Ride Report: BikeHedonia rides the world (one way or another)

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

9 minutes ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

You're quite right, it does take some time to wear off, especially for me - I tend to have a hyperactive stress response, which doesn't really help. I stay switched on for days and then I kind of collapse a little bit, and like you say, I just need to give myself the time and space to process that.

Thanks for the wise words. You'll be happy to know that old mate has had surgery is doing much better. It will be a long road to recovery but he's going to be okay.

Ah its good to hear he’s had surgery. Multiple fractures are a long old haul with uncertain outcomes, everything crossed for a speedy recovery.

Im not familiar with hyperactive stress response. Im guessing the explanation is in the title and your nervous system is easily stimulated to produce stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline? Thats a bit of a bugger for sure, being easily wired must be a bit on the knackering side! All go go go and then crash, recover n go again?

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

19 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Ah its good to hear he’s had surgery. Multiple fractures are a long old haul with uncertain outcomes, everything crossed for a speedy recovery.

Im not familiar with hyperactive stress response. Im guessing the explanation is in the title and your nervous system is easily stimulated to produce stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline? Thats a bit of a bugger for sure, being easily wired must be a bit on the knackering side! All go go go and then crash, recover n go again?

Yeah, the hyperactive stress response is a really typical symptom of long-term or complex post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Basically you get so sensitised to danger that your monkey brain - amygdala, hypothalamus - kicks into overdrive at the slightly provocation, even if your analytical, conscious part of your brain (pre-frontal cortex etc) knows that you are actually safe, or that the threat is not that bad, or that you are not in fact about to be eaten by a lion.

If that makes sense? It's a bit of a pain to live with, can be pretty exhausting, but at least all that extra adrenalin and cortisol usually makes me more useful in an emergency rather than the other way around!

[XTreme]

Very traumatic incident Grace.......but you did the right thing!

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

Well I made it back from my road trip, so if you're incapacitated by overconsumption of Christmas goodies, there are a couple of videos to watch while you digest!
 

 

 

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

 

[XTreme]

Great vids and good to see you Grace.......I was wondering what was happening cos we hadn't seen you!

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

11 hours ago, XTreme said:

Great vids and good to see you Grace.......I was wondering what was happening cos we hadn't seen you!

Sorry I got distracted by the next adventure.... short attention span haha

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

As soon as I came back to Chiang Mai I was planning my next adventure - some off road exploration around Pattaya, down south. Up here in Chiang Mai we have beautiful (and kind of vertical) mountains but down there they have the great and the feared SAND. Oh yes, Pattaya is basically a sand hill planted bars and rubber trees and palm oil. I have never ridden sand before, so I did the obvious thing - drove 700km in one day and booked myself a dodgy CRF300L with slightly crappy tyres on which to fling myself head first into this new challenge.

I knew the basic idea was to use throttle and body position to keep the front end light, but putting that into practice is a terrifying leap of faith. And guess what? I DID IT. I followed this local guy on his KLX as he throttled through the sand trails he rides every weekend, and I prayed to the gods of motorcycling that I wouldn't stack and break a collar bone. It wasn't pretty, not least because the CRF had fifty-fifty tyres instead of something aggressive enough not to deflect off the sand contours so easily. But I doggedly followed, and although I managed to kiss the ground a couple of times that day, it was NOT ONCE in the sand.

Anyway, I finished that day's riding still terrified (and messy) in the sand, but resolutely upright. I took a day to recover from the adrenalin overdose and then - well, it's the old dogs who know all the old tricks, and the new ones too. I got in touch with a bloke who'd been riding this stuff for longer than I've been alive, and asked him if we could head out. He was up for it, and dang, I hit the jackpot, because this man not only rides like a champion but knows how to coach. Not only was he able to explain what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right, but he also had the knack of doing it in a way that inspires confidence in the student. I cannot overstate the importance of this.

So we hit the trails together for two days. Coming back into town from the last day, we were chasing the fading light, because two out of three bikes didn't even have lights. So the pressure was on, and we hit race pace. Oh my gawd, you should have seen me smash those sandy tracks, even though I was wrung out from a day of chasing this insanely bike-fit bloke. In three days I had gone from cannot to definitely can. Which is not to claim that I'm any good at it, but the hardest step is always that first one, that binary one from cannot to can.

 

[XTreme]

8 hours ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

As soon as I came back to Chiang Mai I was planning my next adventure - some off road exploration around Pattaya, down south. Up here in Chiang Mai we have beautiful (and kind of vertical) mountains but down there they have the great and the feared SAND. Oh yes, Pattaya is basically a sand hill planted bars and rubber trees and palm oil. I have never ridden sand before, so I did the obvious thing - drove 700km in one day and booked myself a dodgy CRF300L with slightly crappy tyres on which to fling myself head first into this new challenge.

I knew the basic idea was to use throttle and body position to keep the front end light, but putting that into practice is a terrifying leap of faith. And guess what? I DID IT. I followed this local guy on his KLX as he throttled through the sand trails he rides every weekend, and I prayed to the gods of motorcycling that I wouldn't stack and break a collar bone. It wasn't pretty, not least because the CRF had fifty-fifty tyres instead of something aggressive enough not to deflect off the sand contours so easily. But I doggedly followed, and although I managed to kiss the ground a couple of times that day, it was NOT ONCE in the sand.

Anyway, I finished that day's riding still terrified (and messy) in the sand, but resolutely upright. I took a day to recover from the adrenalin overdose and then - well, it's the old dogs who know all the old tricks, and the new ones too. I got in touch with a bloke who'd been riding this stuff for longer than I've been alive, and asked him if we could head out. He was up for it, and dang, I hit the jackpot, because this man not only rides like a champion but knows how to coach. Not only was he able to explain what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right, but he also had the knack of doing it in a way that inspires confidence in the student. I cannot overstate the importance of this.

So we hit the trails together for two days. Coming back into town from the last day, we were chasing the fading light, because two out of three bikes didn't even have lights. So the pressure was on, and we hit race pace. Oh my gawd, you should have seen me smash those sandy tracks, even though I was wrung out from a day of chasing this insanely bike-fit bloke. In three days I had gone from cannot to definitely can. Which is not to claim that I'm any good at it, but the hardest step is always that first one, that binary one from cannot to can.

 

Wow!

Glad you came through unscathed Grace!

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

11 hours ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

As soon as I came back to Chiang Mai I was planning my next adventure - some off road exploration around Pattaya, down south. Up here in Chiang Mai we have beautiful (and kind of vertical) mountains but down there they have the great and the feared SAND. Oh yes, Pattaya is basically a sand hill planted bars and rubber trees and palm oil. I have never ridden sand before, so I did the obvious thing - drove 700km in one day and booked myself a dodgy CRF300L with slightly crappy tyres on which to fling myself head first into this new challenge.

I knew the basic idea was to use throttle and body position to keep the front end light, but putting that into practice is a terrifying leap of faith. And guess what? I DID IT. I followed this local guy on his KLX as he throttled through the sand trails he rides every weekend, and I prayed to the gods of motorcycling that I wouldn't stack and break a collar bone. It wasn't pretty, not least because the CRF had fifty-fifty tyres instead of something aggressive enough not to deflect off the sand contours so easily. But I doggedly followed, and although I managed to kiss the ground a couple of times that day, it was NOT ONCE in the sand.

Anyway, I finished that day's riding still terrified (and messy) in the sand, but resolutely upright. I took a day to recover from the adrenalin overdose and then - well, it's the old dogs who know all the old tricks, and the new ones too. I got in touch with a bloke who'd been riding this stuff for longer than I've been alive, and asked him if we could head out. He was up for it, and dang, I hit the jackpot, because this man not only rides like a champion but knows how to coach. Not only was he able to explain what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right, but he also had the knack of doing it in a way that inspires confidence in the student. I cannot overstate the importance of this.

So we hit the trails together for two days. Coming back into town from the last day, we were chasing the fading light, because two out of three bikes didn't even have lights. So the pressure was on, and we hit race pace. Oh my gawd, you should have seen me smash those sandy tracks, even though I was wrung out from a day of chasing this insanely bike-fit bloke. In three days I had gone from cannot to definitely can. Which is not to claim that I'm any good at it, but the hardest step is always that first one, that binary one from cannot to can.

 

Brilliant. Nice to hear you mastered it so quickly. 

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

51 minutes ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Brilliant. Nice to hear you mastered it so quickly. 

Well I'm not sure I'd go so far as mastered.... but survived, yes!

[XTreme]

2 minutes ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

Well I'm not sure I'd go so far as mastered.... but survived, yes!

How are you in gravel traps Grace? @Slowlycatchymonkey needs a bit of help on those!

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

6 minutes ago, XTreme said:

How are you in gravel traps Grace? @Slowlycatchymonkey needs a bit of help on those!

Gravel traps like the ones on the outside of the corner at the race track? I'm great at those. Once highsided and flipped an R6 right into one. 10/10 

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

9 minutes ago, XTreme said:

How are you in gravel traps Grace? @Slowlycatchymonkey needs a bit of help on those!

@Slowlycatchymonkey I just saw the gravel trap photo, omg wtf were they thinking?? Gravel trap of doom

[XTreme]

1 minute ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

@Slowlycatchymonkey I just saw the gravel trap photo, omg wtf were they thinking?? Gravel trap of doom

You'd be surprised the number of Brits who get caught out in Spain Grace.

It's not that the roads are dangerous, in fact they're far safer than in the UK, it's just that they're different.

Particularly in terms of road surface changes for no apparent reason.

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

2 hours ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

@Slowlycatchymonkey I just saw the gravel trap photo, omg wtf were they thinking?? Gravel trap of doom

Oh thats totally on me Grace, going too fast, not paying attention, a moment of utter stupidity and there was no way the Himalayans shitty brakes were gonna save me  

@XTreme I think youll find Im great in gravel traps, Im thinking about offering lessons  

The road accident and death stats for Spain are nowhere near as good as the UK. The UK consistently ranks third safest roads in the world and Spain hovers between 9th and 10th which isnt bad until you consider how busy UK roads are and how empty most Spanish roads usually are. 

 

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

Mind you its hard to have a fatal accident when it’s constantly jam packed and going over 10mph is just a dream  

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

11 hours ago, Slowlycatchymonkey said:

Oh thats totally on me Grace, going too fast, not paying attention, a moment of utter stupidity and there was no way the Himalayans shitty brakes were gonna save me  

@XTreme I think youll find Im great in gravel traps, Im thinking about offering lessons  

The road accident and death stats for Spain are nowhere near as good as the UK. The UK consistently ranks third safest roads in the world and Spain hovers between 9th and 10th which isnt bad until you consider how busy UK roads are and how empty most Spanish roads usually are. 

 

omg let's not even talk about Thailand, it's daily carnage over here... I think it might be number 70? There are like 850k injuries and 14k deaths here on the roads every year, and that doesn't include people who survived long enough to die in the hospital. Oops this is not a very festive thought, next topic...

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

Well Santa brought me a shiny new covid variant and closed borders AGAIN this year - bloody hell Santa, two years in a row? Not very creative. But, he also brought me brand new Gaerne trials boots to distract me, and it worked a treat. Yay!

This means no more trying to ride trials in Sidi Adventure boots. Can't wait to feel the difference. Unfortunately my friend who owns the trials bikes - well he went out with his friends riding all over the mountains for about 7 hours yesterday (which is a Very Long Ride on a trials bike) and is now too exhausted to go riding again. He's on the lounge napping now, so looks like I'll have to wait for another day try out my new boots! Could be worse

[XTreme]

2 hours ago, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

Well Santa brought me a shiny new covid variant and closed borders AGAIN this year - bloody hell Santa, two years in a row? Not very creative. But, he also brought me brand new Gaerne trials boots to distract me, and it worked a treat. Yay!

This means no more trying to ride trials in Sidi Adventure boots. Can't wait to feel the difference. Unfortunately my friend who owns the trials bikes - well he went out with his friends riding all over the mountains for about 7 hours yesterday (which is a Very Long Ride on a trials bike) and is now too exhausted to go riding again. He's on the lounge napping now, so looks like I'll have to wait for another day try out my new boots! Could be worse

Happy New Year Grace!

[skyrider]

6 hours ago, XTreme said:

Happy New Year Grace!

yep happy new boots 

[busabeast]

On 02/01/2022 at 05:53, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

Well Santa brought me a shiny new covid variant and closed borders AGAIN this year - bloody hell Santa, two years in a row? Not very creative. But, he also brought me brand new Gaerne trials boots to distract me, and it worked a treat. Yay!

This means no more trying to ride trials in Sidi Adventure boots. Can't wait to feel the difference. Unfortunately my friend who owns the trials bikes - well he went out with his friends riding all over the mountains for about 7 hours yesterday (which is a Very Long Ride on a trials bike) and is now too exhausted to go riding again. He's on the lounge napping now, so looks like I'll have to wait for another day try out my new boots! Could be worse

Look good Grace, can't you go out for a bimble on your own?

[gymwitch]

On 29/11/2021 at 00:20, Grace (BikeHedonia) said:

A new episode of my travails is live, including sleeping on a mountainside and looping out a wheelie on the enduro bike to the endless amusement of a family of Thai farmers.

I aim to entertain haha.

https://bikehedonia.wordpress.com/2021/11/29/tigers-in-the-night/

Sounds awesome

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

10 hours ago, Richzx6r said:

Look good Grace, can't you go out for a bimble on your own?

I could, but good manners dictate that the owner of the bike always gets the last word, and he seems to be concerned that I might fall off a cliff in the jungle and die?? Haha apparently I need supervision. 

So I did the obvious thing and took the CBR650 which I do own, and rode up and down the mountain playing tag with the drunken holiday traffic. Much safer

[Grace (BikeHedonia)]

I've been writing about the times before covid, when border runs were a thing, my KTM was in my hot little hands, and I could have probably swum to Myanmar without getting shelled by artillery. Ah, memories. It was a good time. Except for the dead body bit. But apart from that... a good time.

https://bikehedonia.wordpress.com/2022/01/03/before-times/