Hubby's First Ride (Not Really)

I say "not really" because it was hubby's first ride with ME but not his first RIDE, by far. I had walked in the back door not long before, after an afternoon of errands and visiting my father and we (hubby and I) were discussing how warm the afternoon had been.  "Nice day for a ride." says hubby, "Wanna go?"  "Together?", I ask - Woohoo!  Always more fun in numbers and I could use some watch-me-from-behind riding input. Hubby wanted me to take him along the same route I followed yesterday since he thought he remembered the twisty little road with the brook but wasn't sure and he wanted to see it, again.  So, geared up and ready (after a quick photo shoot), off we went.  

Today's ride was quicker than yesterday.  I have the luxury of poking along when I ride solo.  I led the way out of our dirt "subdivision" (ha!) and onto the roads leading to Springer, followed that through it's peaceful loop at the bottom and back out, on the return road home.  Hubby being used to much faster speeds and arriving back on our close-to-home dirt roads, he obviously had enough of moseying along behind me and decided to take the lead. Going too slow for you, dear?  :-)  That's OK.  It was a change of pace to have someone in front as it gave me a chance to learn about staggered riding formation and keeping a safe following distance.  

Our ride continued along Cooks Road, which follows the river and several pastures, and I was a bit surprised to see quite a large herd of black Angus beef cattle in a field right along the river. I've driven this road quite often and don't remember seeing cattle grazing, there.  Curious at first, they watched us approach before deciding the noisy, funny-looking, people-things weren't something they wanted to stick around to see and turning away from the roadside fence, off they trotted. Cows are funny-looking when they trot.  Udders do not make for good hind-leg coordination.

Up Riley Road, back to our home road, right on Cobban to the stop sign at the paved road that curves around and meets Black Jack Drive which connects, again, to our home road. A note on Black Jack Drive:  it is reportedly named for a a man named Jack Clark, one of three Jack Clarks who lived in the area at the turn of the last century. This particular Jack Clark had a very dark beard and thus, the name of the road (I'm not making this up). No one lives on Black Jack, now and the county does not care for the road in summer with grading or in winter with snow removal. The road is used, however by farmers plowing and harvesting the corn and hay fields still in use on the road.  It makes for a very peaceful and solitary walking road as well as a good road for practicing motorcycle riding balance since it's pretty rough.  

Hubby and I had talked about riding Black Jack but I didn't feel up to tackling it by myself.  If it was as rough as it seemed (with quite a steep gully right in the middle) and I was to "have an incident", I wanted help to be close by. As it turned out, the road was way less rough than I had anticipated and aside from a few more potholes and ruts than our usual roads, was an easy trail from start to finish. Less than five minutes later, we were stowing the bikes in their respective places in the garage. All in all, a fun first ride together as a pair of riders instead of two-up on one bike. I must say, I'm having fun!  

Practice, Pratice, Practice

I live in absolutely the best place to learn to ride a motorcycle and I am learning in the most pretty season of the year. Fall is gorgeous in Canada. The changing colour of the leaves are spectacular and the range of reds, oranges and yellows defies description. It even smells colourful.

I was out on the bike, today and I really appreciated, for the first time, what riders mean when they say, "It's different on a bike." I always thought this was hooey. How can riding a motorcycle be any different than being in a car with the window rolled down? At least as far as sampling the scenery and smell of the air, goes, anyway. Well, it IS different on a bike. A neighbour put it very well when she said, "You're more attached to the ground, for one thing." and somehow, riding a motorcycle provides a feeling of being WITHIN nature. It doesn't make a lot of sense and it makes NO sense to someone who hasn't ridden their own bike. Go ahead, try to convince them.  

I set out, today, with a plan to do a better job in two areas: tighter right and left hand turns from a stop and remembering to turn off my signal light. The last day's ride, my first ride longer than the 100 yard dash I did on the first day I had the bike, reminded me I need to work on these areas. I was also hoping my route included at least one stop sign on a slight hill so I could do a better job taking off on an incline. This was something I was taught in "bike school" and I found it a bit tricky, coordinating the clutch, the rear brake and the correct amount of throttle.  

It's getting cool, now, but this time of year in southwestern Ontario can still have many warm days since it doesn't necessarily cool off and stay that way, all at once. Today proved to be a beautiful day. The sun was out. The clouds were sparse, high and light and fluffy. The birds were practicing their songs in chorus and the breeze promised to give my ride an extra element of training in feeling its pressure at higher speeds.  

I had planned to start out practising 90 degree turns in and out of the end of the driveway.  Since our home is the second last on a dead end road and each of our nearest neighbours is more than a kilometer away, traffic is reeeeeaaaally easy to see and hear coming and I felt pretty safe. The reason I wanted to do this practicing is that two days ago, I made a wider-than-desired right hand turn from a stop on a dirt road onto a paved road with an 80km (50 mph) POSTED limit (closer to 100 kph cruising speed) and found myself a little too close to the center line and a car travelling  in the opposite lane.  I wasn't in danger but I was reminded, once again, how important it is to LOOK UP and to where I want to go, especially in turns. It is so easy to look AT the turn versus THROUGH it. Practice. Practice. Practice.  

I decided, once I had left the driveway behind that I'd take a route that included more dirt to pavement turns and practice, that way, instead.  I was also avoiding the "raceway" section of road where I had made my wide turn earlier in the week.  

Proceeding down our road, I turned right onto the first connecting dirt road and was enjoying the crispness of the air and the riot of colour when I remembered a very important thing. I am right-handed.  If I want to wave at someone, I have to use my LEFT hand.  I used my right hand to wave at the farmer harvesting pears in the orchard I was driving past and was surprised by my sudden loss of speed.  DUH!  Sounds intuitive, I know, but you try learning how to ride a motorcycle and see what dumb things you can discover.  It'll surprise, you, I'm sure.  

Collecting myself and chuckling, too, I recovered my throttle control and passed over the bridge which spans the Thames river and picked up speed as the road turns to pavement but is still very much a "country" road. I put a smile on my face by perfectly executing the left turn from the stop at the end, onto the secondary road which would lead to the next left I needed to make.  

Springer Road was my destination as it led to the provincial road that indirectly leads to the road I live on and is a 90 kph provincial, two-lane, highway; a fairly well-travelled route to several communities in the area.  By taking Springer, I could loop around, travel through the village of Delaware, get back up to speed and return home.  

Turning right onto Springer, my way was blocked by construction necessitating a complete route change on the spot since there was no other nearby connection to Highway 2.  With a short detour down a dead-end road to turn around, I proceeded in the other direction, toward the conservation area.  I had been down this end of Springer Road before in the car and it's a lovely ride.  This road changes from pavement to dirt, follows a twisty downhill curve to the left, then right and then meanders through what looks almost like a walking trail except that it's wide enough for a car, over a small bridge spanning a calmly bubbling brook, past a small number of secluded homes and hay fields, back up a twisty hill and after a short jaunt, loops back onto itself.  I almost stopped the bike at the brook, just to enjoy the air, it was that serene.  

Back on Springer, another well-executed left hand turn (even leaned into it a bit, getting brave, ha!) and a stop sign on a hill.  Good.  Wanted to practice this.  Rear brake in, clutch in, "ready" position for making the right-hand turn.  This particular stop had gravel strewn across the road, too so I had this added factor in making sure I got onto the road smoothly.  Open the throttle, gently let out the clutch, feel the bike wanting to move forward, ease off the rear brake and EYE LEAD - looking through the turn, done.  Good job.  More and more confident with each successful maneuvre.  

It wasn't long before I was back on the dirt roads near home; explored the two with the best views and made the turn back to the house.  Pulling into the driveway, I was calm and happy, feeling there really is something to this motorcycle-riding thing and glad I made the jump from passenger to pilot.  Life is good.  

First Bike, First Ride

When I told my husband I was going to get my motorcycle license, I don't think he believed me. After all, I had been a willing passenger on the back of his bikes for such a long time and was so adamant about not ever riding my own bike that it would have been hard for anyone to believe me. Once the deed was done, however, I knew my husband would be the one to help me choose what bike I would actually own and ride.  

The decision turned out to be quite an easy one to make, really, helped by the two essential requirements I decided I had to have: good traction on dirt and low enough for me to plant both feet flat on the ground.  I knew I would not feel confident without either, given that we live on a dirt road and that I would be learning to ride on several connecting dirt roads.  

The dirt part was easily solved.  The category of bike, then, had to be a dual-sport.  The low enough part was also an easy poser.  Since I knew I didn't want a cruiser, we just had to find a dual-sport with a low seat height.  That also meant it wouldn't be too powerful, either, since the larger displacement dual-sport bikes are also taller and that suited me, just fine.  I didn't intend to be rocketing my bike to the moon and I won't be up for wheelies and tricks for a loooooong time.  

The decision was made.  The bike would be a Yamaha XT225. Picking the bike proved to be the easy part. FINDING the bike took a bit longer.  We actually started looking pretty much as soon as I completed rider training, Labour Day Weekend but it took almost 6 weeks before we found an XT in good condition at a good price.   

Kijiji was our main I-wonder-if-anyone-has-one-for-sale-this-week place to look and I had been searching our city and nearby cities for dual-sport motorcycles without much success.  A few ads appeared but the bike was invariably priced close to the cost of a brand-new bike.   After looking for weeks, we decided that's what we would do - buy a new bike.  I wasn't sold on this idea, not wanting to be a raw beginner on a pristine bike, but fall was progressing and I didn't want to miss a chance to practice what I had learned before winter set in.  

It was with some trepidation that I followed my husband into his favorite cycle shop to look at what they had.  And there was lots to be had: cruisers, sport bikes, sport-tourers, dirt bikes, dual-sport, ATV's, you name it.  They were all there. But no XT, at least none in stock.  I did sit on a Suzuki DR200 which held promise but was told the 200cc engine wouldn't likely be powerful enough for the type of riding I eventually wanted to do.  Well, OK, then.  What next? The owner of the shop was a friend of my husband's and he agreed he would get to work on locating an XT. So, at least now, we had help from someone with contacts and I was feeling less like I might need a snowmobile instead of a motorcycle.   

Back, home, a few days later, sitting at the computer doing something totally unrelated to finding a motorcycle, I dialed up Kijiji, once again.  This time I searched on all motorcycles instead of limiting my search to dual sports and I tried a city a little further than I had been looking. Eureka!  There was a 1998 Yamaha XT with less than 4000 km (~3000 miles) not more than an hour away and the price was perfect.  

I sent an email off presto and with a few back and forth discussions, was able to arrange to look at the bike Thanksgiving Day, October 13th.  I was twitchy all weekend but trying to be patient and contain my enthusiasm and anticipation.  When the day came, the ramps were loaded into the pickup, ratchet tie-down straps safely stowed and we were off - WAY too early in the morning for my taste but I wasn't about to complain.  

The bike was perfect and it turned out to have been the owner's first bike, too.  She loved this bike and it was a tough decision for her to make to sell it but with young children and no time to ride, the bike had actually grown cobwebs sitting out the last several riding seasons in the garage. It was an easy sell for us.  Up the ramps it went, into the back of the pickup.  

I did it!  I got my license, I learned to ride, I found a bike and now I wondered if I would remember what I had been taught.  Mentally, on the ride home, I went over the most critical things:  clutch control, eye lead and FINEC (see my second blog, Gearing Up and Learning To Ride! Part One). I was anxious to see how I would do.  

Home, in the driveway, bike on its stand, my husband encouraged me to take the bike for a spin. He's good at that - encouraging me to do things I'm hesitating to do.  The evidence of my first ride and how it went is now a video on You Tube.  Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eKhJyYMwD4

Enjoy!  

Gearing Up and Learning to Ride! Part Two

Sunday morning, 7:45 am, out on the course, again; another sunny and soon to be scorching-hot day AND, I am not a morning person.  Suffering the muscle aches and pains of riding a motorcycle for the first time for a whole day in too much sun, I was none too sunny-feeling, waiting to start up the bike for the second day's training. Luckily, there wasn't much time to think about my body once the class started.  

First question, did we want to change bikes, today? Hmm, give me a minute to consider that one. Um, no.  No, no and no.  I wasn't up to introducing an additional element of uncertainty into a day that was supposed to include already knowing how to ride a bike and learning new skills that included stopping VERY quickly and passing A TEST, to boot. Call me chicken at worst,
conservative at best, but I walked to the same bike I had used the day before; a bike I had chosen, by the way, because it already had a dent in the gas tank and so any extras I was going to make wouldn't show as much.  :)  

Day two training  started with an oral overview of the important points from the day before and I was reminded that "eye lead" is VERY important.  More than once, I had heard, "LOOK UP! LOOK UP!".  Looking through the curve, and ahead in the straights to where you want to be is critical and something I needed to remember.  Clutch control and friction point as well as what to do if we felt we were out of control - "push and pull"  i.e.; pull in the clutch and front brake, push on the rear brake and gear down were all made fresh again, in my mind.  

We spent the morning learning the skills we would be tested on in the afternoon: emergency braking, swerving, counter-steering, accelerating out of a turn and gearing up, staying within a "lane" and stopping at a specified point.   We learned that during emergency braking, if the front wheel locks up, to release the front brake lever; that if the rear wheel locks up, to ride it out; NOT to brake on a curve since that straightens the front wheel and takes us out of the curve and straight off the road (nice, hmmm?)(good point to remember).  We also spent time slowing to turn tight circles and figures of eight while maintaining control.  

It took some mental maneuvering for me to grasp the concept of counter-steering and it was my husband who made it clearer by demonstrating how spinning wheels actually lean from side to side when they are moving in a curve or turn and that the lean is OPPOSITE to the direction of the turn.  So, at higher speeds, pushing the handlebar of the direction you want to turn is what is needed, not the opposite which is what I saw in my mind.  

We ended the morning by actually running through the test several times and this is where the heat, the effort and lack of restful sleep starting to catch up to me. Initially, I was doing great - managed to run through the five sections without a hitch.  It was only as lunch approached and the spectre of the ACTUAL test loomed closer that I started having problems.  Oh, well, after something to eat and a break, things were bound to improve, right?  Well, not exactly.  

Lunch and a break did help and once we started up again, we went for a short drive around the college campus and practiced stopping and taking off on a hill.  This was something I'm glad to have been taught since I saw how often the situation arises, especially on the dirt roads around my home. Once everyone had run through it several times, we met inside while we waited for the first group to be tested and to discuss some of the considerations for carrying passengers (no, don't ask me for a ride).  

How am I doing, mentally, at this point?  Better.  I'm feeling reasonably confident that I've been taught what I need to know and that I wouldn't be proceeding to the test if I hadn't.   Still, the inner critic nicely reminds me that I was screwing up the practice test just before lunch.  I told it to shut up and go to its room.  After all, the instructors were saying all weekend there is a 99% pass rate; pretty good odds!  

Back on the motorcycles and back to the test lot for a few more times through the five sections of the test.  NOW, I'm really screwing up - crossing lines, not accelerating fast enough, rear tire "skipping out" due to lack of control, poor braking....NOT good.   I had essentially managed to convince my body that I had forgotten everything I just worked so hard to learn.  

How am I doing, mentally, now?  Awful and after the second time through the first curve without doing any better, I'm feeling frustrated.  Now, when I reach a feeling of frustration it isn't pretty; not pretty at all.  Pulled aside by my instructor, now in tears, I'm feeling pretty lousy and my confidence is shattered.  All the stress and heat and physical and mental exertion of the last 2 days has reached it's max and ain't gonna be held back no more!  Poor Steve, my instructor.  I have to give him credit for not sending me to the corner for a time out, or worse - home!  Faced with a blubbering female, he did very well, indeed.  "It's not the end of the world." he said.  "One woman isn't even DOING the test.  She's decided to sit it out."  Didn't matter one bit, to me.  "But I don't want to be the ONE who fails."  I blubbered. (Remember the 99% pass rate?  Well, in the world as my mind sees it, that meant one person fails and that, of course, would be ME.)   "Look," Steve said, "just ride this part of the test in first gear.  It's timed but you'll be fast enough in first gear." Relief flooded through me.   OK.  I can do that.  Good.  No need to change gears as well as nail the right hand turn AND stay inside the really-close-together lines AND stop in the box.  Little bit of confidence returning.  "Give it a try.", Steve says.  So I do and I did it!   OK, now go, sit and wait my turn to ride the test.  

I was fourth and each of the riders before me did very well. My turn.  Remember to breeeeeathe. Of course, the FIRST part of the test was the part I was having the hard time with, earlier, Murphy' s Law.  Good and bad.  If I did well, I was more confident with the remainder of the test. If I blew it, I could kiss my confidence good-bye and no matter how well I MIGHT have done on the rest of the test, a disaster was likely.  Remedial class, comin' right up.  

Lined up in the box to start part one, I can start whenever I'm ready as the timer doesn't start until I do.  Remember "eye lead" I tell myself.  Two deep, yoga breaths and, starting, I look through the turn, accelerate, manage to stay within the lines despite a back end "wobble" and stop in the box at the other end. No whistle from the examiner and I get the signal from Steve to proceed to part two.  YES!  I'm OK. Yay!  Staying in first gear did it!  

Parts two to five were smooth with the only problem being a stall as I took off from part two to part three.  Dumb but given my fears at the start of the test, I allowed myself this mistake without letting the inner critic out of her room.  

Exhausted and relieved, I rode the bike over to the shelter where the rest of the group was waiting, took off my helmet and with tears of relief, this time, sat down to cheer on the riders who followed.  

Everyone passed, several with perfect zero scores and we were the first group all season to accomplish that.  How'd I do?  One demerit point for stalling the bike.   Not bad for someone who didn't know how to start a bike 36 hours ago and managed to have a melt-down right before the test.  I done good!  

Many thanks to Steve and Dan, my instructors that weekend.  You were both great teachers and I appreciate your support.   I highly recommend this course for anyone learning to ride, even if you already know how to start a bike!  :)

Gearing Up and Learning to Ride! Part One

OK, so I decided I wanted to learn to ride a motorcycle. Good.  First step accomplished i.e.; yup,

I'm going to do it.  Now what?  Several choices confront me. Do I buy a bike and learn to ride on my own using trial and error?   Not being a daring sort, that choice seemed to involve one too many lessons in picking up both the bike and myself. Nope, ixnay that one; don't need a lesson in frustration.   Do I ask my husband to teach me?  Hmm.  That one might be doable but having heard enough tales of husbands teaching their wives to drive cars and how well that goes (not!), I decided against that one, too.  Also, doesn't solve the problem of what bike to learn on, since I don't have one and both of my husband's bikes are too big for comfort.  

Luckily, I knew about the Canada Safety Council motorcycle training course called, Gearing Up! It is offered at a nearby community college every weekend from spring to fall and it has a great reputation.   So, I signed myself up to take the course on Labour Day weekend and I didn't regret it.  This is how the weekend unfolded:

The Thursday evening before the weekend was a classroom session with general instruction on accident cause factors (nice way to start, hmm?), defensive riding, lane positioning, protective clothing, checking out the bike before a ride and videos to demonstrate the topics being discussed.  The instructor also went over the plan for the weekend riding training and some of what to expect.  I have to admit that by the end of the 3 or so hours, I wasn't sure how well I would do when it actually came to riding.  I kept hearing how people would be sent home if they weren't "getting it" and was beginning to wonder if I was cut out for this riding-my-own-motorcycle stuff, especially since I was a greener-than-green novice.  I didn't even know how to turn the thing on! Do you use a key? Push a button?  Kickstart?  Pushstart? Enlist a friend?  Pray?  What?   

Saturday morning started out warm and sunny with a promise to get quite hot through the day.  Dressed in my full gear, including armour (wasn't taking any chances with pealing skin off my body WHEN I went down -- actually how fast I thought I would be going didn't cross my mind), I arrived just as we were being instructed to label our helmets.  Nice touch, actually; allowed the instructors to use our names instead of "Hey, You!" when correcting our maneuvers.  

The first lessons were non-motorized, so to speak with lots of pushing and running; one rider, one pusher.  The bikes were turned off and, paired up, we pushed each other around just to get a feel for balance and braking.  Thank God that didn't last long.  I was running of breath AND my riding  pants kept falling down and remember I said the day promised to be hot?  Well, it was. By noon, it reach 42 C (107 F) on the parking lot pavement and I was sweating buckets.  My suit is hand-made and better suited to cooler temperatures.  If it wasn't for the MiraCool (tm) vest I was wearing, I would have died.  I, unlike my husband, am not a heat-seeker and the MiraCool vest works by evaporative cooling.  It was wonderful!  

FINEC - that's the acronym for fuel, ignition, neutral, emergency, choke and THAT's how you start a motorcycle.   See, I did learn something!   I also add K to the end of that to remind myself about the kickstand.  Not good to take off with it down :(

The better part of the morning lessons centered on finding the "friction point"; letting out just enough clutch with just enough throttle to get the bike moving forward.  Remember Thursday night's class about going home if we weren't "getting it"?  Well, this was the main reason.  Every other lesson was based on having clutch control and not continuously stalling the bike.   No one went home.  We all got it even though I had a bit of a rocky start figuring out I needed to put on more throttle before letting out the clutch and learning that it was OK to "ride the clutch" a bit for a smoother transition (no, not like a "stick" in a car).  Once I "got it", I had it down pretty well.  

There was lots of starting, stopping, starting stopping, turning, curves, walking-speed riding with clutch control and foot braking to control the speed.  Shifting out of first gear into second and accelerating out of turns and curves and down into first again started after lunch and led up to a the final exercise of the day with all 30 students (until now we were in groups of 10) riding a makeshift course with stop signs, left and right turns and curves to  mimic city streets.  It was a bit nerve-wracking with all thirty of us going in all directions, trying to remember to signal properly, not stall the bike, use "eye lead" (translation: WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING), shift up and down properly.  It was an exercise in putting it all together and yes, we all managed to avoid each other.  

The day ended with more class time to go through the skills test the next day and I found myself doubting my choice, again.   Will I have learned enough to pass the test and move on to the next stage of the graduated license?  I had to trust that I would, based on how far I had come, today.  

Next blog: Day 2

Passenger to Pilot

My husband has been an avid motorcycle rider for at least 15 years and is quite accomplished, having several long-distance records to his credit.   I, on the other hand, have been a passenger, ONLY, for the 12 years we  have been together and, until recently, was quite happy sitting back there and leaving the details of getting the bike to our destination totally up to him.   So happy, in fact, that anyone how knows me will have heard me say, often enough, that I would NEVER have my own bike.  Fear is a powerful stopping agent to change!  

So, after having so many years as a happy pilion, why, you may ask, would I suddenly decide to assault the fear demon and change from passenger to pilot?  This takes a bit of telling to explain and it basically goes like this:  My husband has 2 bikes, a Honda ST1100 and a Kawasaki KLR650. The Honda is a sport-touring bike, larger and with plenty of room for a passenger, even a larger-than-average one (!).  The KLR, on the other hand, is a dual purpose bike, meant to be rideable on dirt as well as pavement and consequently, is a smaller bike, at least from my wider-than-a-twelve-year-old posterior.  Riding as a passenger on the KLR is torture.  We've done it once.  We lasted an hour.   Needless to say, the riding I have done as a passenger has been on the ST.  

The riding my husband has been doing in the last few years, at least the riding he has been writing about, has been on the KLR and he's been to some fantastic, out-of-the-way spots with amazing scenery providing enticing photographs and tales and I WANT TO GO, TOO but NOT on the KLR. So, torn between riding torture as the passenger on the KLR and staying home, I was faced with a decision:  lump it and stay home, living vicariously through my husband's stories or bite the bullet and get my own bike.   On Labour Day weekend, this year, I took the Canada Safety Council motorcycle training course called, Gearing Up and learned to ride.   The tales of that weekend are the fodder for another blog (to come!).   Thanksgiving weekend, I bought my own bike and the HaveMotorcycleWillTravel adventure was launched.   

Since this is such a big step for me, I wanted to document the experience as it unfolds and maybe it will entertain and inspire others at the same time.  Enjoy!