Today was a very familiar, easy riding run between Canberra and home. It's a trip I've done many times before on motorcycles, in cars and even on a bus (planes too but they don't count in this context). The 460k's or so is relatively trivial, particularly when the weather is as good as it was today. So what could go wrong?
Some 15 years ago I was injured in a former career that saw me retire from same and today I was to be heartily reminded of that incident. I got out of bed after a couple of painful attempts and started to get ready for the trip home. Significant pain, sufficient to make it almost impossible for me to put my socks and boots on made packing my Harley-Davidson® Road King® a nightmare. Thank heavens for Zanderhar! Frankly I wasn't sure I could ride, and either was Zanderhar who I found out later had called my wife to express some concern.
We ate and were on our way, fuelling up on the outskirts of Canberra, Zander offering to head into the shop to pay for the fuel. Thankfully between Canberra and Sydney it's mostly freeway and the M7 and M2. We stopped at Marulan, I desperately needed to stretch. Sadly as the trip continued I seized up more and more and by the time we hit Pennant Hills road it was difficult for me to lift my left foot over the gear lever to change down through the gears, a few times I needed to rely on brakes only and drop through the gears while stopped. Zander noticed the "change in style" but we managed to get through to the BP and then McDonalds in Thornleigh for fuel, food and more stretching. There is an Ibis Hotel nearby and I very seriously considered pulling the pin on the rest of the trip home.
The immortal words of Mr T popped into my head, "Get some nuts", and we were soon back on the F3 freeway heading towards home. At that point cruising was just bearable, anything else was excruciating. By the time we got home, after was was otherwise a sensational week away, I couldn't straighten up. Our usual end of trip High Five was very gentle, unpacking could wait.. codeine was required.
Without a doubt, this was the worst day's riding I've done in the very close to 32,000 kilometres I've racked up since last July when I bought my current Road King. Heat waves, torrential rain, freezing cold, nothing that nature has thrown at me comes close to the stark reality of an old injury raising it's profile. Let's hope it doesn't stay angry for too long.
