The thick pollen coated the back of my throat on this blustery spring day, but that did not deter me.  The sun was bright in the windy skies, and the flowers and trees were blooming. 

            I started off the ride with an adjusted clutch lever, closer for an easier grip.  This caused issues shifting issues as I had to rediscover the sweet spot for the clutch, but I wasn’t too concerned as I understood the problem and knew I’d adapt to the changed clutch position.  I now want to bring the brake lever closer too.  Some riders hold to the philosophy of maintaining one to two fingers over the brake and clutch as they ride.  I want to try riding like this so I have all my options for a comfortable and safe ride.

            We set out into the wind.  The wind was 15 10 20 mph from the west with 25-30 mph gusts, so the wind was with us the whole ride.  I enjoyed it; I like the fight to stay on the motorcycle as the wind tries to push me off.  The best part of the battle with the wind was as we rode up the 35-mph road; that was straight into the wind and my hardest battle to stay on the bike.  I smiled the whole time.

            We did some U-turn practice in the courts and on the gravel lot by the historic house.  I found myself marveling at how confident I felt on the bike even as the back tire slipped a bit in the gravel.  We took off on a few new roads, seeking to stretch out the beautiful ride.  Everywhere I looked, there were Yoshino cherry trees, azaleas, dogwoods, daffodils, tulips, and more flowering plants and trees I didn’t know the name of blooming. 

The westerly wind had a chill to it, so I didn’t see any butterflies taking advantage of the flowering wonderland.  But the birds were out everywhere, zipping by as they busily worked on their nests.  In one court we rode into, a pair of Canadian geese were crossing the court toward the nearby water.  They hadn’t cleared the asphalt and took umbrage with us riding into their court.  We rode around in our circle as the geese seemed to be clearing off the pavement but for some reason, as we circled around again, the lead goose decided to charge at us.  Now we were safely avoiding them giving them a wide berth of at least 12 feet, but the goose started beelining toward Bill and then, after Bill rode past, toward me.  I smiled as I apologized to Mr. Goose for disturbing him and his lady.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for goslings in the upcoming rides.

We finished up our ride with quick braking practice.  Sometimes I do miss my solo practice riding, but today I noted that during our cruising, I’m able to practice leaning into the curves and accelerating on the way out, something I did at a very slow speed during the MSF course.  So I am always learning on my rides and always having a blast!

Cold, bright sunshine greeted us for our ride, our timing thrown off a bit by the leap forward for Daylight Savings Time.  But yesterday was a huge no-go between the rain, wind, and snow flurries.  Welcome to March in the Mid-Atlantic.  We were happy to have dry roads for our ride and just a few gusts of wind.

            Because of the cold, we had to gear up in our layers.  Bill got ready way faster than me; I’m slowed down by the need to shift my ponytail out between layers, so he took off for short little jaunts while I finished gearing up.  The Rev’It gloves fought me, but I wrested them on finally and we were off.  We hadn’t gotten past more than three houses before I realized I hadn’t secured my Helite vest to the Ducati.  I tried to signal Bill at the first stop sign to hold up, but my signal didn’t work.  I let him take off and took the time to click the connector; he held up at the end of the block until I rejoined him, and we finally started our cruise proper.

            The gear worked in keeping the wind chill at bay for a comfortable cruise, mostly.  The gloves still affect my grip, and I found myself longing for the warmer weather and the switch back to the Klim gloves.  But I decided to find a positive in riding with these gloves, and I did.  I used my discomfort with my grip to focus on squeezing the bike and gripping more with my thighs.  Once I did this, the gloves didn’t bother me as much, and I could relax and enjoy the feel of the ride. 

            There were a few gaggles of geese about, small groups with the birds paired off as we approach spring.  A high-flying hawk soared above us, but no bald eagles are likely as we are avoiding that road due to construction.  I had fun on the gravel doing S-turns, feeling a slight slip.  Neutral was not easy to find today, but I got there eventually.

            We finished up a short ride because the roads were pretty busy.  Probably everyone was out today having hunkered down during yesterday’s storm.  My Mom was out when we left, so I had closed the garage.  Usually at the end of our rides, we drive the bikes up into the garage.  But today we had to park them at the top of the driveway while I ran inside to open the garage.  That meant in order to move the Ducati into the garage, I needed to use the friction zone.  Now my parents’ have a very steep driveway, so as I started the bike and shifted into first, gravity tried pulling me back and down toward the street.  So I had to release the clutch while releasing the front brake.  My attitude was “all I can do is try,” knowing Bill could always take over if I failed.  But to my giddy relief, I was able to use the friction zone and walk the Ducati into the garage.  It is such a sense of achievement when I successfully execute my motorcycle skills.