Smallb lessings

Ihave never known anything like this. The roads are practically empty. The sun is out. It's like

God created the perfect day for all motorcyclists to head out and enjoy themselves. But no.

Riding is not going to happen. We're all in this lockdown together. No matter how much you want to get on that bike. Sigh. ..

As I write this, we are only allowed to leave the house for work (if it's essential), daily exercise, essential shopping or medical reasons. Even though a large part of my job involves riding motorcycles, it's not something I can justify as essential. And I doubt that riding a motorcycle counts as a form of exercise in the eyes of the law, so the only remaining options for riding are shopping and medical appointments.

I have managed to take the bike out for a (very) short ride a couple of times for both of these reasons.

The first 'ride' was a trip to the local shop for milk, bread and cheese. After a fortnight of self-isolation these were high on the essentials list. The ride to the shop was short. Three hundred yards, give or take. But it was lovely to be on the bike again after what seemed like a lifetime. Those were a very good 300 yards indeed! I was on the Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 (see the long-term report on page 84), but I could have been on any machine on two wheels and had a ball. I just needed my riding fix.

I can't remember a time I have taken a bike out for a shorter or slower ride. In fact, I was going even slower than I normally do on this residential street as I just wanted to enjoy the ride that little bit longer. But when the distance is that short, you can ride at walking pace and still get there in an instant. It was all over far too quickly, but it was good.

I suppose I could have gone to one of the bigger shops in town to get a slightly longer ride. You could get your shopping a little cheaper there, but my dislike of supermarkets trumps even my desire to ride motorcycles, so I stayed local instead, and visited the corner shop I always do.

The next outing on two wheels was a ride to a medical appointment, which surprisingly hadn't been cancelled like most routine procedures during the crisis. This time I got a few urban miles done on the bike, and reached the dizzy heights of 30mph (but not even a bit more, given the amount of speed cameras on my route). It was almost like the good old days of riding.

I was surprised how much traffic there was in town. It was much quieter than normal, sure, but it certainly didn't look like the ghost towns that you see on the news. There must be a lot of people on 'essential' business .

I'm not sure whether it was the Enfield's instantly lovable looks, the fact that there were absolutely no other bikes about, or people wondering ifl was just joyriding with no regard to the lockdown, but I seemed to turn everyone's head as I pottered along on the Interceptor.

Now I'm back home wishing I could just drink all the milk in the fridge so the wife would ask me to go to the shop again and I would get to enjoy another

300 yards of pure rapture ... But I know that's not how this lockdown works. Sniff...

At times like this even small ride scan bringgreat happiness