Motorcycling is an enjoyment-enhancing drug

Finally, my first ride this season! It's a bit cold out and I enjoy suiting up. Getting my gear on makes me think of snowboarding with a huge motor and no waiting at the lift.

For me, the first ride of the season is intimidating, but once I get out there, it starts to come naturally… Unfortunately, my old mistakes come flooding back and I make all of them, one by one.

First challenge? I need help getting the bike up the driveway. Even with my new Pilot Power 2s, the steep and muddy hill is a mess and I just don't feel like dropping Peaches on my first ride of the season. Thankfully, Alex brings Peaches through the mud for me.

Now at the summit, I almost drop the bike by giving her too much front brake crawling out of the driveway on to the country road. Stupid me. Then, a few minutes riding before I get on Deep Bay road. Hopefully, no one will be around.

Yes. I turn on to 20 km of twisties and as luck would have it, no one is behind me. It's silly but I still get nervous when I see a car behind me. I start thinking I'm going to slow, my breathing get's shorter, sometimes I hold my breath - all bad.

My main goal this year is not to get stressed, to relax on the bike especially when I see a car behind me. Secondly, I need to get my speed up overall and I want to maintain my speed into the corners.

On the whole, when I ride alone, I'm riding below the speed limit and it's a problemo. Take a look at my bike. The Triumph Street Triple 675, aka Peaches, the sister bike to Tom Cruise's Triumph in Mission Impossible. Yeah that's right! Cagers expect her to go faster than a snails pace so they get confused when I'm travelling too slow. That leads to half-witted behaviours like trying to pass me on the shoulder or on turns - so I need to be going at least as fast as traffic.

My lane positioning is the first step to getting my speed up. This year, I hope to stop needing to think about where I am in every corner but for now, I do.

Next, I need to maintain my speed in the corners. Since I started riding, I've preserved a very bad habit: rolling off the throttle when I see a turn coming up instead of maintaining my speed and then braking accordingly before the turn.

For some reason, I've always heard that braking hard is what get's a rider in trouble so I just roll off instead. Bad habit which leads to loss of control. Now I need to learn how far to break before a turn and how fast to take the turn.

My worst fear is sand, and here it is! Sand, combined with left and right down hill turns makes me want to pee myself! I had a tone of those in Halifax riding the cliffs.

A few people I know have wiped out on sand and it basically terrifies me. When I see sand, I panic. What are you supposed to do when you see sand anyway?

Here's what I know… If you hit sand, you're going to loose traction whether you're accelerating, braking or turning. Ha! that covers almost every situation. If I need to be doing those three things I need to be going slower but how slow is slow? What I hear is as long as I'm not making corrections to speed when I'm on the sand, I should be OK.

So I got the fear out of the way on the first ride and now I just need to trust my performance-enhancing mind to keep calm and ride on! Overall a good first ride and I'm in training for our first big ride to the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon in May!

Here's the route for Deep Bay Road as seen on a sunny day.

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Ride on!