With the Philippines now having the longest lockdown in the world it has reinforced how riding is such an important aspect of my life. The months drag on and I use the bikes for going around to the shops and on occasion I use them to check on the work being carried out by members of the company. Gone now are the trios, Sunday 300km rides to the testing roads of the mountains. Gone are the high speed blasts down the expressway, gone is the excitement of pushing yourself to the limits. Gone is the accelerated heartbeat of and broad grin when one knows that "that was close". Gone are the chats at the cafe with friends, talking about bikes and and everything else in the news. Gone are the laughs.
I rode a lot. I would commute to work during the week and don the leathers for fun on the weekend. Even riding to and from the office was great, no thinking about anything other than revs, speed, position of cars, road surface etc. No matter how tired I was, how fed up, 30 minutes on the bike would make a smile return to my face.
Riding has never been about transport for me, it is a way of life. It is my way of rebelling against our ever more safety conscious world. People said to me "oh well, its only for a few weeks" and "it so we dont overload the healthcare system" and I agreed with these comments. No longer is that the case. Heading into the 5 month of lockdown,
I have had enough. I am no longer concerned about catching Covid 19, in fact I have accepted the fact that I will get it sooner or later. I will survive or I will not. I don't believe however that we can continue impacting peoples mental heath or ignore peoples other heath issue. At my age I will not get these 5 months back. Enough is enough. It is time to ride, life staring at a computer or Netflix is no life at all. Time to hit the road again
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