If you have ever read the book “Motorcycle Roadcraft”, the fourth chapter has a section about “Riding in Bad Weather”. Rain is classified there as “bad weather” and a list of precautions suggests how to reduce risk on wet. Bad weather? Only bad clothing and some fear of losing traction…
We have all been caught in the rain while riding a motorcycle: feeling the humid air followed by the smell of nature, trees, flowers, soil and crops around.
A new fourth dimension adds to the riding experience: smelling is now bundled with vision, hearing, and touching: this experience wraps you up completely because the “miraculous water cycle” that gives life is now all around you.
Hippocrates, ancient father of medicine, author of the Hippocratic Oath operating in Asia Minor (now Turkey) reporterly used a tunnel of approximately seventy meters with water dripping from the ceiling, creating a mystical sound, helping the healing of body and spirit.
Hippocrates medicine used senses to code the brain and make it heal the body; I think we have a good opportunity to continue the process of wellbeing if we open our senses to nature and to natural phenomena such as rain. After all, SPA is a Latin acronym for SALUS PER AQUAM, health via water.
And motorcycle is one of the best tools to accomplish this. Take precautions and learn to ride safely in the the rain: what at the beginning looks as a fastidious hazard can turn into a comfortable ride nourishing spirit and body.
As always, sun will return to dry and warm you up leaving behind good memories.