After months off, a 200-mile blast sounds glorious. It’s also exhausting. Fatigue creeps in faster than you think, especially when your reflexes aren’t fully tuned back in.

Your brain doesn’t like unknowns. After winter, everything feels slightly unfamiliar again — the throttle response, the lean angle, the traffic awareness, even the sound of the engine beneath you.

From my first wobbly 125cc learner expeditions from Spring 2024 when my heart pounded as loudly as the engine — to the trips now where I push my bike to the limit wanting more than it could ever possibly give, I still don’t look back. Each ride teaches me invaluable riding tips: how to read the camber on a little-used backroad, gauge a crosswind on a dodgy bridge and trust muscle memory when a hazard appears without warning.

On the evening of Friday June 27, 2025, the quiet streets of Swindon, Wiltshire, transformed into a roaring boulevard of solidarity and hope. Hundreds, possibly thousands of bikes—roaring, shining, and wholeheartedly unified—descended upon the town to escort Josh, a young man who had endured relentless school bullying, to his prom.