What Motorcycling has taught me about Life

1. Make Good Speed Whilst You Can...

... because you never what is up ahead. Many times I have thought that I could cover the last fifty or sixty kilometres in an hour only to find that traffic has choked the road, or the road has turned into a series of crater fields. A journey of an hour has turned into three.

Just when you think life is plain sailing, that it is a simple journey home, then it is when it gets a lot harder. So make hay whilst the sun shines, because tomorrow it turns dark.

2. Take your Turns Early...

... you turn with a lot more control. It is easier to react to a bike overtaking a car overtaking a lorry on a hairpin bend at 3000m for instance. You can adjust your speed, move out of the way or stop completely. Or not get run off the road.

Roads, whether beneath your feet or part of life are full of turns, that is their nature. They should not be avoided, but embraced. Just give yourself enough space and time to deal with what is around the corner.

3. Go out Wide and Come in Tight...

... to give yourself the maximum amount of vision. So you can see whats coming at you. So you can be ready to accelerate through the gap between a lorry and bus, or slow down so you don't startle a goat herd.

Life is full of opportunities. If you don't give yourself the best chance to see them, you will never have the best chance to take them.

4. Adjust your Speed Before you Hit bad Ground...

... slowing down on treacherous surfaces is dangerous. You skid on sand, on oil, on gravel, on moisture on tarmac. You will fall into potholes and rear up too fast and out of control. Your bike can jump out of gear, your breaks can lock, your handlebar turn into a bucking bronco. Before you know it, both you and the bike are fucked in a broken heap somewhere.

There is no shame in slowing down. Caution is as much a virtue as courage and skill. Sometimes you don't know what is ahead until you are already in it. When you know the ground and the terrain, when it is sure underfoot, by all means then gun your throttle and make top speed.

Accelerating out of tricky situations, mind you, is a different matter.

5. Play to Your Strengths...

... and give way where you are weak. Nothing in India can beat a 500cc Bullett from a standing start. There is nothing with nearly as much power. Similarly, accelerating up hill, even in Nepal where they do make gutsier bikes, nothing can match it, especially at high altitudes. On rough ground, two wheels are an advantage and their robust build is better than the slighter Indian bikes.

But on a straight, there are plenty of things that go faster. Cars, even the little Mazeratis and Suzuki's have more speed. Buses, careening along with a kamikaze sway, are best to give way to.

Everyone has strengths and weakness's. If you have to choose the battles that you fight, choose the battles that you can win.

6.Bad Terrain and Roads are nothing to be afraid of...

.. they just mean that you have to adjust the distances you can expect to cover in a day. If anything, the challenge and the variety are what makes a road trip by bike exciting.

Everyone has bad times and good. Ride the storms, manage your expectations. It can't be sunny every day. You never know, you may get to like the bumpy bits.

7. Trust in Fate. Help is never far away...

... even when it looks bleak. Even when you are desperate or hurt. There is always someone who can help. The number of times that I have been assisted by people passing by has been countless. When I crashed, when I ran out of petrol, when I skidded off the bike, when I was lost, when I needed somewhere to stay, when I was hungry or thirsty.... there was always someone who could help.

Not only that but I met some astonishing people, went to some utterly beautiful places and did some very unexpected things. These are the times that make journeys, whether round India on a motorbike or through life.

Trusting people is not easy. Trusting strangers is harder. Even harder is trusting people who do not speak your language.

If you don't, life not only becomes a lot harder, it becomes impossible.

8. The Expected Happens / You Find What you Seek

I am not talking necessarily about grails and quests (although it applies), but what you imagine it will be like. I expected long journeys, dirty accommodation, cold and hardship and I found it. I expected challenges, crashes and danger, I found that too. And sometimes ugliness and dirt and ignorance, and yes I found those too.

But adventure, and excitement, and interesting people with stories to tell. And amazing landscapes and astonishing food and uncharted places and lost kingdoms and gods and monsters and beasts and angels.

I also had high expectations of people. I expected them to help, and they did. I expected to be trustworthy, and they were. I expected kindness, wisdom, patience, understanding, and almost without question, that is what I experienced.

9. Plan as much as you can...

.. and then be prepared to abandon those plans up completely. Something better might be around the corner and if you are too blinded by what you have already prepared then you will miss out. What you thought might be unmissable, might be just tedious.

When I landed I only knew that I wanted to get a bike and head to the mountains and possibly the deserts. I didn't know for sure if Dan or even Mark would show up. Gradually destinations and routes appeared, I made friends along the way, and everything made perfect sense. But I changed my mind frequently and radically and wasn't too proud to take a day off now and then.

Before I left, I called said this would be 'structured unstructured time'. I had to let go and just trust that fate would push me in the right direction. Without a doubt it has done this.

10. It is Good to be Alive...

...I know that truly. I have looked death in the face and exulted at the wonderful life that I have been granted.

The air never tasted so sweet as when you are close to losing it forever. I will never forget this.

Motorbiking in India does bring you closer to death. But it brings you closer to life as well.