Late Friday the dreaded rain arrived continuing into the early hours of Saturday. So I slept in late hoping I would wake up to dry roads. They weren’t quite all the way dry, but they were well on there way, so that by the time we got going, we’d have ridable roads.
The clouds were hanging around with the sun making glimpses. As I started out on my ride, I thought I may have made a bad choice in wearing the Rev’It Ignition 3 leather pants with tights. My core was warm, but my legs were chilly, almost chilly enough for me to miss the Ducati. But as I rode, the sun made its breakthrough and brought the warmth I needed for a comfortable ride.
I did much better on this day’s ride. Most of my stops were spot on; I just had one kerfuffle where as I released the clutch from the stop I rolled a little too aggressively on the throttle and shot back for a moment on the bike. After that I paid better attention to my glove against the throttle to make sure I wasn’t “sticking.”
I haven’t mentioned the footless stops in a while, so I wanted to give an update. I enjoy footless stops more on an old-fashioned motorcycle with an analog dial because I can watch the needle hover over the 0 even if it’s only for a fraction of a second. So I have managed a few footless stops based on this criteria. Now Bill, riding the Rocket with its digital dial, has only gotten it down to 1 on his footless stops. I think both of us aren’t quite comfortable with the large lurch to one side the motorcycles might take as they teeter out of balance. Quite often when we watch Zack Courts on The Daily Rider he flops to one side or the other as he reaches 0 on his stops. What’s the point of footless stops? Well for me they teach me about the balance on the motorcycle. I also think it’s a fun challenge. But Bill and I only practice footless stops at Yield signs; we make full stops at the real deal red octagons.
We saw quite a number of young kids out with their mothers enjoying the sunshine. Kids are fun because the boys especially are fascinated by the motorcycles, and they are fun to wave to. We also encountered a lot of cars in unusual places. The little winding road that is only one and a half car-widths wide was especially busy. We had to navigate around 4 cars where we normally don’t encounter any.
But we are almost officially into spring, so more and more people will be out and about. The geese are almost back in full force, so the goslings should be appearing in a few weeks. More azaleas are blooming and more trees are flowering. The cherry blossoms, my particular favorite, are nearing peak blossom possibly as soon as next week. And I saw more tulips. I was careful this ride to make sure I had my neck tube over my mouth and nose to keep the pollen out. I do enjoy seeing the vivid greens of the growing grass; we ran into several early birds mowing their lawns already. I believe it is better to let the early spring grass grow long and get established. I hold this belief in part because it allows me to enjoy riding my motorcycle on a beautiful spring day and not feel guilty for not doing my own yard work. Not that I do feel guilty; riding is fantastic for relieving my stress and placing me in a wonderful mood.
Flutterby Biker 