Guess what...21J Returns

I'm back!

Guess what, after almost 4 years I was able to ride a motorcycle on a real ride, not just around my property or down the road a mile or so to check on my ditch water. I first did a 32 mile ride on roads in my area to see how it might go, then I met my good friend Stan, my old trail riding buddy at his house in Nevada City and we rode up in the forests in that area. I’d say the majority were dirt roads, no single track trails. We did 50 miles and it was just as I remember, great. The weather was almost perfect the dirt roads were dusty, but man did it feel good to do that again. When you absolutely believe you will never be able to ride like that again and then do it, for someone who spent over 50 years racing and riding it truly doesn’t get any better than that.

Yes it did feel a little strange, it was familiar of course but not familiar at the same time, once I lowered he air pressure in my front tire and the front end stopped trying to slide out in every dirt corner  by the end of the 50 miles I felt very comfortable. There were some discomforts, I had a new light weight helmet that needed a little filler at the top to keep it from compressing down and pushing my goggles with it, the arthritis  in my hands were a bit bothersome, my thumb and index fingers on my throttle hand would fall asleep a little bit. My ass got sore from riding on the stiff seat, or I guess it’s more like my ass has gotten soft over the past few years.

My hope is I’ll be able to do this again and again, I’m not going to get greedy I do not plan to do any single track and keep my rides to a reasonable distance, eventually perhaps sell my Husky FE250 dual sport and buy something more comfortable for just cruising paved and dirt country roads.

A little history my last real ride on a motorcycle was in December of 2021 I had been developing issues with my neck primarily with C1 and C2 and the occipital nerves in the head, I couldn’t put a helmet on, the pain was simply to great over the years I tried just about everything to help it. No surgery no one really wanted to operate in that area, somewhere along the line maybe a combination of all the things I had tried the pain levels subsided to a point where I could put a helmet on without out extreme pain. I’m under no illusions that this is fixed and it could revert back at a time, maybe even worse, so I consider myself blessed to be able to do this right now. I for years when I was driving home after a great day of riding, I look would out my windshield look up and say thanks for letting me do this today. I forgot to do that yesterday until I was in the shower, hopefully that still counts. I woke up this morning and I do have some pain in my neck, but not enough to wipe the smile off my face.

Doug 21J