Motorcycle Thoughts – September

Some have already made the decision. The bike has been washed, the tank is full and perhaps it has even been tucked away under a sheet at the back of the garage.

But not quite yet.

For the rest of us, there are still miles left to ride. And perhaps this is the time when we start to look back on the summer a little. Not necessarily by checking the odometer and counting how far we have travelled, but by thinking about the miles we actually remember.

That ride with a friend that was only supposed to last a few hours. The café you found by chance. The road you had never ridden before. Or that time when the planned route was suddenly closed and the detour added another 150 kilometres, but also led you to a road you still find yourself thinking about.

It is strange, really.

We motorcyclists can spend a fair amount of time planning our rides. Maps are studied, roads are chosen and café stops are plotted out. And yet it is often the things that were never planned that stay with us the longest.

A conversation with someone you had never met before. One cup of coffee that turned into two. A view where you stopped simply because the road happened to pass it. Or perhaps just an ordinary moment by the roadside with a good friend, when neither of you really needed to say very much.

Those are the miles that stay with you.

And then, of course, there are the solo rides. The ones where you simply put on your helmet and set off without any real destination. When your thoughts are allowed to come and go at their own pace as the road rolls beneath the wheels. You may come home a few hours later without really being able to explain what the ride gave you.

Only that you needed it.

When September arrives, all of that somehow becomes a little clearer. Perhaps because we know the days are starting to feel numbered.

But September can also bring some of the finest riding days of the year. The crisp, clear air. Quieter roads. The colours slowly beginning to change along the verges. And somehow the coffee tastes a little better when you are sitting outside with your jacket still on.

You know there will not be that many days like this left. So the sheet can stay on the shelf a little longer.

Because suddenly there will be one of those September mornings when the sun is shining from a clear blue sky. You look out of the window, take a sip of coffee and realise that your plans for the day have just changed.

Time for a ride. Maybe only a few miles. Maybe a 150-kilometre detour.

It does not really matter.

September may not be the month when the motorcycle season ends.

It is the month when you begin to realise just how much you appreciate the fact that it is still going.r.