11 Years of Adventure Riding

Today Facebook reminded me that on this day 11 years ago I bought a motorcycle and started my adventure riding journey. I had owned motorcycles before. But those were used for commuting.

Back then I had a chronic back problem due to me sitting on a chair in front of a computer for around 15 hours a day. I was a certified workaholic and didn’t know the difference between weekdays and weekends. I wondered whether riding a motorcycle for long distances would be a good idea given the condition of my back. Two things happened after I started adventure riding. There was a clear separation between weekends and weekdays. In fact, thanks to my morning and evening rides, I spent time off the computer during the day as well and I stopped being a workaholic. Secondly, my back pain completely disappeared. I don’t know how that happened. Someone offered an explanation that due to sitting on a chair for long hours the muscles of my back had turned weak and couldn’t support my back effectively leading to my vertebrae compressing and causing the back pain. Riding exercised those muscles and strengthened them, fixing my back pain in the bargain. I don’t know if this is what actually happened, and frankly, I don’t care. I am just overjoyed with the end result.

In these 11 years, adventure riding has become a prominent and important part of my life. It has helped me see new places, experience new cultures and get a totally different view of life in general. Balancing adventure riding with work is an ongoing challenge. On the flip side, I have often mixed the two and ridden motorcycles in places where I never would normally have.

Life is good with motorcycles.