Forget and Remember: a cheer to all bikers
Paolo Volpara © 1998
After few years on the saddle, we all have many things to Forget and many to Remember.
LET US RAISE A CHEER FOR THE INDOMITABLE SPIRIT OF THE LONELY RIDER.
THE LAND AND THE ROADS ARE LONG SINCE MAPPED BUT THE TRUE RIDER WILL STILL PUSH HIS BIKE ONE MORE MILE TO EXPLORE NEW PLACES OUTSIDE AND A NEW STRENGTH INSIDE.
RAISING THE GLASS, I CHEER TO WHAT TO “FORGET AND REMEMBER”
Forget the riders who let you down canceling trip at the last minute.
Forget the friends who disappeared because ashamed to learn.
Forget the riders who turned their bike because the night is made for sleeping not for riding.
Forget the bikes left in the garage because it is raining, it is cold, it is muddy, it is hot.
Forget the parades, the grand groups showing their courage by riding from bars to restaurants and from restaurants to hotels.
Forget the uniforms, the line up, the convoys, the rules.
Forget the titles, the status, the kudos, the friends who are friends to stay in the group, to wear a shirt or to stick a label on bike and helmet.
Forget the prudence, forget the clumsy slow riding, forget the wrong lines the wrong signals, forget the incompetence presented under the camouflage of fun and safety.
Forget the accessories, the shining motors, the new models, the fancy gear.
Forget the days when you had to sit at the table wasting time in futile talks when the road was waiting for you ahead.
Forget that crossing where you decided to turn back while just around the corner, in just one more mile, splendid landscape were waiting for you.
Forget the roads done millions of time, always the same, to feel secure and comfortable.
Forget the Sundays you stayed home because… the family, the rain, the time, the job, the movies, the TV.
Forget “I am the best, the oldest, the stronger, the braver, the faster”
FORGET ALL THIS. LET IT GO OUT OF YOUR MIND, LET IT SLIP OVER YOUR WINDSCREEN LIKE RAIN OF SPRING. AFTER ALL, YOU ALWAYS HAVE GOT YOUR BIKE!
TAKE IT AND RIDE OUT ALONE IN A CLEAR DAY, TRYING THE BEST COMBINATION OF GEAR, SPEED AND POSITION. FOCUS ON THE BIKE AND LISTEN TO THE ROAD.
NOW YOU WILL START TO REMEMBER.
Remember the friend picking up your gloves and helping you at the beginning of the trip.
Remember who stopped when you were in trouble, the rider that sacrificed his pleasure to share with you the pain of a broken bike.
Remember the fear of going too fast of risking too much mixed with the full sense of living.
Remember who was there when you overshot that corner to mend your bike and your pride.
Remember the crystal clear day of Anatolia when bike, rider, landscape, air, sun, clouds and all the Creation was moving perfectly around you and your machine.
Remember the long night when destination was far, the brain was finally empty of all worries, and you were thinking bike only.
Remember the Speed, your great lover, whispering in your ear words that you only know.
Remember the smile in your face, just out of the helmet, when you rode so well, so long and so happily more than you thought possible.
Remember the places you saw, the people you met, the stories you wrote.
Remember the friends who went a little further pushing you to try the new, the undiscovered, the exciting.
Remember the nights you spent in writing about our adventures, in planning new one, in creating new goals, in tantalizing with new itineraries, in describing this beautiful land we cross we our machine.
Remember the dawn, still cold on your fairing, waiting for the first sun to come out and signal the beginning of a new trip.
Remember the winter Sundays, alone in the rain, strong in the cold leaving behind you all commitment, all problems, all conventions.
Remember the waiting at the beginning of a trip, the lights of your friends coming from distance to wake you up for a new freedom.
Remember the adrenaline coming in with a long set of perfect corners with a voice inside questioning your own limits.
Remember the people that gave you advises and lessons, the one who kept pushing you a little further with their example.
Remember the bikers crossing your road, met at petrol station with the dust of distant lands carried by a foreign registration plate.
Remember riders without colors and without clubs, perfect riders and good mechanics always ready to welcome and to help you.
Remember the thousands and thousands of kilometers still unexplored, the historical place of this rich Country, the Castle, Palaces, Walls, Beaches, Ruins and the People that are still waiting for you and your bike.
FOR WHAT YOU FORGOT AND FOR WHAT YOU REMEMBER RIDE PROUD, RIDE HARD, RIDE ONE MORE MILE. ALWAYS.
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