After a long wet winter, I have been grabbing sunshine and spending much less time at the keyboard. This can only be a good thing. My daily images on Blipfoto tell a story of warm weather and escape: on canals, on two wheels, on golf courses – some might say an unlikely combination but the stereotypical biker is a myth. We are all differently made but we ride for the same reasons.
My good lady recently bought me a digital subscription to Iron and Air, an American bike magazine which combines images and words verging on the poetic. In my usual compulsive manner, I am working my way through every back copy – this from Dave Karlotski, Season of the Bike, in Issue 1:
“At 30 miles an hour and up, smells become uncannily vivid. All the individual tree-smells and flower-smells flit by like chemical notes in a great plant symphony. Sometimes the smells evoke memories so strongly that it’s as though the past hangs invisible in the air around me … “
Riding the arrow-straight Military Road that runs parallel to Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland you cross paths with heavily laden lumber lorries carrying timber south from the forests at Kielder. At 60mph they create a bow wave, an invisible wake of air that unsettles the bike at a combined speed in excess of 100mph. For a very brief moment in time the air turns warm and heavy with the scent of diesel – it is an oddly intimate and uplifting experience.
“Cars lie to us and tell us we’re safe, powerful and in control. The air-conditioning fans murmur empty assurances and whisper, “Sleep, sleep.” Motorcycles tell us a more useful truth: we are small and exposed and probably moving too fast for our own good, but that’s no reason not to enjoy every minute of the ride.”
This post dedicated to Ian Bell, supplier of this Yamaha.
northumbrian : light 
Sounds like some wonderful adventures!
It has been a good year so far – and of course the highlight I have not mentioned was the trip to the Outer Hebrides. My ideal would be to repeat the trip on the bike somehow carrying golf clubs 🙂
You picked a great Spring for visiting up there….they are stunning at that time of year….we plan a late summer trip this year 🙂
Look forward to seeing your images…and I’m currently trying to imagine you on a bike with golf clubs….and yes I’m laughing!!
The Hebrides images/stories are on the blog starting here:
https://northumbrianlight.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/true-north/
Wish I could solve the bike/golf clubs combination – perhaps a sidecar in the style of Wallace and Gromit 😀
Great shots. You should submit some of your “bike” writings that you’ve submitted on this blog to the editors and Iron and Air.
Many thanks Cate – I may follow up your generous suggestion re Iron & Air. Certainly Golf in the Wild II will have a motorcycle theme running through it.
I agree bikes never lie… I was the only one who ended lying as I overestimated my biker skills :o)
Remember, a moving bike is easy to ride and a fast moving bike even easier (in a straight line). The problems start when they stop 🙂
or when a coward like me rides on it and tries to brake with its feet (one of the worst bad ideas I ever had)
It’s always fabulous to read accounts from other passionate enthusiasts. Makes you feel like you’re part of a tribe. Happy reading, Robin.
p.s. your blipphoto page is superb. The one of the sheep – Wow!!
Re the PS – thanks – another reason I spend less time on WordPress – I think those sheep are all called Dolly 😉
I’ve also started to branch out from WP, for various reasons. I’m testing out smaller/newer/less obnoxious and invasive networks like Ello and Telegram (channels).
Thanks Julie – the stereotypical biker may be a myth but there is a sense of community – they never ride by when another is in trouble.
Less keyboard time and breakfast in the garden with a book is my ideal of Summer, Robin. I think I’ve managed it 3 times so far. Living in hope 🙂 Good to have a passion.
Sounds like a scene from Summer’s Lease which “hath all too short a date” – let’s hope for more sunshine, Jo – breakfasts in the garden, rides on the bike and thrashing on the golf course 🙂
🙂 🙂
Great read,including the comments. Have fun and stop carefully! 😊
Many thanks – there is poetry in everything if you look hard enough 😉
I’m glad you’ve been getting out and about and capturing some great photographs too. I can only imagine that it must be exhilarating to travel by motorbike. Have fun and take care!
Thanks Karen – one day I will take it out to the islands.
Looks an amazing machine. Beautiful colours, textures and details in the photos. The motorbike gleams that glorious red.
It’s a fabulous machine which is comfortable enough to ride very long distances – and one day I will.