motorcyclemeditation.com

On the motorcycle to the new speedskating track in North London, excitement building at the thought of fast smooth surfaces. Some fast skaters also due there, skate by yourself and you feel pretty good, skate with them and you have to wear a brave face as they pass you.

These competitive considerations applying to a motorcycle, but only on a racetrack, the actual daily experience of being on a motorcycle containing no such deflations. More the opposite, the cars on the road being ludicrously slow in comparison.

At the skate meet, great excitement about faster times together with the usual athlete chitchat about new equipment and techniques for shaving off hundredths of seconds, this topic apparently being of interest also to those for whom such improvements mean merely losing by slightly smaller margins.

Such conversations listened to politely by me but without real interest. My opinion neither solicited nor offered, if it were it would be along the lines, sure, this speed is interesting but what it doesn’t have is the absoluteness of a motorcycle. Skating, running, bicycling, they’re good fun, but you don’t actually go all that fast.

Whereas my friends, on a motorcycle, now, that is fast. Get on a motorcycle and you’re at the physical limits of speed, speed that your body can be exposed to, that is. Any faster and you need to be in some protective capsule, and then you lose the sensation.

An important factor, this. Speed having an absolute meaning in the human mind, and the absolute expression of speed for the unprotected human body, a motorcycle. Forget the lesser alternatives. Okay, now that’s cleared up, what was that you were saying about skating equipment.