Real world rides, real world riders

Did you C Top Gear lst nite? Wznt it funny? OMG?

I wish I was better at it than I am but for now I’m enjoying the effort of trying to get better (and no jokes about wearing green tights from you lot please...).

Anyway, technology, bows started out as wooden things, then shifted to wood and bone composites. The latest, top of the range bows come from Korea and are incredible. Designed to work with the flex and power that a bow has to cope with they are made from a heady combination of carbon and Kevlar, using such things makes the bow more accurate and much more satisfying to shoot.

In short, technology has helped, but the beauty of the art is that despite all the advances made in building the bow there’s no lazer sights, there’s no Bluetooth connectivity, there’s no gadgets or gizmos, there’s no computers. It might now look a world away from the original wood and bone bow, but in reality archery has kept the basics of the sport as they always were.

Which brings me neatly on to the subject for this month’s column. Technology and the interruption of a simple motorcycle ride by it.

My life, as I’m sure yours is also, is hectic. To put a helmet on and ride is a pure joy for me. There’s no phones to answer, nobody wanting something, no email beeping away announcing its arrival and need to be instantly attended to like a spoilt child (I’m here, read me now). When I get on a bike it’s just simple pleasure. Just ride and the world gets a bit better.

I was told once by a man called Simon (not his real name, his real name is David but we won’t use that here to save his embarrassment) a self-appointed and incredibly annoying internet ‘guru’ that because I work in the media then I should be blogging, tweeting and be contactable 24 hours a day.

Personally I can’t think of anything more boring than someone thinking their life is soooooo fascinating that they have to electronically belch out every detail of it in 140 characters or less. Ooooh, just had some toast, lol. Isn’t it sunny today? Lol. Look at what Paris Hilton is wearing! Lol. Justify my existence with a response! Lol. My soul dies a little bit with each tweet! Lol.

But biking doesn’t have any of that. We can just ride and the connected world can’t get to us. Even the radio babble that you might have on in a car isn’t on our collective scope, usually. It’s a mini-holiday from the electronic trivia of the modern age.

I like that. While the likes of Jeremy Clarkson and the other two on Top Gear might get very excited every Sunday by the latest supercar that has more technology in the driver’s seat adjustment than the entire Apollo space missions, we are only just getting electronically adjustable suspension and the very rare colour computer screen on our motorcycles.

Are we a simple breed of people or Luddites? Do new technologies bamboozle us or do we all have the same idea about a motorcycle ride?

If reports over the past couple of years are to be believed then even royalty has learned the joy and relative anonymity that a motorcycle helmet, dark visor and quick bike can bring.

Princes Harry and William are supposedly regular riders on their motorcycles, and good for them. There’s two people who will know more of the pressure of a 24 hour media obsessed world than most on this planet. Technology has meant that we can see what they’re doing for a lot of the time if we were so inclined. Me, I’d rather just go for a ride and do some living of my own rather than wasting what time I have left on this tiny blue ball spinning through the Universe replying to some person’s boring digital diary updated every few minutes about something I’m not interested in.

So thank you technology gurus and have-to-be-connecteds but I’ll take the bits of technology that, like with my bow, make riding a motorcycle a smoother and better experience but when it comes to anything that might interrupt the pure pleasure coming from the isolation of a ride on a sunny day, you can keep it.

Have a safe ride,

Tony Carter
Editor