Fantastic Bikes and Where to Ride Them

Waiting for trackday photos to come out makes me feel like an irrational eight year old who gets told he has to wait a week for a toy. Every day and sometimes several times a day I go to the website and refresh it to see if they're uploaded, like a kid checking the mailbox at all times of the day.

I've been doing trackdays since 2011 and I still get the feeling. For that matter I still get the jitters the night before a trackday right up until I finish my first sighting lap.

When you were a teenager remember having a crush on someone? The pure distilled feeling of desire you have towards that person as if your life depends on obtaining love from them. Any moment your crush goes unrequited is heart wrenching to the point that you can't concentrate on anything academic.

Have you noticed that past your twenties those extreme feelings towards another person fade and go away? Do you miss that emotional high, even if you never got the person you crushed on?

Here's how to recreate that emotional high as an adult. Think of your dream bike and your dream trip (be it to the track, or tour, or whatever). Bingo, now you can't think about work and you feel like your life won't be complete until you obtain that goal.

I'm going to share one of my fantasies with you. This is literally one of the things that distracts me from work and gives me that emotional high of desiring something I can't have.

My fantasy starts with buying a new hot overpowered sport touring bike. For the purpose of this blog I'm going to go with the KTM SuperDuke 1290 GT. But don't worry, my VFR doesn't get jealous. The details vary but sometimes my fantasy includes flying somewhere to score an amazing deal on a new-old-stock bike from some nowhere KTM dealer.

Anyways my fantasy continues as I ride it to all the different national parks in the western US. Sounds pretty... vanilla, doesn't it? OK here's where it gets more interesting. In my brain I take the SuperDuke to all the tracks in the western US along the way and am the King of C group on my sport touring bike with my yellow touring suit.

When I put it on paper (electronic paper) it actually doesn't sound that fantastic or unrealistic. Funny how that works.

There's a joke that circulates motorcycle social media regularly that goes like this: All my friends are getting married and having kids and I'm like "Look at my motorcycle". That's my life now. I've seen no less than five pregnancy announcements among my friends and acquaintances in the last month. Meanwhile I've been on a short super-tour and gone to the track.

My life is a joke. An awesome joke.

Hey, look at my motorcycle!