Coast2Coast Episode #13 - More reflective (and less blubbery)

Tired of watching Shrek reruns with the kids, this morning I fired up the DVD player and put in Dust to Glory, a film about the Baja 1000. No less than ten of my good friends from my movie making days made this film. It's a beautiful film and every time I watch it I'm overcome with emotions.

Not overcome with emotions like a fat girl drowning in a pint of Haagen Dazs watching Bridget Jones Diary. No, it's more reflective (and less blubbery). It really makes me think about life and the things that I love, and I love doing. I've done a lot of things in my life. I've climbed some of the largest rocks in the world, I've raced triathlons, I surf, I hang glide. But nothing connects to me emotionally like motorcycling.

Motorcycling certainly isn't the most exclusive or adventurous sport I do. That easily goes to hang gliding. Hang gliding is an amazing sport, and the fraternity of pilots are the greatest people I've ever known. And surfing has an almost biblical "walking on water" side to it. Flying and walking on water... ambitions of the primal man.

But there's something magical about motorcycling. You can see it in films like Faster, Dust To Glory, Long Way Round, Race to Dakar, Long Way Down. You can read about it in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Jupiter's Travels. You can feel it by just jumping on your bike and taking a ride. It's so accessible. Unlike surfing where you have to wait for swells, or flying where you wait for good weather conditions, motorcycling is right there! It's right in your garage, and you can just jump on and ride.

I was riding home yesterday just deliriously talking to myself in my helmet saying "I love my bike. Ohhhhhh, I love it, I love it, I love it!" I was thinking about the past and the future. About next weekend, taking a long ride to see my best mate in Arizona. About June when I'm going to ride across the entire continent. To last month when Gwen and I did that amazing ride to Malibu. To two years ago when I rode to Laguna Seca for MotoGP, and to this summer when I'm going to ride to Laguna Seca again, but this time with Gwen at my side.

It's a beautiful thing, and I think that I'd probably be in love with motorcycling no matter what I was riding. But I have to say, ever since I've switched to BMW it seems to have intensified.

I can't wait to see where it takes me next.