I did get to ride my BMW G310 GS this weekend.  For a little bit.  In my backyard.  In first gear.  It will take me a few rides to get back the feel for riding it.

            So how did I manage on my Ducati Scrambler on a 90-degree day with a heat index of 97?  Did I just let Bill go off on his own and visit with my mom in her air-conditioned house?  Did I stay home and sleep in even more than I already had?  Or did I manage to have a wonderfully fun ride?

            We had a very late start on Saturday having almost decided to push off the ride to Sunday.  But since Sunday’s weather would be just as hot, we decided to go ahead and ride.  But in order for me to enjoy the ride and not feel miserable from the heat, our ride would be cruising only, no slow speed maneuvers.  And this strategy worked.

            I told Bill I was not going to wear the Alpinestars shirt under my jacket.  This meant I would only have on my Klim summer jacket and the Helite vest.  Bill opted to do the same.  We headed out straight to the gas station to fill up the Ducati which was giving me a range between 11 and 13 miles.  Two and a half gallons of gas later, we headed out into the fancy neighborhood.  The plan was to ride long stretches of road and only do U-turns when we rode into a court or street with no outlet.  Outside of stops, this cruising kept me riding mostly between 25 and 30 mph with a few rides up the 35-mph road.  As long as we were moving so that the wind chill could have an effect, I was fine. 

            Cruising is what the majority of motorcycle riders do.  If we lived in a more rural area, I’m sure we would do more cruising.  However, if you ask serious motorcyclists, they will tell you that anyone who wants to be a really good rider practices the slow speed maneuvers.  Slow speed teachers the rider how to really handle the motorcycle.  But the Ducati is made for slow speed practice in the late fall and winter, not the tail-end of summer.

            Autumn is coming.  We saw several flocks of Canadian geese, even having to herd one out of the road as we cruised by.  And I’m sneezing more, a sure sign my fall allergies are beginning to kick in.  I only saw one cabbage white butterfly during our ride.  But I haven’t seen any mums in yards yet.  I saw lovely begonias, vincas, and some white and purple flowers I didn’t recognize.

            It was a good thing we had planned to cruise as several of our practice parking lots were in use.  Both gravel lots were full as were several of the church lots.  Since we weren’t doing slow speed drills, I focused on using my mirrors at stops, turning the wheel before taking off, and maintaining a steady distance from Bill.  I discovered on the left turns that if I dabbed my feet longer than normal, I was better able to keep the bike turned to the left.  So even without the slow speed drills, I made some skills progress.

            I didn’t ride the R Nine T because of the heat, but on Sunday as we finished up some yard work, Bill brought the G310 out of the garage and took a spin around the back yard.  After he rode for a bit, it was my turn.  I dabbed my feet a lot more than usual in part because I felt constricted in my yard space.  In fact I couldn’t make one turn for fear of running into some border rocks.  Bill suggested I loop around the aspen in my yard, and that allowed me to make the loop.

            I’m glad we worked up a solution to let me ride the Ducati.  Moving from an 803-cc engine to a 313-cc would be a step backward.  Although Sunday’s ride reminded me that my first little motorcycle is also a blast to ride.

Miserably fantastic, terrifically bad, horribly great, wonderfully awful—these oxymorons best describe this weekend’s ride.  My battle with the heat of the Ducati Scrambler distracted from the wonderful ride.  So even as I did fantastically with the figure eights and tight circle drills, I was miserable through most of the ride.

            First let me explain why I was on the Scrambler again and not the BMW G310.  Early Saturday we had storms move through wetting the roads, so Bill couldn’t ride the 310 over to my parents’ house.  In fact our ride was delayed as we waited for the roads to dry out which also contributed to my heat-induced misery as we rode later in the day.  Instead of an early start and a ride in the 70s, we were under the full afternoon sun with the high temperature of the day (85) and the full humidity.

            Added to the day’s heat, I had the not-so-brilliant idea to wear a pair of bike shorts under my motorcycle jeans to prevent thigh burn.  Since I was overheated by the ride, I never even got to the blind turning drill that burned my thighs last week.  Instead, the shorts only held more heat in and left me miserable.

            I still appreciated the beautiful day noting the pop of crape myrtle blossoms so heavy on their trees that they are beginning to fall.  And I still saw magnolia blossoms among some of the trees.  The Canadian geese were near just about every road we went down.  And I again saw multiple butterflies including a cabbage white, a spicebush swallowtail, a little wood-satyr, what I think was a meadow fritillary, and a monarch.

            My ride went really well, the motorcycling part.  As we worked on our figure eights, I played with the idea of accelerating and decelerating at the turn.  My stops went smoothly and I really enjoyed riding the twisty roads.  To give myself a break from the heat underneath me, I rode standing at several points to allow the cool northeasterly breeze to wash over me.

            But when we arrived at our parking lot for the straighten up and stop drills, I parked my bike in the shade and sat down.  Bill rode over to check on me, and I told him to go ahead and practice; I just needed to be away from the heat of the motorcycle.

            I had no ride on the R Nine T as the fields were super muddy after the morning rain.  When we take that bike in for its 600-mile service, we’ll put new road tires on it and I’ll be able to ride in parking lots and the roads.  Currently, the motorcycle has 50/50 tires for on and off-road riding that Bill feels are too lumpy for me and my riding skills.

            I’m not sure how next weekend will go.  The temperature will be great—low 80s—but rain is again in the forecast.  I’m hoping the showers will be of the afternoon kind, so we can get the 310 over for my rides.  The Ducati is a great cold weather bike; the engine works like a heated seat.  But I want to enjoy my remaining summer and early autumn rides fully, so I need to get back on my little G310.

            A further note on the Ducati’s heat.  As we were taking off our riding gear in the garage at the end of our ride, my mother, who knows nothing about motorcycles, came out to speak with me.  She stood beside the Ducati for a moment and remarked on the intense heat coming off the bike and looked at me as though I was crazy for riding it.  I suppose we motorcyclists are a little crazy, but it’s crazy in a good way.

            If you have ever lived in the southeastern United States, then you know that when the dewpoint is 72 degrees and the humidity is at 72%, you’re in for a super muggy day.  Even getting out to ride early didn’t spare us from the oppressive, damp air.  I battled my dread as I geared up knowing that my air-cooled Ducati Scrambler was going to be extra uncomfortable to ride.  And I was not wrong.

            In addition to the humidity, there was no breeze, so we had to generate our own wind chill from the soupy air.  There wasn’t much.  I found myself riding with my visor up the whole time, and I even lifted up the bottom of my modular helmet when I was working on slow speed drills in parking lots.  But it wasn’t enough.  I could feel the sweat pooling inside my riding boots and knew I’d have to peel myself out of my gear after the ride.

            The worst part of this super humid day was my focus was off.  My mind was registering the discomfort especially as we practiced S-turns in the gravel lot—not a good place to be unfocused.  I shook myself out of it, but that only lasted until the next slow speed practice.  I even thought I might have to get off the motorcycle for a break, and I did get a short break as Bill counseled me to take my hand off the front brake as we worked on starting in a curve then straightening to a stop.

            One thing I did not mention in last week’s blog (Air-Cooled Engine vs. Summer) is that the worst heat experience is when I stop.  The stopping position means my feet go to the ground and my thighs push up against the air-cooled (read HOT) engine.  When I’m riding, I feel the heat off the engine, but I can open up my thighs away from the bike.  So I hope you understand why I dread the stopping practice.  And the stopping practice comes near the end of our ride, so I’m near well-done when we get to it.  My reward, however, is getting on the air/oil-cooled BMW with its low engine that does not cook my thihgs.

            Now we did get a break from the sunshine as we rode under cloudy skies, and we maybe rode a little too fast on the long stretches.  I found myself wishing we were riding on a 45-mph road as even the 35-mph road was only a little refreshing.  I enjoyed watching an osprey hovering for a moment before diving down for its breakfast.  And both Bill and I got to watch a young bunny hopping along a hedge, startled by the motorcycles entering its quiet cul de sac.

            As I transitioned to the R Nine T, a cabbage white butterfly danced between Bill and me, the first I had seen from a motorcycle in quite a few weeks.  The start of my ride on the R Nine T went well as I didn’t stall right away.  But after my first stop, I repeatedly stalled.  I did figure out that I was letting off the clutch completely and needed to let the bike start going with the clutch partially in.  Bill also suggested again that the muddy ground was giving me trouble.  In fact he got on the R Nine T and it stalled on him as he first tried to get it moving.  One recommendation he showed me when riding on a softer surface is to stand up and get the bike moving.  It was a short practice but I learned a lot from it.

            We returned the bikes to the garage and did manage to peel ourselves out of the gear.  Looking ahead to our next ride, the high for the day is forecasted at 82 with a low of 68.  The Canadian geese are in full migration, we saw three different gaggles, heralding the arrival of autumn—yay!