This Sunday, as I was eating my breakfast about 5am, with no desire to return to bed, the lightbulb went off. What if I went for a ride? I quickly finished my egg, cheese, blackberry jam, and bagel sandwich. Then I cleaned up the kitchen and got dressed. Honestly, I knew I would ride on Sunday, but I thought to wait till the temperature outside warmed up. “It will get warmer,” I thought. Regardless, I opened the garage door, felt the brisk cold air hit in the face and I started my stretching routine before sunrise. Part of my reasoning to start my ride so early on Sunday, is to fine tune my early morning pre-ride work commute routine. This past Thursday morning I made a commute to work by motorcycle and to be honest, my pre-ride routine was shit. A complete failure. Now I did manage to get to work on time, but I had many issues occurring during my pre-ride routine that made me want to fine tune this process on Sunday morning. And I did.
What happened after I left my neighborhood, is amazing. No, I didn’t set any new speed records. In fact, the entire riding experience Sunday was very conservative. Maybe this is because I have had some close calls recently on the public roads that had me easing off the throttle. That is a good thing! I honest felt no need to go beyond my limits so I channeled my inner Keanu Reeves and had two amazing, chill, rides this past Sunday.
My AM ride focused on an early departure with a few minutes of slow speed maneuvers. Then a stop at Starbucks to warm up. Though I do love the chilly weather for riding, the brisk cold air does create the need to find a warm spot and good hot cup of coffee. I decided on Starbucks for this AM session. Once I finished my cup, had a bite to eat, a bathroom break, I turned my motorcycle in the direction of Folly Beach. Folly Beach has always held a special place in my heart. Heck, 20 years ago I lived at Folly for about 6 months. And this was during the “off season”. Returning back to Folly during the off season is when I love the beach the most. Arriving at “The Washout”, the famous Folly surf spot, I immediately parked my Moto Morini and walked out to the beach. It was around 8am Sunday when I arrived and sleepy Folly on Sunday made for a brief moment of isolation on the beach. Only a handful of other people braved the windy chilly conditions like me, and I had time to feel, see, and take in this amazing view. Leaving Folly, I snaked my way home through some back roads working on my countersteering while leaning heavily into some turns. One of my goals for 2025 is to take part in a track day. Using the twisting back roads of James Island, I definitely felt compelled to envision myself on a racetrack rolling the throttle on my Moto Morini through some turns. Not a bad session and best of all, I got home safe.
The final session on this epic Sunday was a brief afternoon run to one of my favorite burger spots while learning to handle myself in traffic. Riding in traffic is just part of life as a motorcyclist. Having recently read a web article on “exposure therapy”, traffic is a living beast that takes victims all the time. There is an ebb and flow to traffic, and I feel the more I “expose” myself to traffic the more confidence I will have to navigate this madness. Lucky for me, Sunday traffic was not too bad. After my burger and pork sandwich LOL, I cruised back home again, favoring back roads and rolled the throttle as much as I could. How wonderful!
I didn’t travel too far South but the traveling I did was amazing. Add to the fact that I rode twice in one day I feel very fortunate to be able to do something like this. This epic Sunday gave me the boost mentally I needed for the busy upcoming work week and a bit of exercise for my body. What is best, is I woke up the next day, Monday, ready to ride again.
Rolf