The story of a biker’s Sunday

Drive Tribe:

It’s muscle memory, this business of riding a bike. The first tiny touch of counter steer to initiate the turn, feeling rather than seeing the road as it curves in from the left and then dipping a shoulder into my own turn as it starts, shadowing the road’s moves, squeezing in power, feeling it tighten, feeling the grip from the tyre as surely as running the palm of a gloved hand along the tarmac. It’s muscle memory.

Adjusting the bike’s trajectory by moving a shoulder or shifting a hip, I am reconnecting with the business of working as a team, machine and rider, sharing the goal of playing with the road’s curves and straights and dips and stringing them together to form a perfect whole.

Richard Hammond, of “Top Gear” and “The Grand Tour” fame, is not just a car guy. He also loves motorcycles. If you’ve ever wondered why those of us who ride do this incredibly dangerous thing, read this article. The feelings he describes in the beginning of the piece are bang on for many of us, as is the camaraderie you have with random other riders – they may be complete strangers but you have the “brotherhood” that ties you to each other in ways hard to understand or describe.