I got on my bike on a lovely spring day and rode reluctantly into the city to an independent motorcycle accessory store. I'd seen on their website that they stock waterproof boot covers. My old rubber pull-on ones were torn, useless.
A salesperson asked me if I needed help, a tall guy, strongly built, maybe 40. He had what we'd call an 'up attitude, a general cheerfulness. I liked him immediately.
I said to him: "You know, it took me forever to get here. I didn't realise how far it was, and entirely in unpleasant traffic. Do you ride to work?" "I do," he said. "From Morrison." "Oh," I said, "I don't live too far from there - in Lakewood near Morrison Road. How do you get here?" He told me he rides the same way I did, except he uses the limited-access Express Lane, the far-left lane, on Colorado Highway 470, our 'ring road. That lane is legal and free for bikes but there's a toll for cars.
"If I couldn't use the Express Lane," he said, "I wouldn't ride here. If I had to use the other two lanes, I just wouldn't ride. It's too dangerous, too scary." I want to take a moment to remind the reader that I'm talking here to a guy who makes his living selling motorcycle parts and accessories.
One would think that such a guy would want to talk about the freedom of the ride, the feeling of near-flight and the joy of precise control of the machine...
But this guy commutes to work - not in a scenic motorcycle advertising video, but in gritty, urban reality.
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