Finally! (Sort of)

            I finally got to ride the BMW R Nine T Urban GS—sort of.  But since that came at the end of the ride, I’ll explain in a bit.

            As I sat on my Ducati waiting for Bill to mount the R Nine T, my Mom’s neighbor walked by.  She immediately was drawn to the R Nine T, appreciating the beauty of the motorcycle.  She asked if it was my brother’s bike and said she used to ride the pillion on her old boyfriend’s motorcycle when she lived in Canada.  After walking around admiring the R Nine T, she politely asked me what I was perched on, but it was clear the BMW motorcycle was the big draw.

A lovely 80-degree day with lots of sunshine for our ride greeted us this Saturday.  Gearing up was quite warm, but once the ride started, I felt almost chilly from the cool breeze washing over me.  We rode again straight down the long road, letting the cool air waft over us and enjoying the lovely day.  Yardmen were loading up their riding mower with lovely rose bushes at the end of the road as they continued their month-long landscaping project.

The magnolia blooms scented the air as we headed on our usual neighborhood ride, checking in on the progress on the two houses under construction.  We stopped the bikes in one court as Bill noticed some plastic barriers up leading down to the water and posited a boat ramp may soon be under construction.  As we checked out the water which was conspicuously missing all waterfowl this week (usually we see some ducks and an egret), a duskywing butterfly fluttered right between us right at eye level.  It fluttered too fast for me to get a clearer look to know which kind of duskywing it was; I did see the grayish/brown body and new this was a new butterfly.

Our ride continued with lazy loops in the churches’ parking lots and on the gravel lot.  My tires slipped again on the gravel, so I have begun to wonder if the softer ground makes the tires slip more.  The R Nine T has 50/50 tires, meaning 50% for on road and 50% for off road, so it has a better grip.

As we rode, there wasn’t much traffic.  But whenever we were at a stop sign, we had to wait for several cars to pass.  At one stop we waited as 7 cars went by, very unusual.  But I didn’t mind as I could practice my stops and my looks.  It was at once such stop that spied a spicebush swallowtail dancing along in the air.

One MSF skill we’ve added back to our practice is the swerve.  On some of the streets, there’s some leftover yard debris on the side of the road—sticks, leaf piles, pinecones.  We ride straight at the debris and then apply pressure to the left handlebar to swerve the bike around the obstacle.  This is great practice for swerving to the left, but it doesn’t give us the chance to swerve to the right.  So when we were in the large church parking lot, I aimed at the parking space stripes to swerve right.

This week we did remember to practice riding while standing and then stopping suddenly.  I need to work on my right foot position so I can start braking with the rear brake while still standing.  Otherwise, it went really well.

We also continued our straightening up out of the curve and stopping practice and the straight-line quick stops.  I had one bauble where I put my right foot down on one of my quick stops.  I need to work on a quicker reaction time so I can use my head shift to help me use the correct foot.  More work for next week.

Now we did not start the ride by letting me putter on the R Nine T on the grass because as we drove into the neighborhood, we saw cars in front of and to the side of the school.  These weren’t the cricket players, so we felt constrained in using the field.  Our thinking was we’d do our neighborhood cruising and swing by the school to see if the cars were gone at the end of the ride.  No such luck.  I feared my R Nine T ride was going to again be postponed.  But as Bill signaled his turn, I began to hope we were heading to the back of the school field.  Sure enough, at my dead-end practice street, we turned left and rode up past the Armco onto the grass.

Now the R Nine T has what is called a dry clutch.  This means the clutch is similar to that on a manual transmission automobile.  My Ducati Scrambler and BMW G310 GS both have multi-plate wet clutches.  In terms of riding, this means my two bikes have a more forgiving friction zone.  But that was what Bill wanted me to practice—getting a feel for the dry clutch and friction zone.  So I began my ride dabbing my feet and stalled almost immediately.  I restarted, got moving very slowly, hit a depression in the ground and stalled the bike again trying to give it enough with just the clutch to get out.  I realized I needed to add a bit of throttle but carefully as Bill always talks about how the bike just wants to go.

After the second restart, I found the sweet spot in the dry clutch’s friction zone, put my feet up on the pegs, and began my slow circle cruise around the young magnolias.  I loved riding the R Nine T and was really tempted to roll on the throttle and ride up the field.  But I was the good student and did as my instructor asked.  Plus, with people in the school, we didn’t want to overstay our welcome.  And that just gives me something to look forward to with next week’s ride.