Driving vs. Riding

I stopped riding motorcycles 10 years ago, after an accident which nearly
paralyzed me. I started riding again this year. Over the past 10 years,
I have raced BMWs, Subarus, and an SCCA Formula car. In the formula car,
I came close to feeling 'one' with the machine. However, it never felt
like an extension of my body. It always felt like something I was in,
or on. And while I felt well-tuned with the formula car, it never felt
like me and the motorcycle.

I'm not sure how to best explain the feeling. The result is that your
brain incorporates the bike as part of 'you', like legs or arms. You
lean left, the bike turns left. You sit up, the bike slows down. You
can just sense or feel what's going on with the bike. I never have this
feeling in any car.

Without thinking about it, just feeling it, I did something on the bike
I've never done before; a very low speed 180 degree turn. I didn't even
realize I did it until afterwards. I needed to turn around. I simply
put it into first gear, idled forward, leaned over, looped around,
gave it some gas, and continued on. It was just like jogging towards a
wall, turning around, and going the other way. It felt no different on
the bike.

It seems I now have [green and black
legs](http://zw.is/images/2011-06-06-bike.html).

originally published at wiki.lewman.is