Royal Enfield riders enjoy Doing It Daily

RideToWork.org once called it "The World's Roughest Ride." It's not a twisty back road in Georgia. It's not 17,000 feet up in the Himalaya Mountains. It's not across the Sahara or Siberia.

The organization was referring to the ride to work, the daily commute many of you do every day and I did until I retired last month. Doing It Daily on a Royal Enfield is a special challenge, I was told when I started. Royal Enfield motorcycles are vintage designs that like to be well oiled, frequently adjusted and spared high-speed jaunts on the Interstate.

I didn't find it too tough. The Enfield was perfectly happy in the surface-street traffic I encountered on the way to work. The neutral finder was my favorite feature. In my opinion, all motorcycles should have them. Why would anyone not want the ability to shift from fourth to neutral in a stroke? In traffic, it's a huge savings in effort.

The real challenge in daily commuting is other drivers. Plenty has been written about how unpredictable and distracted they can be. I will only note characteristics peculiar to commuting on an Enfield Bullet: on one or two occasions, when I pulled to the right lane to let faster traffic pass, the other driver reacted with rage. He had assumed I would hog the left lane and saw my courtesy as cutting in front of him.

Other times, traffic approaching from behind on a narrowing road would shadow me closely instead of going by, assuming that the motorcycle would streak forward in front of them. Incapable of that, I simply glided off the road when my lane ended. No problem.

The daily commuter gets wet when it rains and cold when the temperature drops. But he arrives at work energized and enthusiastic, ready to tackle the tasks of the day.

Incredibly, commuting is the thing I miss most! How's your daily ride? Leave a comment.