Racing Isaias

Finally, we managed to ride our motorcycles again! Despite some early morning sprinkles dusting the roads with moisture, the remnants of Isaias heading our way held off and the roads dried off enough for our ride.

The wind was strong, keeping me cool throughout the ride but not allowing for any butterflies. I had spotted a few sulphurs and monarchs during the week, but I knew it would be a butterfly-free ride. Though there are those second blooming azaleas flowering along with the mums everyone sets out this time of year to tempt the little pollinators.

The roads had piles of leaves for our tires to crunch over. At one point, the leaves fell in such a way to make it seem like it was snowing. The colors were muted by the gray skies, but it was still a beautiful autumn day. Of course, I was looking through happy eyes as I was thrilled to be back riding again.

I suspected there might be some rust on my riding skills, but it didn’t appear so. My two on-street U-turns were near perfect; perfection would’ve been full lock. I even had a great 2-spot turn on the gravel lot. I did fall into a booby trap. When the leaves are piled on the roads, they can hide objects. As we were turning around in a parking lot, my front tire slipped on some hidden trap causing me to put out my foot in case I needed to dab to catch the bike. But I was able to recover without the dab. I tried to see what I hit, but it remained hidden.

But my experience did remind me to be cautious when riding among leaves. Hitting a rock or a stick just right can shoot the front tire somewhere other than expected. But that’s why one of the many items motorcyclists need to keep aware of.

With the wind and approaching storm, I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t see much wildlife. There were three buzzards trying to navigate the wind, but I had just registered that I hadn’t seen any geese when we rode by the church field, and I watched as the flock took flight. I thought I spotted the great blue heron, but it turned out to be a spindly bush sprouting up near the river’s edge blown in the strong wind. There was a bright white egret enjoying the river’s low tide.

But the most prominent sites were the Halloween decorations. Since we went two weeks without a ride, more people have put up their décor. Popular this year are large spider webs that attach to the front of the house and have LED eyes. The wind gave movement to someone’s three little witches silhouettes and caused a skeleton to dance. One house has a skeleton rock band and a four skeleton audience. I think the Halloween decorations are helpful as well as entertaining; trick or treaters know which houses are participating in the great candy-a-palooza.

I hope to find even more fun Halloween décor on next week’s ride, and I hope for some sunshine so I can really enjoy the fall colors. But as long as I can get out on my R Nine T, I’ll take what I can get.

PS–We beat the storm easily as it seems to have fizzled out over land.

autumn trees on a cloudy day — Photo by Hrushik Perumalla on Pexels.com

Two Missed Rides

My last blog was “Much Needed Moto Therapy” and, after now two weekends with no ride, I am again much needing some moto therapy.

I knew I would miss my ride last weekend. I was out of town. I also knew, looking ahead at the forecast, that rain was threatening the next weekend’s ride. As of Friday, the “experts” predicted rain arriving late in the afternoon, so I went to sleep Friday night dreaming of my ride.

Reality sometimes really stinks. Saturday morning I looked out and saw raindrops glistening off the power lines. The road was not wet—yet, but I realized that there was a soft drizzle falling. The roads would dampen as the morning wore on. My last bit of hope was that the drizzle wasn’t falling over at my parents’ house, but the text response to my query was wet roads there too. The dreariness outside matched my internal dreariness.

Eventually we went over to visit the motorcycles, and Bill added some air to the tires. I said hello to my R Nine T. We might have squeezed in a ride as the roads seemed to have dried off, but we didn’t even bother bringing the gear. Plus, the skies did look like they could open up at any moment.

The beginning of rain on the roads is considered the most dangerous riding conditions—even a light rain. The accumulation of oil, grease, and road grime rise up to the road surface creating a slick, almost icy surface, that doesn’t wash away until heavier rain falls. Of course the heavier rain causes its own risk. Hydroplaning is the obvious risk, but on the two tires of the motorcycle there are only two small contact patches of rubber with the road, so loss of traction is a constant risk. Our rule is never ride in the rain.

Looking ahead, the week looks to be perfect fall weather. As for the weekend, clouds are shown for Saturday with rain chances on Sunday. I’ll be praying all week for the rain to hold off and allow us our ride. Meanwhile, the gray day is a perfect reflection for my mood.

Rain drops on power lines with green and yellow leaves behind.

Roadkill Ride

When it comes to riding motorcycles, riders are at the whim of the weather. Looming storm clouds gave me an “iffy” feeling about a ride. But my weather app said storms weren’t expected until later in the afternoon, so we headed out despite the skies looking ready to open up at any moment. As long as the rain held off, it was a perfect day for a ride. The temperature was in the low 80s and, even with the large clouds, the humidity wasn’t too bad, making the ride quite comfortable.

I remembered to lift up my kickstand before shifting into first starting off the ride right. Before we headed out, I spotted three different butterflies—a black swallowtail, an Aphrodite fritillary, and a cabbage white. I thought that meant I’d have a butterfly filled ride, but those three were it!

However, I did see signs of autumn’s approach. We passed several larger flocks of geese with two different groups crossing the road in front of us. Our engine roars also disturbed a flock of robins who’ve been congregating more as they prepare for their annual migration.

The pine trees have also begun shedding their needles leaving clumps of brown needles along the berm of the roads and a delicious piney scent in the air. But not every scent in the air is pleasant from the seat of a motorcycle. As we rode past where the river abuts the road, I noticed a furry clump on the berm what looked to be a run over muskrat. Heading out for the ride, I did what I always do when spotting anything like roadkill; I held my breath until we were well past.

Soon after passing, we rode past a clump of gardenias in bloom, and I breathed in their sweet scent deeply knowing they won’t be blooming for much longer. I love the colors of the flowers under cloudy skies. They seem like a muted oil painting adding splashes of color to the deep greens but not vivid bouquets dominating the landscape. I looked for changing leaves among the trees but didn’t notice too many though the Japanese maples are beginning to deepen in color.

My ride went well, no mis-shifts at all, though my U-turns were kind of lazy and wider than when I really work them. I didn’t mind; I needed this ride to restore me after my first week back with students; kids are energy vampires and they had zapped me. So my ride was in part restorative. But I did have one major slip up.

As we headed back up the river road, and since we were on the opposite side from the dead muskrat, I wasn’t as focused on my breathing as I should’ve been. I caught a whiff of roadkill through my helmet vents (thank goodness my visor was down). The scent of decay lingered until I passed a large stand of crape myrtles and was able to breathe in deeply their fresh, clean scent. But I’ve learned that even when I desperately need a relaxing ride, I can’t relax my road awareness even for a moment. If I do, the consequences can be nasty.

I did spot several vultures during the ride, but they hadn’t found the muskrat yet. It did remind me of the ride where Bill on the Rocket startled a group of vultures dining on some roadkill once. Even roadkill needs defensive riding when on a motorcycle.

Hopefully, next week’s ride will give further hints of autumn with less unpleasantness.

muskrat entering a river — Photo by Tom Fisk on Pexels.com

Goofy Ride

Part of riding a motorcycle is developing routines. There is the routine of T-CLOCS* that they teach riders in the Motorcycle Safety Foundation course. There is the routine of gearing up—in my case Daytona riding boots, Alpinestars jacket, Klim jacket (for summer), Helite turtle airbag vest, helmet, and gloves. And there is the routine at the start of the ride—mounting the motorcycle, connecting the airbag vest, unlocking the front wheel, checking that the motorcycle is in neutral, turning the front wheel to make it easier to lift off the stand, kicking in the kickstand, starting the motorcycle with right hand on the front brake just in case, and shifting into first gear ready to roll. All routine motions that at this point don’t require too much brainpower. Except when my brain skips one step in the routine.

It was a lucky summer day for riding. Some overnight rain had given us cooler temperatures in the low 80s. And while large looming storm clouds hinted at a future deluge, the sun was out and the rain left us alone for our ride. I even spotted a yellow sulphur butterfly before the ride, a good omen of more butterfly sightings during my ride.

I needed a good ride. As a teacher librarian in my grown-up life, I had spent the week prepping for the new school year, made extra exhausting by my needing to reshelve two-thirds of my book collection having gotten new windows and bookshelves over the summer. I felt lucky the weather cooperated, and I was eager to start my riding therapy. Perhaps I was a little too eager because I skipped a step in my routine.

In some ways I was also lucky that this misstep happened at the onset of the ride because that gave me an awareness of needing to stay aware during my ride. The step I skipped doesn’t seem like a big deal; I forgot to kick up the kickstand when I pulled the R Nine T up. As a safety feature, the R Nine T won’t let the rider shift into gear with the kickstand down. So when I shifted from neutral into first, my motor shut off. It took me a few beats to realize the problem was the kickstand because when the motor kicked off, I couldn’t get the R Nine T back into neutral. I’ve had some missed shifts during rides, and I’ve had instances of arriving in the garage to park and not be able to shift into neutral, but I’ve never had the problem at the start of a ride.

Of course, I’m not in the habit of forgetting to raise the kickstand. When a motorcycle resists shifting into neutral, it is helpful to reach down with the left hand and wiggle the shifter around until it finds neutral. After what seemed like five minutes but was probably only one, I found neutral, lifted the motorcycle off the kickstand, kicked up the stand, and shifted into first gear, ready to ride. One little step in the routine forgotten delayed both Bill and I.

My slip up did make me extra conscientious about checking my mirrors and looking ahead into oncoming traffic and intersections. This extra awareness helped me with an emergency stop late in the ride. But as we headed out with a cool breeze, I did enjoy the crape myrtle scent freshened by last night’s rain. I also enjoyed the fresh cut grass as people took advantage of the beautiful day to be outside doing yardwork, walking, or riding bikes.

During the ride, I had two mis-shifts, so I found myself listening for the thwunk of the gears shifting. As I listened for my shifts, I still managed to spot a black swallowtail camouflaging itself in the shadows of an azalea bush. And we passed a gaggle of geese enjoying the circle of shade provided by a magnolia tree. I managed to spot a falcon in between all the crows. And as I finished executing a beautiful two-spot U-turn in the gravel lot, a monarch butterfly flew by.

Our ride was mostly just us with some people out and about, but when we encountered traffic, it was in odd ways. The first oddity was as we approached a chokepoint in the road. We navigated around an electric Amazon deliver van to find ourselves slowing way down (footless stop almost) as we waited on a car to come through the chokepoint at the exact time two pedestrians arrived at the chokepoint. Later, as we neared the end of our ride and were zooming our last bit of zoom, I realized Bill was stopping and slammed on my brakes as oncoming traffic arrived faster than expected and prevented our left-hand turn. I managed my emergency stop without having to put my feet down because the R Nine T is so well-balanced.

*A link to the MSF page explaining the acronym.

black motorcycle with kickstand down — Photo by Baran Karakelle on Pexels.com

Shade and Shadows

Last week it was the humidity, this week’s ride was the heat. The sun was shining brightly around the large, fluffy cotton ball clouds. And the sun was burning hot. The garage thermostat went from 87 degrees up to 88 as we prepped to ride. When riding in heat, the goal is to keep moving to keep the air flowing over one.

As I headed out of the garage, I saw a shadow in the shape of a butterfly. When I got outside, I think I spotted the cabbage white heading into the branches of the neighbor’s magnolia tree. Otherwise, I only saw a couple of dragonflies.

I was thankful for my yellow seat as Bill pushed up off his black seat which had baked in its few minutes sitting in that sun. I braced myself for being uncomfortable during the ride and worked on forcing my focus on my road awareness and safety. As we rode, I sought out patches of shade to ride through. Physically, I’m not sure it was that much cooler, but psychologically, it helped.

Again, other than some ducks deep in the shade over the river inlet, not much wildlife was moving. People wise, I only saw two tween girls out walking and a young man returning from the store. When it’s too hot for yard work, it’s hot. I managed two beautiful all street on-street U-turns, but that was the only slow-speed drill we did. I enjoyed zooming up the fast road in one direction, but on the return trip up that road, we were stuck behind a slow-moving Ford Expedition.

I did get to work on my throttle skill as I had to park the motorcycle and open the garage. I’ve described how steep the driveway is; it doesn’t flatten out until the garage floor. So when I restarted the R Nine T, I had to keep the motorcycle from rolling backwards down the driveway. Now I could try and rely just on my leg strength, but that would mean my legs are working to stop over 500 pounds with gravity’s help. So the trick is to roll on the throttle enough to not only prevent the motorcycle from rolling backwards but to gently move into the garage. It’s not like I can zoom unless I want to go through the walls. And I’m happy to say I nailed it.

The best part of the hot day was as Bill and I were taking off our gear and chatting, a black swallowtail butterfly flew halfway into the garage before turning around and flying out. Every ride gives me something special to smile about.

Soft Summer Ride

Cool air and cloudy skies met us on the road. A cold front came through giving us a break from the usual July heat, and we were heading out on our motorcycles on a day of 72 degrees.

Before we left, however, I learned a new trick from Bill. The new trick built on a trick I had learned from watching motorcycle videos. How does a woman straighten up a 500+ pound motorcycle? While I do work out with weights, muscling the motorcycle up can wear the rider out before the ride even starts. So the original trick was to take the front wheel out of the lock position and straighten it up before pushing the motorcycle off its kickstand. And this does lighten the weight to make it easy for me to pull the R Nine T off the kickstand.

The new trick Bill discovered while preparing to move the motorcycle out of the garage was to turn the front wheel all the way to the right. By doing this, he could easily pop the bike up off the stand with a bump from his left inner thigh. He then asked me to try it, and I found it super easy to lift the bike.

I then confidently tried this new trick on the street as we prepared to head out. As far as lifting the R Nine T went, it worked brilliantly. But I encountered an entirely unexpected issue that gave me a moment’s worry that I might drop my bike. Once the motorcycle was up, I went to lift the kickstand, but for some reason my boot decided to do something it’s never done before. My boot heel seemed to hook against the kickstand in such a way that I could not kick the stand up. After a few attempts to move the stand up, I reset the motorcycle down on the kickstand and tried again. This attempt was successful, and I learned that the new wheel to the full right trick does make lifting the motorcycle off the stand even easier, but I was spooked by the weird hookup.

Setting out, however, I soon left the weirdness behind. I knew the day would not bring out the butterflies with looming clouds promising rain at any moment. I enjoyed the soft sheen the cloud cover placed over everything. The greens of the leaves and grasses are peaking and provide a deep peace as I gaze out at them. The flowers gave a soft glow of color to the green landscape with deep yellows from the brown-eyed Susans, bright white from the gardenias and magnolias, and glowing fuchsia from the crape myrtles. Lovely pine sap scented the air alongside the crispness of the crape myrtles. The day was cool enough, however, that I kept my visor down for most of the ride.

I did spot some large gaggles of geese as the goslings are now adult sized. Some ducks were out, of course, on such a day. And I did spot the great blue heron hunkered down on a dock piling while he waited for the tide to go out. I checked; the roar of our motorcycles didn’t startle him into flight.

And we did ride by some future motorcyclists. One was a little girl in a toy motor powered Barbie jeep wishing her little car could zoom around like our motorcycles did. The other was a toddler boy on his tricycle maybe two years old. His mother heard our motorcycles approaching, and she pointed them out to him. I gave him a toot on the horn as well as a wave and wondered what was the mom teaching her child? The red and yellow colors on the motorcycles? The word “bike”? Or was she hoping he would watch us zoom by and start zooming along on his trike? I do appreciate her teaching him at such a young age to be on the lookout for motorcycles. It might help make future rides and riders safer.

white gardenia blossom among green leaves

Where’s the Hot Weather Warning?

A couple of winters ago, Bill and I were out riding on a day approaching freezing. Both of our motorcycles displayed a cold weather warning (mine is a snowflake; Bill’s is more of a message—it’s crazy cold!). We rode that day but kept it short in deference to the motorcycles’ warnings.

So as we headed out on today’s ride, with temperatures nearing 100 (98 was the official), and a heat index of the center of a coal fire, I wondered why the motorcycles weren’t warning us. The truth is the cold weather warning is to make us aware that there may be ice on the road. Since it’s not likely the asphalt would actually melt under our tires, I suppose there’s no need for an extreme heat warning on the motorcycles. Not that we would have paid it any more attention than we did the extreme cold weather warnings (Even My Motorcycle Thinks It’s Too Cold to Ride).

I opted for no Alpinestars under jacket, and there was a breeze, not a cool breeze, but the wind wasn’t blowing hot air either. I used the heat of the day to help me work on my riding focus which was a good thing as we ran into a few choke points. Both were on blind curves with cars parked on either side of the road. The first involved a large Ford F-150, but Bill was in the lead on that one, so I mostly just followed his sudden stop. The second one, however, I had just taken the lead as we headed toward the garage. But I stopped suddenly and let the white Honda CRV pass through the choke point before resuming my ride.

Other than the zooming and lots of crazy traffic, there wasn’t much happening outside. The only wildlife I spotted were a few crows here and there chilling in the shade provided by large trees. Last week people were enjoying the beautiful day out walking their dogs. During today’s ride, we only came across two cyclists and two teen girls out for a walk, one of whom, the one not on the phone, looking absolutely miserable.

At several points during the ride, I felt the heat of the exhaust in the heel of my left boot, so I kept moving it a bit for some relief. But when one chooses, as we did, to ride on July days in the upper 90s, hot and sweat are to be expected. The crape myrtles still smelled crisp and clean, the air flow still felt as good as it could and, best of all, I still got to ride my motorcycle which is what matters most.

road under hot sun — Photo by Alexey Demidov on Pexels.com

Wild Wildlife Ride

A warm but not hot summer’s eve greeted us with clouds in the west but plenty of sunshine on our roads. We headed out with a plan to cruise around and not do too much slow-speed maneuvers. We set off with the scent of magnolias, crape myrtles, and mimosas filling the air.

Our first wildlife encounter was with a crazy squirrel crossing the road in front of us. The squirrel was in the oncoming lane to us about two feet from the other side when he heard the roar of our motorcycles. He stopped as we slowed down, looked at us, and proceeded to head back the way he came with several stops to check us out on the way.

Soon after as we headed up the road, our engine roar startled a rabbit nibbling along the berm, the first rabbit I’ve seen from the motorcycle that I can remember. Usually, rabbits come out at dawn or dusk, but he must have been hungry.

The first butterfly I spotted was a zoomy great purple hairstreak zipping between the clover. A block away from him, I spotted the only cabbage white I saw during the entire ride. I spot more butterflies driving to and from the motorcycles than I do during the ride. Perhaps I am not spotting them because I am working more on my street awareness.

As we headed along the final loop before ending our ride, we saw the very unusual sight of a racoon crossing the road into someone’s backyard in front of our motorcycles. I’ve no idea what would’ve made the nocturnal creature feel the need to be out in the middle of the day, but he was, and he was large. If he was returning home, then whoever lives in that house might want to call animal control because he was a large fellow.

In all my rides, this one definitely had the most diverse wildlife. I was disappointed not to see any birds soaring aloft in the thermals, but I did spot an osprey as we headed home. I look forward to spotting more wildlife among the day lilies and hydrangeas next week.

Fresh Air Ride

After a week of a runny nose and phlegmy cough, I wanted fresh air and sunshine in hopes it would help cleanse my sinuses. And today gave me a great day for my attempt. The excessive heat of the past few days (95 and 97 degrees) had given way to a slight cool off—85. The sun, however, hid most of the ride behind clouds that never quite developed into storms.

One of the major problems with motorcycle riding in the summer heat is stops. Early into our ride, we had a long stop as traffic was unusually busy. When one is not moving on the motorcycle so the cool air flow is non-existence, the heat from the engine, which is under one’s derriere roasts the rider. That’s why motorcycle advertisements always show riders out on open roads or riding on dirt trails; they don’t want potential buyers thinking about engine heat when selecting their motorcycles. Ducati is one brand that would suffer if riders thought through the engine heat every stop would subject them to.

Next time you’re in your car at an intersection and you see a motorcyclist stop beside you, realize that while you might be a little envious of the rider’s freedom and “coolness,” you get to be cool in your air-conditioned car. The rider is anxious for the light to change and for his motorcycle to start moving.

We mostly kept moving in our ride, though we did do some U-turns and S-turns. The on-street U-turn had an unexpected obstacle—a pile of sticks was in the road and neither of us spotted it until we were well into our turns. Luckily, all of our practice paid off; both of us kept our turns tight, no dabs, and avoided the sticks.

I did get back on the gravel during this ride and felt my rear tire slipping quite a bit. But I was able to bring the R Nine T around and even successfully complete the two-parking spots turn. The parking lot had some brown-eyed Susans blooming in the shady flower bed.

I didn’t spot as many butterflies among the roses, day lilies, and hydrangeas as I had hoped. But I did see three cabbage whites during the ride. I’ve been spotting tiger swallowtails throughout the week and even on the drive home, but I haven’t seen any during my ride as yet. The ducks were keeping cool in the muddy low tide of the river. And I thought at first there was an eastern spiny turtle in the road that might have been run over, but it was just a McDonald’s bag that had blown out of someone’s trash.

I thought about the Japanese police technique of not using the clutch just the throttle and front brake in fast turns, but I wasn’t ready to actually try it. My sinuses have fogged my brain some, and I didn’t want to risk any falls. Plus, with the heat, we didn’t do too many slow speed turns. The technique involves revving the throttle while braking, and I need more time to think through it and try rolling on the throttle while braking—intentionally. I have lots of rides where I accidentally rolled on the throttle while braking.

Unfortunately for me, the fresh air did not do much to clear out my sinuses. But it did feel good to be outside, and it always feels great to ride my motorcycle, and I can’t wait until next week’s ride.

The Waver

This week’s ride did not benefit from the lovely mid-70s we had earlier in the week. We were greeted with 90 degrees though the humidity hasn’t really kicked in. I suggested we just wear the Klim jackets and leave the Alpinestars on the hangers. And that worked; there were cloudy skies, and our plan was to keep zooming for air flow.

Soon into our ride, a girl about 7-years-old in her bathing suit, came rushing out of her garage and the sound of our engines roaring by, waving excitedly. I don’t think Bill even saw her, but I did and rewarded her with a jaunty wave. I have the luxury of being the waver because even though I work on being aware of the traffic and roads, I can rely on Bill to make sure we’re clear. He was checking ahead to make sure we had room to move over for the walker who chooses to walk in the street as opposed to the convenient sidewalks. The walker gave Bill a wave which I’m not sure he even saw. So I waved back as I passed.

We then turned up a road and had a boy on an electric bike spot us and follow. I watched in the mirror as he followed us for about a mile, noting too that Bill was going a little faster than normal. Bill explained later that he didn’t want the electric bike rider to catch up to us as that wouldn’t really be safe for him. I waved over my shoulder at him as we rode off.

I realized during this ride that I particularly enjoy waving to kids. I think of my waving role as acting as a motorcycle ambassador. As my long-time readers know, I absolutely love riding motorcycles, and I feel the more riders the better. Another reason I think waving is important is awareness. I read or saw someone once say that it would be extremely helpful if kids on road trips played “punch bike” instead of “punch bug.” His reasoning was this would make them aware of motorcycles on the road from an early age. The more awareness drivers have of motorcycles on the roads, the safer it is for the riders.

During my ride, I kept my visor up some for cool air to flow across my head. So I was treated to the delicious smell of someone grilling hamburgers for lunch. There weren’t many butterflies about, just a few cabbage whites including one that crossed Bill’s path but zoomed up overhead to safety. I had an interesting sensation that led to a discovery. As we left a stop turning to the left, I felt the lean of the bike, the near-fall so to speak, and then I felt how my rolling on the throttle brought the motorcycle upright. It is the technique used in slow-speed maneuvers usually with feathering the clutch, but applying the throttle does the same thing.

Oddly enough later that night, Bill found some YouTube videos of Japanese police women in police rodeo competition, and they use the front brake and throttle to twist between cones turn around, and make U-turns, not feathering the clutch. It’s an interesting discovery, using the throttle in first gear with the front brake to maneuver the motorcycle. Since the R Nine T is such a well-balanced motorcycle, I’ll play around with it during next week’s ride, which is also looking to be another warm one.

Toward the end of our ride, as we came around the large curve, we came across several families walking to and from the pool. One was a mother with her small son on a tricycle who had crossed the street in front of us. She was trying to get her son up the driveway lead onto the sidewalk, but he heard our motorcycles, and turned his head to watch our approach, then turned it again to follow us to our stop and our acceleration up the road. He was only about 2-years-old, but he gave the two bikes his rapt attention. I gave him a wave as we passed and thought—there’s a future motorcyclist.