Thanks to the northeast wind, the clouds that brought us rain most of the week blew away, and we had as perfect a day for riding as one can get in summer. No cloud in the sky and the breeze keeping temperatures in the low 80s made for a lovely ride. The only thing missing was the butterflies.
As we drove over, I spotted a sulfur butterfly and a spicebush swallowtail, so I was hoping the sunshine would bring the butterflies out. But I only spotted one tiger swallowtail up high in the trees (I couldn’t make out if it was an eastern or a Canadian). We had gotten a late start on the ride, so I suppose they were out earlier in the day. I did see dragonflies who are clearly enjoying the bountiful mosquitoes. Bill thinks the golden eagle may have flown over him because he saw a enormous shadow pass overhead, but whatever made the shadow was lost in the trees. I didn’t see it, though at one point in the ride, a bird’s shadow passed over me, but I couldn’t make out the bird as it was flying behind me.
I did better on this ride with my engine braking. I continued to smooth out the application of the brake and the half pull of the clutch to avoid the herky-jerky motion, only experiencing that once during the ride. I did, however, have a few jerks when I applied engine braking to my emergency stops. The day was so nice, I didn’t mind practicing in the hospital lot. I worked on seeing how short a stop I could make using engine braking to help me stop. I was able to shorten my stopping distance by half a parking space and stopped within two spaces.
At the end of our ride, we made one more emergency stop on the road. I watched as Bill did his and made a point to ride further up before trying my stop. I stopped half a bike length behind Bill, so I feel I am making great progress on these stops. And it’s a good thing we do practice emergency stops. As we headed up one road, a Toyota 4 Runner came up to a yield sign. The driver should’ve yielded to the Rocket, but he didn’t, so we both had to do some quick braking. I don’t think car drivers realize just how exposed motorcyclists are. If there is an impact from a collision, we lose just about every time.
But I am wearing loads of safety gear and not riding much above forty mph, and working on safe emergency stops, so even if the car drivers are too aggressive, I should be OK. Bill gave me a new safety feature to work on for my next ride—checking for potential corner cutters as we approach stops. I’m looking forward to that practice even knowing the summer temperatures are heading back up as we head into August.
Flutterby Biker 