In addition to warmer days, sunshine, pollen, blooming flowers, and butterflies, spring can bring blustery days. Winds were 25-30 mph with gusts between 40 and 50 mph; Bill questioned whether we would be able to ride. I was hopeful; the rain from overnight had mostly dried out with more showers later in the afternoon predicted. We had a short window for our ride if we wanted to take it.
During the week, Bill had cut down the legs on a bench for my mom, so I suggested we take the bench over and decide about the wind as we drove. My main concern was with branches; if we saw branches and yard debris on the roads, then the ride wouldn’t happen. But luckily, there were only very small branches and cherry blossom petals blowing about.
We headed out into the wind and, as I first sat down on the R Nine T, I felt the wind from the southwest trying to blow me off the motorcycle. I realized I had one more thing to be aware of as I rode. With that awareness at the forefront of my mind, I leaned in on the curvy road with a bit more caution. I worked on my entry point on the curve. In the MSF course, I learned to go as wide of the apex as I could to set up the most vision of what was on the other side of the curve. I did this and marveled at how much of the road is eaten away by the curve. What I mean by this is as I headed into a right-side curve, I moved toward the center line to maximize my view, but as I finished the curve, I was over toward the curb. I realized I had not been giving entry and exit points of the curves much conscious thought other than to look for oncoming traffic or pedestrians.
I believe riding roughly the same route every week allows me time to develop thoughts such as the application of lessons learned almost two years ago. Were I riding out on main thoroughfares, my mind would be much more greatly engaged in seeing ahead potential issues such as cut offs or collisions. I do watch out for cars such as the white Porsche nearly launching out of its driveway into our path; the driver saw us in time, but I had already started slowing in case I needed to stop. But I love that I can work through the basic skills taught in the course and come to my own understanding of how those lessons work for me in my riding.
As I was working on my tight U-turns, the ones in the hospital lot that I always compare to the dreaded “box” of the MSF course, I wondered about my skill improvement. While I didn’t get to full lock on any of the turns, I did tighten them up to about 16 feet; the box is 20. I was playing with the clutch and began wondering if I would be doing as well on the Ducati or the 310. I would like to find time to ride the other motorcycles and see how using the dry clutch in the tight turns compares to the wet clutches on the other bikes. I do have some time off coming up and will see if I can find time for more riding.
I hadn’t thought I would see any butterflies on our very windy ride, so I was surprised when I caught sight of two young tiger swallowtails bandied about. I am looking forward to spotting more and more butterflies as my spring and summer rides continue. The wind kept me cool during the ride, but one gust hit the right side of my helmet and pushed it against the side of my head. The wind also worked to strip the cherry blossoms, but the dogwoods and azaleas are approaching full bloom. I can’t wait for next week when I get to enjoy more springtime beauty and more opportunities for learning as I ride.
Flutterby Biker 