After a week of showers, heavy and persistent, the break in the weather was welcome. A brief window in which to hang a load of washing in the hope it would dry. An opportunity, too, to hop on the motorcycle which had sat sadly dormant in the garage for a couple of weeks.

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The Indian Scout comes to life with its customary growl. Full throated but not coarse like a Harley-Davidson and certainly not as loud. Leather jacket zipped and buttoned up, helmet fitted and fastened and gloves tightened, I set off to run a couple of errands.

I could have hopped in the car but was craving the sensations only a motorcycle can provide. That feeling of being there, fully engaged with the environment rather than insulated from it with the pollen filters, noise dampening and climate control of modern cars. The intense focus on the road, in the moment, all the nagging noises of life shut out. The physicality that comes with balancing and leaning into corners. You're passive in a car, active on a motorcycle.

And then, of course, there's the danger. Motorcycles account for 4.5 per cent of registered vehicles on Australian roads but are involved in 25 per cent of road deaths.

Even on this short ride, enjoying the smell of recent rain on asphalt and the warm sun on my back, there's the constant feeling that everyone and everything is out to kill you. The drivers who sit too close on your tail or approach the intersection too quickly. The potholes that have grown deeper since you last dodged them. The blisters left by earlier repairs. Gravel. On a motorcycle, you can't afford to ignore any potential hazard.

That sense of peril is offset by rewards. There's a fellowship among motorcycle riders - and I'm not talking about the outlaw kind. A tilt of the head as you pass on the highway, total strangers acknowledging each other. A conversation at the servo about the merits and pitfalls of what you're riding and the state of the road ahead. And, naturally, how relatively inexpensive it is to fill the tank compared with the four-wheeled behemoths alongside you.

It's probably too early........

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