VOLUME 028 / WINTER 2022

Words & Photo by Ben Giese

It’s a dangerous game we’re playing here. Walking the tightrope between nirvana and disaster, with no margin for error. But that’s when things really start to get interesting. The turbulence of the mind begins to calm, and all the noise of modern life becomes quiet. Regrets of the past, worries of the future, anxieties, loneliness and the fear of death. Those demons…they all fade into the background in a cloud of dust as your body tunes into the present. It’s like that momentary state of enlightenment that monks and mystics spend a lifetime chasing. 

I’ll linger here as long as I can…but there’s a curve approaching, so I let off the gas, take a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. I think I found what I was looking for. It’s time to head back home. 

To be alive and to be a human is to feel pain and suffering. But when we can find a means to simply let go and exist purely in the here and the now, we can feel some peace of mind. Traditionally, people search for it through various forms of meditation, but for some of us that kind of clarity comes along only in these precious moments of chaos. I think that’s what drives big-wave surfers and free-solo climbers. And it’s what I love about fast motorcycles. Because when you find yourself balancing on that razor’s edge of mortality, all the rest becomes dust in the wind. 

Darkness will always be looming in the background, somewhere in the distance, just around the bend. But at least we can have faith in our motorcycles to keep us grounded, to give us courage and perspective, and to light the way in the face of our demons.