FROM THE FRONT
We are galloping towards the end of yet another year! This means that it’s almost time to consider making a new year’s resolution or two. I always do this (although if asked I would of course deny it) and for just about as long as I can remember the 2-wheeled theme of my annual resolution has been the same – ride more, fettle less, maintain less; ride more and further.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? And in an ideal world it would be easy. And in fact … it is easy. The only genuine snag comes in deciding what not to do, so that there’s more time liberated for riding. As I have become increasingly ancient – an entertaining process – I have found that the peripherals of the actual riding thing have taken up an increasingly ridiculous amount of time – time spent to actually keep the amount of riding time remarkably consistent. How is this?
My own preferences are to ride familiar routes to familiar places, stay in familiar lodges and indeed meet up with familiar friends to do familiar things. Like eat too much, drink too much and decide far too readily that we – and we alone – are perfectly suited to putting the world to rights. Well… all good harmless fun. I always enjoy it, too, and I always enjoy the riding, whatever the weather and – pretty much – whatever the bike. But … there is always a but … where’s the challenge? Of course, there is none, apart from that of actually getting togged up and fuelled up and actually doing it.
So, come January 1st I will inevitably announce (but only to myself, because there’s less embarrassment that way) that next year I shall ride far and over roads unknown to me. I shall visit pals in remote locations, sample strange brews and stay in mysteriously similar yet oddly different Travelodges. Travelodges? Oh yes, I know how to travel in style!
The obvious flaw in the creative resolving is that I decide to do this every year. Hmmm. And somehow … I don’t. Well, not as often as I’d like. I’m not entirely sure why this is, apart from the gentle fact that familiarity breeds content – at least it does for me. I enjoy riding the same roads over and again, revelling in the way they change as the seasons change and the volume of traffic changes. I like to know where I’m going, too. The ‘follow the front wheel’ notion is a great thing to shout out, but in fact I prefer to know where I’m sleeping at night, and preferably who I’m sharing entertainment and entertaining lies with for the evening.
And … I have in fact never been very different. Even when young and more foolish I preferred to know where I was going. Never much of an anarchist, then!
What I do enjoy is having my overnight booked, then just drifting towards it. Getting up decently early, maybe grabbing breakfast on the road, maybe using the sun to provide a compass, an occasional scan at a pocket road atlas to confirm that I’m heading the right way… which is all very romantic sounding, but tends to dump me into some ghastly city tangle rather than out on the open roads.
2019, then, should be much the same but better. I’ve told several pals that instead of us trekking miles to meet up, we’ll trek miles to meet up … in different places. They can choose. So there you are: a resolution and a challenge, all on one. Roll on the new year then! Hope you enjoy Christmas on the way past… Ride safely