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Entered this for the BIKE magazine writing competition.
I didn’t win, so I thought I would share it with you all…In a world where we are strangled by speed cameras, where rumors abound about ever crazier legislation to restrict our motorcycling, where passing the test is getting tougher and tougher, it sometimes hard to remember that right here right now what we are enduring is not a motorcycle hell, but is in fact quite the opposite, we are in fact slap bang in the middle of motorcycling Golden Age. Think about it for a moment…
Want a sportsbike, a tourer, a dirt bike, a supermoto, or a scooter? In every category the choice we face is bewildering and the level of competence quite staggering. But it isn’t just the bikes, look at the equipment too; from clothing to extras to make every aspect of biking more enjoyable, again the choice is simply overwhelming. There is more…want to a trackday? Tracks all over the country and across Europe now offer all sorts of different experiences for the price of a mid range crash helmet. Good grief, you can even roll up at the Nurburgring and for a few Euros ride in the wheel tracks of legends. Wind back the clock 15 years and this whole huge business barely existed. But even that’s not all, want to learn to do stunts, ride a trail bike across Africa, take a Harley down Route 66 or an Enfield across the Himalayas? No problem, just sign up for any of the hundreds of tours where most of the detail work is all done for you, it couldn’t be easier. Hell we even have a thriving bike industry again with Triumph producing some genuinely world class bikes.
“Ah our roads are awful” I hear some of you cry. What utter tosh, in every corner of the UK there are quiet, challenging roads that pierce through some of the most breathtaking views anywhere in the world. Venture away from home for a few hours and the mountains of Wales or the Glens of Scotland can be laid out before you, or take a ferry to Europe and blast through the Napoleon pass, or scream across Northern Spain.
Yes there are clouds on the horizon, yes the Eurocrats are closing in, but right here right now is fantastic time to be a biker. So let’s keep positive about our biking as we pay Fiesta money for our Ferrari humbling performance, and above all else – seize the day!
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