If you spend a lot of time on your bike, ‘incidents’ are going to happen. 

It is inevitable. 

I don’t like incidents. 

I don’t want an incident. 

Incidents stay with me. 

They stay with me in a different way. 

The incident is not what stays with me. 

What stays with me is how I reacted to the incident. 

The incident is not the incident anymore. 

The incident is my reaction. 

I am wound up. 

My emotions are amped up. 

I may say the wrong thing. 

Then, for the next twenty-four hours, I analyse the shit out of it. 

I dwell on it. 

I hated this phase and decided to end it. 

I began to work on keeping the incident, the incident, 

When an incident is ‘live,’ I remember how much I hate ‘the phase.’ 

It is hard. 

But I have it down now. 

When the incident is happening, I calmly react in the appropriate manner. 

My fault, not my fault. 

An apology. 

An acknowledgment. 

Or an ‘Okay, all is good, there’s no need to apologize, don’t worry about it.’ 

Ride off. 

Done. 

No analyzing, no dwelling, the incident was kept to the incident. 

There is nothing left to think about. 

It happened. 

It was dealt with. 

It is over. 

I don’t want anything but good staying with me when I return from a ride. 

It changed the way I ride. 

In a good way. 

When I know I am in ‘incident territory.’ 

When I know an incident could possibly come up. 

I tone it down. 

I pull back. 

I forget about speed. 

I go with the flow. 

Once the flow is gone, I turn it back up again. 

I don’t like things that are bad to stay with me after a ride. 

‘I Just Want the Good.’ 

Insert Yellow Light emoji here. 

‘There is another way to ride.’