As I began to write this blog entry, I realized it is my 50^th blog.  It is also the one-year anniversary of my MSF course which means I have been a motorcyclist for a year. 

            A year in and I’ve had one drop, no crashes, and two motorcycles.  I still have yet to ride on a major roadway, but we’ve begun looking at a local possibility that would only require us getting up a little earlier.  The more I ride and compare it to driving, the more I recognize how riding motorcycles in traffic is not a good idea.  Besides, on the Ducati Scrambler, cruising is not what the bike is built for.  When we took the bikes into the pool’s gravel lot and the historic house lot, I enjoyed the feel of the tires slipping a bit in the gravel.  That’s what my bike is made for, dirt roads and gravel paths.

            Today was a cool, comfortable day with temps around 60 and the sun shining down on us.  Birds were everywhere, a group of robins flying right around Bill in front of me, a few geese milling about, and a wary egret eyeballing us as we made circles in a court.  I was happy to have finally found the little cat garden statue Bill has been talking about.  It is an interesting yard ornament as the cat is looking sideways in surprise.  Roses have begun blooming alongside the irises with the dogwoods covered in green leaves; a few still had their white blossoms cradled among the green.  Only one cabbage white butterfly fluttered by, but I did see two dragonflies darting about in front of me.

            My ride was great; I kept up easily with Bill on takeoffs as well as on the roadway.  One of the benefits to following Bill is that I often get to see how people we pass react to us.  Pleasantly, most of them wave (adults) while the kids watch with popped eyes and jaws dropped because to a kid, motorcycles are cool.  And because I have a little bit longer reaction time, I’m able to wave back.  Today I found myself thinking how after just a year of riding, I’m very comfortable lifting my left hand off the bike to wave.

            As for my training, we worked on coming to a “no foot” stop.  This is where you brake the bike so the speedometer shows zero but you don’t put your feet down.  We only do this at yield signs, and there has to be some confidence in handling the motorcycle as it will start to weave (you can do the same thing on your bicycle).  We learned this week that when riding at slow speeds and the bike starts to tip, let the clutch out.  This allows the friction zone to help keep the bike moving, but it is contrary to what our instincts tell us—pull in and grip the bike.  We’ve just began our training with this and I look forward to more practice.

            Next week we’re going to add sudden stops when standing on the bike.  We practice riding while standing in a large hospital parking lot but, as Bill pointed out, we need to be prepared for sudden stops for when something jumps into our path.  Standing on a motorcycle for riding is often used when off-road riding especially over bumpy terrain.

            The day was so lovely, we extended our ride a bit, finishing up to find an osprey flying way overhead.  I did have more success with finding neutral today with only one stop where I couldn’t get there.  I tried rocking the bike as Bill suggested and that did help.  It’s been a fantastic year of riding and learning, and I look forward to more practice, more learning, and even more to the riding.  And thanks for reading!

            Despite an early start, the temperature was already mid-70s as we mounted up for our weekly ride.  Summer days are getting closer.

            One thing I’ve noted about my riding skills last week and this week is that I am much better at taking off in sync with Bill.  Before, he would head out and I would stall or sputter out slowly as I was getting a feel for the bikes and for riding.  Now I find myself capably feathering the clutch and accelerating so that I am just a little behind the R NineT.  To me this reflects my growth as a rider in that I have become much smoother at starting off on the motorcycles.

            We headed back into a neighborhood we’d been avoiding because of the road construction and, as we arrived at the turn into the first road, we noticed an Eastern Chicken Turtle out in the road.  Due to the noise of a truck that had passed and our bikes, he was snug in his shell but not in the best place.  We rode on and I wondered because I fully expected Bill to stop the bike and move the turtle.  Into the neighborhood we went, finding the road torn up still and a large mountain of dirt laying on the side of the road.  But we got to take a spin in the gravel lot of the historic house.  We quickly rode toward the neighborhood exit, finding the turtle had moved onto our road with about half the street left to go before finding safety in the grass.  This time Bill stopped his motorcycle, got off, and gently lifted the turtle and placed him in the grass in the direction of the river.  Turtles out sunning themselves is another sure sign of summer.

            When Bill had stopped his motorcycle, I tried to shift into neutral to give my hands a short rest but the Ducati is fighting me again and not letting me find the magic “N.”  Luckily on this ride, we didn’t stop much.  We headed over to the ritzy neighborhood and kept cool by riding straight down to the end of the road.  This turned us around and let us hit our usual roads from the opposite direction.  I noticed the dogwood blossoms had fallen as the green leaves pushed through.  The azaleas were in their last blush of bloom, but the irises were open and I saw beautiful whites, purples, and pinks.

            On this warmer day, I expected to see a lot of butterflies to make up for last week.  Alas, it was not to be.  I saw only two cabbage whites the whole ride.  But I am realizing I may see fewer butterflies as I don’t do my dead-end street practice any more.  My little practice road was next to woodland, so the trees and flowers attract the fluttering insects.  And while we are riding through neighborhoods with large yards, we are riding past so I’m not “hanging out” where I can notice and observe the butterflies.  I hope the butterflies will become more plentiful.

            We didn’t have any rude drivers this week, but we did have unusual traffic patterns.  Several times when we were trying to turn left, a plethora of cars would come by.  But the roads themselves were rather clear of cars.  We did our usual gravel parking lot practice, and I enjoyed the slipping sensation of the tires on the shifting gravel.  The downside to our S-turn and U-turn practices is the heat, and on the Ducati, the heat is more intense than on my little 310.  This is because of the exhaust location.  My Scrambler has two small exhaust pipes down beside my right inner leg.  So I feel not only the heat off the engine but also the exhaust heat.  It’s fine while we’re riding straight out, but it can be uncomfortable when doing slow speed maneuvers.

            We had a bonus ride in the gravel lot by the neighborhood pool.  Bill had headed down the road planning to turn around, but there was a guy on a bike on the side of the road in the way, so we headed into the pool’s lot.  The neat thing about this old gravel lot is that there’s dirt and grass mixed in, so there’s more to navigate.  And because we turned around inside the pool lot, I had the chance to hit my little stretch of “off road” coming out.

            One last little obstacle to overcome as we put the bikes away.  Bill had entered the garage a little wide and motioned for me to stop. So I stopped at the apex of the steep driveway.  The challenge to move the bike forward into the garage is to feather the clutch while releasing the brake and not rolling down into the street.  To move the bike forward, I apply the rear brake (right foot), release the front brake (right hand), feather the clutch (left hand), roll on the throttle (right hand) while lifting my foot of the brake.  It worked perfectly and, as an added bonus, I shifted right into neutral once I parked inside the garage.  I may have learned a few things in almost a year of riding after all.

            Today’s ride taught me that I have developed a good feel for the Ducati Scrambler.  I say that because today as I rode, as we made our circles and S-turns, I felt how smoothly I maneuvered the motorcycle, even the two times I rolled a little too heavily on the throttle.  I can’t blame the gloves because I was wearing the Klim summer gloves again today and still I rolled the throttle unintentionally.  Nothing too bad, just a slight boost to my acceleration.  I actually enjoyed the second intense roll on as it threw me back on the bike.

            Overall my acceleration was smooth and I did a good job of keeping up with Bill.  We headed out into the neighborhood on a gorgeous spring day.  Before we even mounted the motorcycles, a cabbage white butterfly flitted by in front of me as I stood waiting for Bill.  We started early with the court circles, and I let myself enjoy the lean as we circled around.

We turned into the school lot and I got to slalom on the bus lines.  Bill needed to zip up his jacket.  Then we were off again onto our usual route.  We hit the same court with the pair of geese though today they hightailed it to the water and didn’t try to take us on.  This let us do some S-turns in the court since we weren’t disturbing the wildlife.  I worked on smooth braking and was able to focus on my balance at the stops enough to notice two times where I almost put my right foot down first.  Riders are taught to always put their left foot down when stopping because this allows the right foot to remain on the rear brake.  Obviously, as I’m coming to a stop, I am pulling on the front brake with my right hand, but the rear brake adds extra safety, so the right foot needs to stay on the brake until the bike is fully stopped.  Today, I successfully placed my left foot down first every time, but twice I had to quickly place the right foot down as well for balance.  I did learn months ago that a trick to help with placing the left foot down first is to lean your head to the left, and I realized today I need to practice doing that.

We surprised a great egret and got to watch it fly low across the water with its expansive wing span.  The sun was so bright in the sky that it was easy to see the shadows of the birds flying overhead including the shadow of a hawk.  At one point as we turned down a new road, I heard a phenomenal chorus of birdsong causing me to smile. The birdsong shifted my focus to what I hear as I ride because predominantly it is just my motorcycle.  I’ve mentioned that I can’t hear Bill’s R Nine T as I ride behind, usually all I hear is my Ducati.  But I realized that oftentimes it is possible to hear the birds singing as we ride as well as lawnmowers and blowers as people work in their yards.

It wasn’t just the sounds that made me smile; the views were spectacular.  Though the cherry blossoms suffered from the storm on Thursday, the dogwoods and Japanese maples looked glorious.  And these trees are complimented by the brilliant brightness of the azalea blooms and the gorgeous tulips.  I let the beauty of the day comfort me as we were unable to do our gravel lot practice; too many cars parked there.  Springtime brings everyone out, though, and I am very happy I get to experience it from the seat of my motorcycle!