First ride back

Back from San Francisco, the first thing the husband and myself did, before unpacking, before showering, before anything, was attend to our vehicles. In my case, it was to give the bike a wipe down, check tyre pressure, start her up and give her a lookover to make sure everything was intact (not that i was expecting otherwise, but still).

SF was great, and Perth an anti-climax, especially knowing that we could well move to SF but are not. But swinging out of the driveway, onto the freeway and out to the ocean, i was reminded that some things are great about this place. The things i've always loved - the great roads, how you have them to yourself at certain times of the day, the way the sun blinds the bejesus out of you if you're dumb enough to head west at sunset, the smell of the air in an antipodean winter, the Indian ocean. Small things, but then again, are most things not?

Getting on the bike again after 2 weeks was strange. At one stage i caught myself mentally ticking off the controls on my handlebars, mainly - clutch left, brake right.

Riding felt a bit funny as well. I'm more at ease with my riding now than i was at first, but it's still not second nature to me. Yet the same weird phenomenon keeps rearing its head - everytime i get on a bike after a longer period of absence, my riding is smoother, far more relaxed. This time i was swinging low into slower, easy corners than i've ever done in my life, and it continued the next day into work.

Need to get out and do some longer rides again.

There's definitely one good thing about Perth - i reckon it's one of the best places in the world to be on a bike. Especially if you're a learner.