Gray skies greeted us with towering storm clouds building up; Bill was convinced we were crazy to even try to ride, but I had checked the forecast and our morning seemed safe. So we headed over to Virginia Beach and picked up the bike.
My little dead-end street had four—growing to six—cars parked on the street and a camper trailer backed up to the Armco. The neighbor was getting married Sunday, so he had a slew of relatives staying with him. But I was not deterred; the parked cars were close enough together to leave me room at the end of the street for my turn around. My only concern was the camper and its towing block that jutted out. The parked cars meant no S turns this week, but I would still work on my U-turns, trying to tighten them up even more.
But before I began my street practice, I went cruising through this half of the neighborhood. The temperatures were in the low 80s, so when I rode at the speed limit, I felt a wonderful cooling breeze. I was a little braver on my own this week and rode out on the main road that enters the neighborhood. I wanted to ride in the gravel by the neighborhood park, but there was a truck and minivan parked in the gravel lot. But a little up the road is the neighborhood pool which still has its gravel lot (which it’s had since I was a child), so I rode in. I missed my first turn around because I quickly realized that I was on wet gravel with muddy ground and puddles, more than I had expected. I managed to back the bike up and get it turned, made a half loop at the other end, and departed.
That was when I headed back to my little street and worked on my stopping and my U-turns. When Bill placed his chair in the street by the curb, I worried I had lost more of my U-turn space, but I skillfully turned the bike on all but one U-turn, even passing feet in front of Bill. My stops were going great, so Bill set up the slalom for me. My first pass through was in first gear and went well enough, and I was able to turn the bike around and slalom back through only having to skip one cone. My next pass I decided to try staying in second gear as I slalomed realizing at the same time that I would have to quickly slow down and downshift to manage my U-turn. The run went smoothly and I managed the U-turn, so I continued to use second gear for the main run. On my third run through, I mistimed my slowdown and had to stop and back the bike up to get it turned around. But that was the only one, and my next five runs went smoothly.
We headed over to get Bill’s bike even though he still worried about the rain. A huge puff of smoke came out the R NineT’s exhaust; as Bill later explained, he needs to use up the gas because it’s still the gas from the dealership—who knows how long it’s been in the bike. But it started and ran so we were off. I am happy to say I did not stall on takeoff, though I did rev the throttle more than needed. We headed out on our usual route including a turn through the gravel drive. I kept up much better with Bill and had no stalls on the stops. It wasn’t until we pulled into my parents’ driveway to put the bike in the garage that I stalled again. This time Bill got off his bike and watched me as I attempted to get up the driveway. I wasn’t feathering the clutch.* Once he pointed out to me that I need to feather the clutch, and I backed the bike down to the sidewalk to lessen the grade, I zoomed the bike right into the garage.
As I drove us home, it dawned on me that I really was learning how to ride my bike. And I recognize this as a “no duh” statement, but I’m making it to try and convey the feeling of accomplishment the day’s ride brought to me. I am gaining confidence in my bike handling and looking forward to newer challenges. I can’t wait for next week’s ride.
In case you were wondering, I saw one of the falcons, an osprey, a gaggle of Canadian geese, and a Canadian Swallowtail that came fluttering out as I was finishing my street practice. All in all, a fantastic day for riding.
* “feathering the clutch” for any non-riders means to let the clutch in and out to create movement (what’s known as the friction zone) without fully releasing the clutch
Flutterby Biker 