(This week’s entry is a combination of two writes ups. You have probably figured out by now that my entries are based on rides from earlier in the year. I am trying to get to where I publish two blog posts a week instead of one, and I’m getting close.)
Please don’t think I’m in a riding rut. I learn something new every week in my parking lot. For example, I relearned entering and exiting the curve. I worked on swerving to avoid a collision with the speed bump. And I’ve learned that I can do the U-turn in the box. I am still working on making an “s” in the box. I also learned I could “recover” the bike as I almost lost it—still no drops after 9 rides.
Tomorrow we will set up cones and camelbacks and work some drills. I say “we” because we now have two bikes. Welcome the 2021 BMW 1200 Urban GS, 719 edition! Yes, a lot has happened over the past three weeks.
So I will backtrack a little. On Saturday, June 12, after our morning ride on the 310, we went to the local Triumph dealer to check out the Scramblers in stock. There were three—one in the khaki green (XC), one white and green (XE), and one blue and black in the XE Showcase edition (2019). It is a beautiful bike and, despite being three years old, only has six miles on it. One concern with it was that I was on the balls of my feet, not flat (I’m 5’11” with a 32” inseam). But there is a low seat option, so we didn’t knock it for its height.
Now this second motorcycle is for my boyfriend to ride and for me to work my way up to. Once I am ready for the larger bike, Bill will get the BMW 1250 GS which I will then work towards being able to ride. We had narrowed our choices to the Triumph Scrambler or the BMW Scrambler/Urban GS (different versions of the same basic bike). Our primary goal is off-roading, but off-roading on dirt roads, gravel, and grass. No serious trails as yet.
Less than a week after we had looked at the Triumph Showcase edition, the dealership got one of the Steve McQueen limited edition motorcycles (#0189 of 1000). It is a beautiful bike—green is my favorite color. But it lacked several of the features available on the Showcase edition including the heated grips. So if you are a collector, it’s a beautiful bike to have in your collection. But if you are a serious rider, you want as much functionality and usefulness, as well as good looks, in your bike. The Showcase edition was in the lead.
That Saturday after our rides, we headed back to the same BMW dealership where we had purchased the 310. Bill wanted a test ride; we were told test rides were not allowed at the Triumph dealership (due in large part to the much younger, large sailor customer base from the nearby Naval base, I assume). Whatever the reason for no test rides, Bill would not buy a bike he hadn’t ridden. The Urban GS was test rideable. He took it out on a 90 degree day, driving it around an empty parking lot. After what seemed a long time—in reality maybe 10 minutes, I went looking for him. He was having a blast zooming around the parking lot, his overshirt blowing back behind him, and the bike was beautiful. I didn’t need him to tell me he was going to buy it. The sales manager did, though. When Bill finished giving his impressions from the ride, Rick asked flat out if he thought he would buy it.
“Of course I’m buying it,” was the calm response. My boyfriend keeps things pretty close to his chest.
So several hours later, we became the owners of a second BMW motorcycle. This was on Saturday with the pick-up scheduled for Thursday. The delay was due to me having my DMV appointment on Tuesday where my new certificate processed with no problem, and I was told my new license would be in the mail.
We picked up the bike using a U-Haul truck as we are adamant we are not riding on major roadways. Now Bill had told me he would just ride the bike out of the truck provided we could turn it around. At first I thought he was joking and, when he said he didn’t need the ramp, he actually was. But just as with the 310, my brother was out mowing the lawn and came over to help. Between him and Bill, the bike was turned around, and my brother made the same suggestion about just riding the bike down the ramp. Bill gave him the honors as he had helped us twice now without needing to be asked and he really seemed to want to. His verdict? “Smooth.”
As for my riding, once my license arrives in the mail, then I will follow Bill through the neighborhood to get to our practice parking lot. And we will both get to practice our stopping, swerving, slaloming, and standing drills. My bike is a few inches shorter, though much taller. I think I will have the advantage inside the box.
My license arrived yesterday with the official “M2” designation smack in the center. This meant that now I could ride my bike over to the elementary school through the neighborhood making me an official motorcycle rider. You know how when you can’t fall asleep, every nighttime noise is magnified tenfold? Imagine that feeling but with the everyday objects on the road—stop signs, parked cars, bicyclists, oncoming traffic, following traffic, turning traffic, sewer covers, bumps, intersections, curbs, etc. I felt an awareness of every driveway we passed, the potential for a car to back out at any moment.
I realize this sounds a bit paranoid, so please don’t think I was miserably nervous as we cruised through the neighborhood. I had more the sensation of an awakening. My boyfriend Bill has been stressing the need for a hyper-awareness necessary on the motorcycle on things we take for granted driving in a car. As we rode through the neighborhood streets, I experienced that hyper-awareness without a lessening of the fun of riding.
For many riders cruising the neighborhood at or under 25 mph may not constitute a ride. But I marveled at the buffeting of the wind even at such a slow speed, and I wondered what it will feel like at 35 or 45 mph (no highway riding, so no need to go as high as 55). Bill insisted I wear a leather jacket for the neighborhood ride and came to the realization that we would indeed need summer riding jackets.
I have no idea what I looked like, but I felt great. We passed a couple pruning tree branches, and I realized that for them, Bill and I were two experienced riders cruising around. The only people who might have realized what a newbie I really was, would have been anyone behind me at two different intersections where I stalled out of the stop—3 stall-outs in total today. Luckily, no one was behind me.
We rode the bikes over to the school parking lot where I practiced accelerating out of the curve, coming to a quick stop, U-turns, and slow slaloming. Our Kamelkones and small traffic cones had arrived, so we put them to use. At first, Bill set 6 of them up about 7 feet apart. After my first attempt, he spread them out another foot and took away a cone. After my second and third attempts, he took away yet another cone and spread them even farther apart, around 9 feet and only 4. The challenge was a slow slalom, so I was in first gear and stayed seated. I could get through 3 of the cones, but I was definitely oversteering.
I wanted to compare the seated slalom to the standing slalom, so I made a run up and a run down standing on the bike—that was a revelation. In standing I naturally used more of my body to steer, just as we do on our bicycles once we gain confidence to accelerate. So I realized that I needed to rely on my body more in the slaloming when seated. By utilizing the shifting weight of my body, I had better control, I leaned more rather than turning the handlebars, and I was more successful.
The one point I was not successful on was getting Bill to ride the slalom as well. So my goal is to get him up practicing along with me. He doesn’t need the practice like I do, but I know riding around on the bike would be so much better than sitting and watching.
Flutterby Biker 