Lessons I’ve Learned From the Road I don’t know if you are like me. I think things through. Consider eventualities. And arrogantly and erroneously, think I know. But I don’t. Thinking about stuff doesn’t teach you anything. Experience does. But, there may be an exception—learning from others’ mistakes. If so, I might be an excellent teacher because I don’t make a mistake […]
Why Riding Like You’re Invisible Isn’t Enough “Ride like you’re invisible.” We’ve all heard it. It sounds like great advice. The problem is that it has become a cliché. And as happens with all clichés, it has become trite. Visibility is an essential building block of our survival. Absolutely. Riding with hi-vis gear helps. Adding […]
Why You Should Hope It Rains On Your Course Weekend Most new riders think rain will ruin their motorcycle licensing course weekend. Wet pavement sounds like the last thing you want when you’re trying to learn something new on two wheels. “Is it too late to cancel?” Hold on! From a training standpoint, you’ve just won the lottery. I know. It happened to me, and my thoughts were the same as […]
How self-awareness takes you to the next level Clear, slightly cool, dry pavement, not much traffic; it was a perfect morning for riding. The road in front of me wound uphill into a tight right-hand turn. There was no shoulder, and on the inside edge the pavement ended and the ground dropped away into a […]
Spa Day for My Motorcycle a.k.a. My Bike OK, so I don’t really call my motorcycle Bessie. I’ve never been the type to name my motorcycles. But naming your bike is pretty common. Hayabusa owners regularly say things like, “I’m jumpin’ on the Busa and goin’ for a spin.” And BMW owners are known to […]
And what I’m going to do about it in 2026 Damn! The line of cars beside me had stopped to let a car turn left. I hadn’t seen it, so I rode right into its path. Fortunately, even though it was being waved through, its driver had seen me. I was lucky. This time. But—I […]
Species-Matching Approaches for Optimal Holiday Gift Procurement Within the broader motorcycling ecosystem, distinct behavioural groupings can be identified with surprising regularity. While each individual demonstrates the natural variation found in any free-roaming population, certain clusters — or species analogues, for the purposes of this field study — manifest traits so stable across geography, climate, and […]
Discovering the Fun Zone I rode like a typical Canadian—too damn polite to my bike. I babied it, not realizing the machine between my legs actually liked to be ridden hard, with a little bit of attitude. Don’t get me wrong. I was riding well and my bike was performing as it should—just not as […]
My Mom taught me to share—but I’m not so sure I once met a fellow motorcyclist from Huntsville who listed off some amazing roads he knew about—the kind of routes you dream about on a snowy February day. I told him about some of my favourites. He promised he’d email me the details; he never […]
Tips from the Dark Side of the Road The road around the next bend was beyond the beam of my headlight. West Virginia mountain roads are very dark at night, so I was riding into the unknown. I slowed down, leaned the bike, entered the corner with due caution, and gently accelerated as I came […]