Calm Riding: Managing Emotions and Distractions Effectively
Edited from a conversation afer a long ride in July 2025 Stop and prepare. Gather your thoughts and focus on your task. Halt the wild horses that scatter your mind…
ACCIDENT or MISTAKE?
(a reprint)04 June 2025 In recent conversation about motorcycle crashes, often referred to as accidents, a competent rider posed an intriguing question: “Kazanın en önemli sebebi aklın doğru konumlanmamasi olabilir…
DEBUG YOURSELF
(Virtuous Rider March 2025 debate) Self-evaluation is the evaluation of the reality in all its aspects. A concept that resonates deeply within the human experience, yet self-evaluation remains one of…
The Right Speed, a single point or a range?
By Yigit Surel We understand and identify anything around us, based on our personal experiences, knowledge, values and beliefs.Think that cruising at 80 km/h on a motorcycle, does every rider…
Neither Right, Nor Wrong… A Bit More Subjective (English/Turkish)
By Mr. Subjective https://www.aerostich.com/blogs/predictably-a-blog Three reasons I like this photo: It’s a 7mp file. Lots of detail It shows a rider purposefully striding toward his a less-expensive simple bike (the…
SENTIMENT MOVES the RIDE (English/Turkish)
FROM THIS BLOG (AUGUST 2025) WE START RE-EDITING OLD BLOGS THAT GENERATED PRACTICAL INTEREST WITH PILOTS. WE WILL PUBLISH IN TWO LANGUAGES, OPENING WITH ENGLISH, FOLLOWED BY TURKISH. THIS ARTICLE…
The Silent Roar: Unlocking performance through virtuous riding
(original 2000 edited 2025) Motorcycling demands intense concentration, a continuous focus on your past, present, and future actions. The millions of ever-changing messages the bikers receive impose a total focus…
PERMANENT LEARNING: RIDE TO LEARN, LEARN TO LIVE
We were riding from Igoumenitza (Greece) to Istanbul (Turkey) in a continuous ride of more than one thousand kilometres: the Egnatia motorway was merely a concept in the minds of…
The magic number for excellence
We hear the word “expert” excessively these days; it seems that everyone’s an expert on something. In fact, that word became so banal that they even came up with a…
Bikers, Agnostics and Flat Earthers.
by Andrew “Wookie” Longshaw. “Note from Paolo Volpara. We had a common history with an old April Caponord and we rode together in Turkey several times. Andrew is a free…
DEBUG YOURSELF or the ART of SELF EVALUATION
Self-evaluation is the evaluation of the reality in all its aspects. A concept that resonates deeply within the human experience, yet self-evaluation remains one of the most challenging and often…
EXTREME HAS GONE TOO FAR, to the extreme banality
Have you ever felt like we’re living in a world where we’re constantly chasing after things we don’t really need? We spend our time working to buy stuff we end…
TAKING RISK or JUST BRAVADO?
Sep 10, 2022 How often have you heard the warning “Do not take risks?“ When the conversation turns to sport (i.e. motorcycling, horse riding, cycling) or physical activities (i.e. sailing,…
Mindset Shifts: The Real Reason Behind Motorcycle Crashes
In a recent conversation about motorcycle crashes, often referred to as accidents, a competent rider posed an intriguing question: “Kazanın en önemli sebebi aklın doğru konumlanmamasi olabilir mi? – Could…
UNLEARNING THE OLD
I was reading an article in an Italian newspaper that, in my experience, underlines and explains well the difficulties that we encounter when trying to acquire new knowledge by developing…
SIMPLE and PURE RIDE
Considerations for Virtuous Rider “The principle of simplicity or parsimony—broadly, the idea that simpler explanations of observations should be preferred to more complex ones—is conventionally attributed to William of Occam,…
COMPETENCE and CONFIDENCE
In complex and testing situations, we tend to follow the lead of a competent person (the one who knows what to do ) or the guidance of a confident one…
Riding solo with open heart
(PV note) I just completed a long and fascinating ride in Anatolia revisiting famous historical, artistic and natural locations: for some of them was a return after 20 years and…
Taking Risk or just bravado?
How many times have you heard the admonition “do not take risk”? When the conversation turns to sport (i.e. motorcycling, horse riding, cycling) or physical activities (i.e. sailing, mountaineering, diving)…
FARKINDALIK KONSANTRASYON VE ODAK GETİRİR
For English version Konsantrasyon (dikkati ortak bir merkeze veya hedefe yönlendirmek veya getirmek) eldeki göreve odaklanma sürecidir. Neler yapabileceğimizin bilgisi ve durumsal farkındalık, motosiklete binmek de dahil olmak üzere iyi…
AWARENESS BRINGS CONCENTRATION & FOCUS
For Turkish version Concentration (to bring or direct toward a common centre or objective) is the process of focusing on the task at hand. Knowledge of what we are capable…
The Search for Meaning
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued;…
Try again
Ted Simon, one of the great writers-on-bike and contributor to a better understanding of our planet, sent out a call for help and action: “What could a 90-year–old biker do…
(RP) Teacher of discipline and a Master of humility
Republished from OMM Bulletin 1998 Several times, after the conversation turned hot on motorcycles, I have been asked why I spend so much time on two wheels. After all, friends…
Conscious attention builds awareness (S.2)
To live is easy, to stay alive is hard work The essay by Ken Condon distributed on February 17, 2016 and recently re-published in this Blog has been selected as…
(RP) A good biker is a mad biker.
Toward the end of the Summer, when the first cold and wet weather makes again its presence felt on the roads of Turkey a certain feeling of tiredness permeates my…
UN to Provide Emergency Adjective Supplies to Moto-Journalist Community.
Reprint 2003 by Gabe Ets-Hokin Los Angeles (AP). Disaster relief officials announced here Tuesday that United Nations aid workers would begin airlifting emergency supplies of adjectives, pronouns and adverbs to…
Top Ten Reasons Not to Ride to Work – Addressed
Reprint from Ride to Work © 2004 – How can I learn how? Riding to work and riding for transportation are not as simple as using a car or public…
Judicious Speed: safety, restraint and fast lane.
This article is a revision of a piece written for the OMM Bulletin in 2009. What prompted the re-editing is a small consideration I made during the last weekend ride…
Fatigue: it comes to all but in different ways.
”The more practiced and proficient one becomes in a given task and the more complex the task, the greater is the resistance to fatigue” (PV note) Don Arthur wrote time…
Building a good story; the joy of risks gone.
I went to see the Rally Turkey 2020 part of the World Rally Championship and I really enjoyed two days of speed, skills and dust. The sporting event was truly…
The Violence of Gravity
I had to stop: small stones and grit can transform a morning run into an anticipation of purgatory. Take off the shoe, shake it, turn it and the stone cum…
Death, companion on the road?
Many old riders experienced the loss of friends roads companions, raising questions “why?”, “worth it?” when?” Animals jumping out of nowhere, vehicles on the wrong side of the road, diesel-fluids-mud-sand…
Nothing is URGENT
Thanks to Andrew “Wookie” Longshaw for his editing contribution. I received a message from my family in Italy: a long quote from Silvano Petrosino, philosopher and Professor of Theory of…
The sting of the Vespa: scooter in the city…
By Kazim Uzunoglu, companion of many adventures on the road, organiser and guide of many challenging rides, motorcycle guide, above all, great thinker. Originally Kazim wrote this essay as a…
Your Own Ride
(by Robert Higdon from On the Level, April 2003, magazine of BMW Riders Association). In the picture Bob is resetting his own pace during a gruelling 2003 ride along the…
“It depends…”
by Nick Ienatsch (Lead Instructor at Yamaha Champions Riding School) “It depends” is the answer, now, what’s the question? We were making the simple joke observing riders initiating the first…
Balancing Act
In the blog “How much do you weight?” published on the first of this month of June, my friend rider Sezi was reporting the experience of a minute person in…
“Kill a Biker, Go to Jail”
Paolo Volpara’s conversation on bikers rights with A. Goldfine and B. Higdon : On the blog “May: Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month,” published on the 21st of May of this year,…
Dressing Up
It seems normal nowadays to wear “technical gear” while riding a motorcycle or a scooter: even bicyclists today wear protective helmet and “ad hoc” clothing. We can still cross path…
Position…position…position
Re-edited from OMM Bulletin January 2008 Autumn this year never ends: the calendar reads January 6th but outside, in the rural environment of Trakya, the thermometer reads +13 and the…
How much do you weight? A conversation.
Sezi Toprakci writes to Paolo Volpara on motorcycle weight and on the role of balance. May 2020 Motorcycles are always in a slimming diet. A diet imposed by the manufacturer…
Great Bikes, great rides
“Some bikes are great to ride, and some are just great. These machines are both”… posted two weeks ago the blog died in absolute silence: no comments, no reactions. Just…
iHogs for everyone?
I received this essay from a person working in the motorcycle industry. I like the content, it reflects my considerations to the now famous FortNine video and it moves ahead…
Safer and faster on country roads
Rupert Paul (Riding Skills 11 June 2009) interviews Jon Taylor Jon Taylor has been a racer (he’s a former double Bemsee club champion), bike cop and long-time Nürburgring instructor. He’s…
Ride with a reason: A.C.19 will not be the same.
Two schools of thinking about the “after-pandemic” and both agree on a bleak economic period ahead: for States, for Companies and for Individuals. Both schools of thought push for a…
May: Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month
From Mr. Subjective AKA Mr. Andy Goldfine, I received a message that, among other subjects, was calling my attention to a post issued by him on May 13 and related…
Common mistakes in riding
P. Volpara editing from M. Wheeler and Jon Taylor lessons. First published in OMM Bulletin 2009. I selected to republish without any modifications a 2009 article following the posting of…
Bert, the nodding donkey
I was attracted by the strange title of Simon Matthews piece : what a nodding donkey has to do with motorcycling? Quite different from the serious articles coming out of…
Be like a Fish….not like an Ant
Paolo Volpara notes from Mike Wheeler MC training lessons. Edited from OMM Bulletin April 2000 and September 2008 Mick Wheeler, excellent trainer and founder of A.R.T. (Advanced Riding Techniques UK)…
The teacher and the killer of joy
Allan Bloom in his controversial book “Closing of the American Mind” wrote: “The teacher …. is guided by the awareness, or the divination, that there is human nature, and that…
Relax and Dance: parallel ride
Considerations on the lightness of life and the balance on biking with contribution from Andy Goldfine Parallel rides: lateral thinking comparing the way we ride a motorcycle with the way…
Too much information can harm the brain and body
“Good to see that you had a good ride yesterday but I did not like some of your choices in cornering…” Mail message from acquaintance long forgotten; message dropping inbox…
Great machines you have just got to ride!
In 2005 the OMM Bulletin that I was editing published an article (or better a list) from Motorcycle News magazine titled “50 machines you have just got to ride!” Written…
The mental side of motorcycling training
This is a note that appeared on the One More Mile Bulletin of April 2001 following a MC training course that Hans Heinz Dilthey gave to Turkish riders in March…
I don’t think I can go back…
From a good friend and companion of rides I received a challenging article of psychotherapist Ms. Claire van den Bosch campaigning for a “don’t go back” movement to operate on…
Separated From Hands
posted by Paolo Volpara Recently I was gracefully provided for a long weekend with a “top of the range-latest model” motorcycle, beautiful, efficient, fast and gifted with all electronic gizmo’s.…
What know-it-alls don’t know, or the illusion of competence
by Kate Fehlhaber, aeon.co Published on May 17, 2017 and re-published by Thinkingomm without permission Note by Paolo Volpara –I publish this article on the illusion of competence as a…
What our words tell us or the “death of humility”
While biking and training for competent riding, we often talk of the need to cultivate humility together with a sincere evaluation of the self and of the skills we practice.…
Speed and FUN
I thought that a little humor can lift our spirit in time where the bikes are on the central stand and the desire to ride burn inside. Stay home and…
Be responsible, be a good rider and a good human: now is the time.
I was ready to sneak out: to ignore the prohibition for +65 to go out of the home environment, to ignore all advises to stay home and avoid contacts. I…
Biking in the “time of corona”
In these challenging times we all rediscover solitude or at least a kind of personal segregation. The Corona virus brings the best out of humanity and sometime combines it with…
Riding itself is what is cool.
27 March 2020 It all started with a post in Aerostch blog where Mr. Subjective was commenting on the reaction of some “experienced moto journalists” to the overall suits that…
Borders are the scar of history
Travelling is food for the soul and fun for the body: moving into new realities, new languages, new traditions, and cultures keeps the body and the spirit alive and well.…
Answer Questions and Question Answers.
From Paolo Volpara Thinking One More Mile It is a strange situation: communication tools and opportunities grow exponentially and exponentially we feel violated in our privacy. From Google to Apple…
If you know the Why, you can live any How.
From Aytek Sahin and Paolo Volpara Error is a good companion of motorcycling and a faithful partner in our life. The word comes from the Latin “errare”, a verb for…
Who needs the RoboBike?
Nowadays the majority of the motorcycles are coming with electronic and mechanical riding aids. From ABS to Hill Holder Assist. They are not only supports to the rider but marketing…
Dark side of motorcycling?
For old riders is a recurring experience. Friends, friends of friends, club members and roads companions die in senseless traffic circumstances. Dog or deer jumping out of nowhere, vehicles on…
And “Now” for something completely different…
Posted by Paolo Volpara At www.brianharke.com you can read that “being present is one of the greatest skill sets you can master. If you read about or follow any of…
The right to be rude.
In February 2017 Mrs. Rachel Caste wrote, for The New York Times, a clear and illuminating article titled “The Age of Rudeness”. “As the social contract frays, what does it…
Then you can’t go there if you are not here.
Yes, it is too hot for slow riding and, yes, that rider in front of you is too slow to be in the same group and, yes, your bike is…
Pay Attention and Enjoy it
There are days, or better, there are hours when everything seems to click at perfection, when happiness is just here, now. It was a normal ride for the day, nothing…
Minimizing risk and maximizing result
“So, you’ve finished your introductory training in the single-engine, prop-driven plane which you have only ever flown in perfect weather with perhaps a slight breeze and the odd cumulus cloud…
A life in Balance
From Latin “bi-lanx”, a scale with two pans, the word “balance” plays important role in life, in nature and in motorcycling. The dictionary definition of this simple word introduces the…
Time of Admiration
I rarely buy motorcycle magazines but… I was flying and I had local coins left in my pockets and three euros for 240 colour printed pages sounded as a good…
Do not go back…to basic
Do not go back to basic. Think forward Bikers, like wolves, live in pack and, as an ancient hero, like to build stories and legends. To do so, one needs…
The problem grows as we look at it.
posted by Paolo Volpara I like two wheels. With engine and with pedals. I like bicycling and it is one of the few sports that I enjoy from my couch.…
About controlling… bike and life
posted by Paolo Volpara Moved out of the big City and set my home on farm land where biking (on and off road) is theoretically better and practically spoiled by…
Socially enslaved? I always got my bike…
Over the last months I became aware of a certain reluctance from my side to share events related to motorcycling: websites, days out, group’s ride, meetings, chat rooms and blogs……
We are all delinquent
posted by Paolo Volpara The original quote from Honore’ de Balzac “Le Père Goriot (1834)” was well articulated: “Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié,…
The Now and The Fear. A feeling of anticipation.
At www.brianharke.com you can read that “being present is one of the greatest skill sets you can master. If you read about or follow any of the great leaders in…