on my then brand new bike. I was always finding ways to re-invent but am just falling short of the required standard.

Time can be cruel mistress, therefore when my bike happens to break down or needs a periodical part replaced I’m finding it hard to fight for my bike with the rest of my family, because when my bike creates expenses it means that I’ve not been maintaining properly and that irritates. And the new bikes on the street doesn’t make things easier either, so when I’m standing at red-lights and the guy next to me pulls up in a bike that is less expensive but with better features than mine.

And I know this phase will come to pass when the years roll on, but the remaining time with my bike depends on how I handle this particular obstacle between me and the bike. And I can be very temperamental when I no longer seem to have interest in the things I own, and if I get temperamental on my bike it’ll affect the rider in me. And to me the rider quality is what defines me as a person, people find it easier to associate me with my bike, and I like that. So I would like others like me here to put up their opinions on this matter and tell me how you overcame this phase when it occurred to you.

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I'm too intelligent to the unintended, and too dumb for the obvious.

Sunny

Hard Torque Approved

Anything in the world if overdone will risk it being tagged as monotonous. Once your brain experiences a certain thing it is 'wired' and the next time you do it would be a little more like a natural reflex. Something like when you are going back from your office to home on a bike you dont even think of the route, your body is directing the motorcycle based on instructions from the brain transmitted over a subconscious cerebral layer.

I know businessmen who once dreamed of making it big and owning big cars, but now even they are finding this 'boring'.

To keep oneself driven, you must keep trying new things. If you dont use your bike to tour anywhere then you will not realize how many places it can take you. Buy yourself some new gear, do a new paintjob, make things interesting. Its human nature and an indication to move to a higher level and try something new.

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L.P.

Sometimes at a point of time,Life seems to have become'd stable and following the same kind of pattern on a daily Basis,it becomes very monotonous.

Introducing small changes frequently would keep a person indulged in the new activities and keep his mind rolling down the line and learning new things over the period of time along with the slow curve!

The life at 21 is the learning phase,what you will learn now is what you will be may be 5 years and 10year's down the line!

Truly Commendable words EL-LOCO-Diablo,very well written my friend!

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2006-till Date : Bajaj Discover 125cc 1,60,000 kms
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onlinesatish

Well...i do get bored at times riding my bike again and again. So i keep changing my rides often and change my ridng habit every now and then too. And once you get back to your old self you enjoy every moment of it.

This is what i do and it still keeps me close to my RTR. It still puts a smile on my face whenever i rip it. But rip rip rip will get boring at times. Try riding like how a commuter would ride....then get back to your usual riding say after 10days and rediscover yourself

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Passion Guy : Moron am insane than u r.....look i ride with my head turned

00 Bajaj Chetak
02 HH CBR 100RR
07 RTR 160
09 Pulsar 220
10 Rx 135 4Spd
07 HH Zma
11 Honda Aviator DLX
08 Yamaha R15

EL LOCO DIABLO

Thank you Sunny, for the paragraphing, i used to dabble here and there in a few essays but looks like i'm a bit rusty

Thank you L.P., i was merely stating my feelings as they emerged whilst writing this

If Invention was the mother of necessity, then Reinvention is the mother of creativity, change is ultimately the only thing that can save our souls from it's dreary fate which in my opinion is far worse than anything else.Thanks guys, eventhough the explanantion is obvious and i too have thought on the same lines, when it comes out from various people from around the country, the whole sentence changes and gets a fresh new meaning. It's like when you keep looking at something long enough you can the see that thing will change your perception of it over and over again surprising you every time. So looks like i might to look hard in my bike to find it's lost soul and also mine

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I'm too intelligent to the unintended, and too dumb for the obvious.

avinrichards

Very well written my friend..

7 years ago when i started biking i never even imagined where that road would lead me.
The road has gone through heights of a new bike , lows of accidents, tons of potholes and now its in the plains .. atleast i thought it was in the plains.
Until recently i discovered how important it is to constantly re-discover yourself. yes life is monotonous, But thats something that just does not happen by itself. i mean we make it monotonous. The mirage of daily responsibility and other commitments totally blind us.
There is always time. There is always that new thing you have never done.
There is always a new experience to be felt. There is always a new lesson to be learn and there are always new people to meet.
you dont need anything but yourself to inspire you. From where i stand we all love the change but hate to do it for fear of a lot of factors that actually make us miss a lot in life.

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strider

@renny
when we have to put our biking passion in side for many other practical things in life.....

thr are many amongst us who cannot go and buy a superbike worth 8lakhs,inspite of having the bucks cuz they have to buy the first car of the family too....

I really begged my father to buy me 2007 R6 when it came out...but he bought me Ford Fiesta 1.4 ZXI sayin-"it makes more sense"...

"Actions indicate Priority" my friend...
I come from a middle-class family too and its just that parents will never be happy/understand at you investing so much on 2-wheels which can hardly or comfortably carry 2 people...

2 years down the line now,i believe it does......

But one should realise that "Its Now or Never", I mean you can afford an SBK now, so just pick it up, a car will definetly follow,once you end-up in marriage...
One should not repent for his actions later(of not buying it inspite of the cash)

PS: No offence at all bro, just putting my opinion about this..

Mindgrinder

do not take me otherwise but i yawned half way through the article, cuz i guess i predicted what was coming, ideally i won't call it mid life crisis, crisis is something when you do not have it or can't afford, its more of a boredom creeping in. Well there is one thing i always believed in "when you are 21 you think ok, i have seen 20 yrs of my life and learned from them, but when you are 25 and look back, you feel things have changed or may be not, there is no end to maturity or learning" may be most of us in India learn to ride too early for boredom to creep in, most of us cannot afford luxury of being in Debts to buy high performance machines, and miss good roads to try adventure.

I bought FZ 16 this year and have completed 2k kms in 6 months and in college i did those in 1.5 months on my pulsar v1, may be cuz i moved to a more comfortable way of living with rise in income, moving to a car or taking flights to travel even short distances, rather hitting jaipur on my bike. Passion wears out with time until you are reaping something out of it or may be thats the way we perceive it.

If you can still woo girls, make a living out of it, you will not feel monotonous riding a bike. There is a self exploration and Self realization, i believe you reached the latter and i think its better.

Do not mind starting of my para but sometimes i feel i can post loath of heavy words and make it approved for hard torque, well yours was better as it connected well as it progressed.

Also i wanted to add in country like ours even if you ride an intruder or R1 on lookers are only on road, but remember if you travel to a hotel or mall or any other place car gets more value, even if you ride the costliest bike it is quietly ignored in 2 wheeler parking.

I agree with Renny also because all of our dad's are adventurous at our ages, my dad rode from Java to Yezdi to Enfield all the bikes at his age, but after 40 yrs his suggestion of buying a car makes more sense cuz he has loads of experience behind it, atleast more than us, with highest road accident prone country a car makes more sense including safety, and loading. Also remember in our country taxi's are 2 wheelers are stopped most by cops.

Its ok to get bored, only then you will try news things, if there were no cravings a newer recipe would never be invented

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rennycornelius

well said.........

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EL LOCO DIABLO

^+1, But the "crisis" was put there not for me but for my bike, because the bike is already half through it's life, I estimate my bike to be with me for about five-six years, and right now the bike is two years old, therefore the title "mid-life" and also i'm known to be terribly lax in maintenance of anything once i lose interest in it, my previous scooter had never been washed ever in it's three years with me!, the only clean areas in my bike would be the grips and the seat

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I'm too intelligent to the unintended, and too dumb for the obvious.