The day after Christmas and the gift was the weather—bright sunshine and temps in the low 60s. The Canadian geese were out in force, basking in the beautiful day. Santa brought me some cold weather riding gear, but today was not the day to bundle up. I did wear my new Schott’s leather jacket, liner removed, which kept me comfortably warm. But it was warm enough for me to wear my Klim summer gloves because I have Barkbusters now on the Scrambler adding some wind protection.
My dead-end street was full of the parked cars of family members gathering for the Christmas holiday, so that practice was out. I suggested we just head out on our neighborhood cruise, but Bill pointed out I needed to spend time in slow practice getting used to handling my new bike. So the plan was I would stay relatively close to my parents’ house, no crossing over into the other half of the neighborhood, no heading over to the fancy neighborhood, and work on stops, turnarounds inside of courts, and getting comfortable riding the Scrambler. Bill would head out for his own solo cruise on the R NineT and we would meet back up in half an hour.
Off I went, chugging along a bit roughly as I got a feel for the clutch and the shifter. The shifter really seemed to fight me, actually causing some pain on the top of my left foot as I struggled at times to move it. But I recognized this as my need to learn the new bike; I had to get a feel for the acceleration, the clutch, and the shifter. I learned that the taller gears meant that if I waited longer to shift from first to second, the Fasthouse was more obliging on my shifting. And I found having my foot fully under the shifter made shifting more comfortable. I also confirmed that the bike was fine staying in third gear as I cruised a few streets.
My stops went very well, left foot down every time and no stalls on the take off. I later learned in the car as we were driving home that the larger engine on the Ducati means the cylinders once engaged want to stay engaged. So it’s as if the bike doesn’t want to stall. Well, more likely it will benefit me with extra time in the friction zone to get the bike moving and grant me fewer stalls.
Which brings me to the throttle. Motorcycle riders talk about bikes that want to throw you off and that you have to hang on to tightly. That is the sensation I was experiencing as I adjusted to the 73 horsepower; I need to roll on the throttle smoother and gentler than I did with the BMW G310 GS. But I must admit there is a thrill that comes with the adrenaline surge as I feel the bike accelerating and trying to throw me off. However, I developed a better feel for the throttle and was able to accelerate and shift smoothly. I stopped in front of my parents’ house about 10 minutes early for our meet time so I could work on finding neutral. I surprised myself by finding it almost immediately; right away asking myself what did I just do.
I headed out for some more cruising before our meet up. I was hoping we’d meet and head out for the long cruise together. However, it was not to be. As Bill pointed out, everything had been going very well—except I still have a struggle to find neutral–and he didn’t want to push our luck. He offered to hang out and let me keep riding, but I decided to call it a day too as I was feeling really good about all I had accomplished on the Fasthouse.
Flutterby Biker 