Moto Journal: first commute

It was awesome. It was magical. It was invigorating. It was the most nerve-racking twenty minutes of my life to date. 

But most amazing of all, it felt totally natural. 

I finally felt ready to wrap up all the practicing for a while and actually ride somewhere today. To work. On an honest-to-G-d Houston freeway, at speeds up to about 75mph, with actual other cars going the same damned speed to keep me company. 

And this crazy thing happened: I got where I meant to go with no trouble whatsoever. No cars not seeing me and trying to occupy my point in space (point of fact everyone was more than courteous to me in their driving), no crashing or sliding at freeway speeds. No organ donation. Just the most invigorating and pleasant commute to work I’ve ever had. It even felt like it went by faster than in a car, even though I averaged my normal speeds. 

Even the curves – bane of my motorcycle existence up to now – seemed to just fly by naturally. I was one with the bike, one with the road, one with the forces of nature that had me just “falling into the curves” as a matter of simply looking through them and naturally pressing and leaning and having everything come together just as it needed to. 

And my worries about getting up to speed on the freeway were groundless. My ‘strom cruises at 70 mph without blinking, not coming anywhere near the rev limiter even when going up one of the steepest bridges in the area. Inwas in command of the road. I felt like I was finally where I had meant to go with this whole adventure. 

But then there was the nerve-racking part. My bike still had some issues. The right mirror lost its grip (on reality?) just as I hit 50mph the first time and no matter how much I tried to position it, kept swinging inward to give me a beautiful view of my jacket and nothing else. I was stuck guessing and head-checking my way through every right-hand lane change and turn. Nerve-racking. 

There was also the fact that my wind screen, which I had carefully tuned just right for life at 40 mph, seemed to throw turbulence at me at 70. Took a little of the fun out of the ride, but not much. 

And there was the vibration - not sure why, but at freeway speeds I could feel engine vibes and road vibes through the handlebars to the point that my hands began to go numb. 

And there was passing the 18-wheelers that frequent a section of my freeway commute. Little wind tunnels trying to shake me to bits. 

But these are quibbles. My ride to work was an absolute joy for the first time ever, and I don’t want to go back to car commuting, like, ever. 

I got to work, snapped a selfie with my bike, and was gratified with a couple of dropped jaws from students when they saw me walk into the building with riding gear on and helmet in hand. It was easily the high point of my morning!

But what goes up, must apparently come down. My ride home was almost as awful as my ride to work was awesome. 

There was more traffic by far than there was in the morning, and all of it seemed to want to go faster than I did. 

There was an awful cross-wind that had me leaning the bike at 10 degrees just to go straight, drifting back and forth from one lane position to another, and slowing to 65 almost involuntarily to compensate. 

There was a felt need to hurry home to get my kid to baseball practice that made all of this feel more urgent and stressful and less natural and relaxed than the morning ride felt. 

And there was, when I finally got to the fun twisty roads into my neighborhood, a collection of slowpokes who boxed me in going the boring old speed limit. 

But most of all, there was the fact that I was already stressed about time before I got on the bike, and every little thing that went wrong had me fighting the bike harder. I forgot to be one with the bike. I forgot to go with the flow. I eventually forgot to remember what gear I was even in. It was a mess. 

But I still survived. I now know I can do this. I now know that all those doomsayers who kept telling me this was a good way to die or at least lose a limb were exaggerating at least a bit. And I now know that there are new skills to build and get the hang of that you can’t practice in a parking lot. 

And I now know that I am *going* to get the hang of this. 

And it’s going to be fun.