A beautiful Saturday morning for learning to ride! The weather gods were kind and kept the temps at a cool 70 as I cruised around the neighborhood school’s parking lot. The first thing I noticed was the motorcycle didn’t feel as heavy as it had at the dealership, so I am already getting conditioned to the weight—yay! The second thing was the feathery light movement of the clutch in the friction zone; I could easily paddle around the entire parking lot at a breezy little speed within the friction zone on this bike.
My new Schuberth E1 helmet in Cut Blue fit beautifully and is nice, vivid, and visible. And the sun visor offered excellent protection against the super bright sunshine. Plus, my boyfriend , Bill, noticed that the white peak on the helmet matched beautifully with the white peaked fender on the front of the bike. And, in case you were wondering, my only other motorcycle specific equipment right now is the Rev’it Valley Tube necktube that does a fantastic job of keeping my neck from getting sunburned. I do have a pair of Klim XC Lite Women’s Gloves to wear for my summer practice on order and will have them in time for my next weekend practice. As far as clothing, I’m just in jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt while I let my boyfriend select and, more importantly, pay for some great warm weather riding gear.
As I rode, I stuck to what we had learned in the MSF course and worked on moving in the friction zone, shifting from first to second gear, turning, stopping quickly, and placing my left foot down first when stopping (not always easy when I feel my weight shifted to the right). Bill, who very patiently was watching my practice, pointed out that I needed to remember to look both ways when starting up out of the stop, to make that a habit when on the bike. Overall, the practice went very well, lasting about an hour. When we returned the bike to my parents’ garage, my Mom asked, “Are you done already?” So I explained that my hands and wrists get tired gripping the clutch and front break. Plus, we hadn’t had our delicious blueberry French toast brunch yet, and we were both very hungry. And, even though he tells me he doesn’t mind my practicing, I do feel bad that my boyfriend is stuck watching me and doesn’t get to ride himself—except when bringing the bike over to the school from the garage and returning it to my parents’ house.
The idea is for me to gain experience and develop my riding skills enough so that we can take bikes out into the country and cruise some back roads and quiet country lanes. But first I have to progress enough in the school’s parking lot to begin practicing in the neighborhood. And my boyfriend has to get himself a motorcycle.
One idea we have been tossing around is that he would get for himself my next bike, the bike I would graduate up to once I can more than handle the G310. We both love the Triumph Scrambler 1200 XE for this, though we’ve had some concern over heat from the exhaust. But yesterday, my boyfriend found a Youtube video from Tec Bike Parts, “Brand New Flank 2-1 Exhaust for Scrambler 1200” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MQLIxjtHtc&scrlybrkr=eb9f2774) in which he installs the new exhaust with the heat shield in about 15 minutes. We liked it so much, we tried ordering the part which is out of stock in the US, available in the UK, but won’t ship from the UK to the US—frustrating! We also stumbled upon the fact that the new 2022 Triumphs are out (including the limited-edition Steve McQueen version). So I am hoping we will go look at those soon and my boyfriend will get one-even though it’s a little early for me to be out country cruising. But I am super excited to get there!
Flutterby Biker 