Jul

2011

1:20pm, EDT

Robert Michael / AFP - Getty Images

Australia's Casey Stoner of the Repsol Honda team leans into a corner during the second free practice session of the Moto Grand Prix at the Sachsenring Circuit on July 15, 2011 in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, eastern Germany.

Motorcycle racers practice for the Moto Grand Prix in Germany

By Robert Hood

Explaining the joy of riding a motorcycle is difficult, but Dave Karlotski does it as well as anyone in his essay Season of the Bike.

A ride on a summer afternoon can border on the rapturous. The sheer volume and variety of stimuli is like a bath for my nervous system, an electrical massage for my brain, a systems check for my soul. It tears smiles out of me: a minute ago I was dour, depressed, apathetic, numb, but now, on two wheels, big, ragged, windy smiles flap against the side of my face, billowing out of me like air from a decompressing plane. Transportation is only a secondary function. A motorcycle is a joy machine. It's a machine of wonders, a metal bird, a motorized prosthetic. It's light and dark and shiny and dirty and warm and cold lapping over each other; it's a conduit of grace, it's a catalyst for bonding the gritty and the holy.

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Grammatik Polizei

Riding a motorcycle is one thing, in terms of sheer enjoyment. Riding one at it's limit around a track is quite another. The ethereal feeling of your knee puck scuffing the ground, an occasional touch of the toe, head mere inches from the ground as you flirt with that ragged edge as though it's your first girlfriend and one unwelcome advance might end it all forever... that's a feeling I've yet to match.

#1 - Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:38 PM EDT

SBPhrog

At Speed. Great shot!

Connection with The Moment, being present with concentration, as heavy a gig as anyone could ask for, and more. It's like surfing Mavericks but with a Jet Ski, huge power, and you'd better respect it, because danger lurks. As rewarding as any Midnight Liason, but without the hangups, just you and The Machine, and machines don't argue, as much as communicate the need for loving attention.

Gonzo and Richard Thompson said much the same, with a Vincent Black Shadow......Ribbit.

#2 - Sat Jul 16, 2011 12:52 AM EDT

SBPhrog

Oh, sorry folks, I got it wrong, Hunter and Richard speak of the Vincent Black Lightning, not the Vincent Black Shadow.......but it should be noted that the Vincent Black Shadow had a reputation for being the fastest production bike in the world until 1973!

#3 - Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:20 PM EDT

Tex-988483

I've had my knees in the breeze for many a year but these folks.....Dang. I'm just a puttering old fool.

Richard Thompson: Vincent Black Lightning 1952

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o

#4 - Wed Jul 20, 2011 1:35 PM EDT