Finally! A beautiful, early spring-like day arrived and I was up for a motorcycle ride. The temperature was in the low-70s, the sun was shining brightly, and the snow was completely melted. And yes, welcome to southeastern Virginia’s strange weather patterns—a blizzard last week; spring this week.
I was a little nervous about the ride. It’s been over six weeks, my core is weakened, and motorcycle riding can require body strength to readjust and correct potential mishaps. I also worried about my basic skills like feathering the clutch so the R Nine T wouldn’t stall. But as the expression goes, “It’s like riding a bike,” and it was. My skills returned easily and readily.
I also had a fantastic omen. As I headed to the car, I happened to look up at the clear blue sky and saw a bald eagle fly over and watched as he soared down the block.
I told Bill I wanted an easy, loping ride through the neighborhoods with no slow-speed drills. As I’m writing this, I realize that once I was on the R Nine T, I didn’t have any worries about the clutch feathering. My biggest concern came as we turned the corner around my parents’ block and I rode over the torn up strips of road. But after a moment’s thought of how my tire could slip in the uneven gravel, my worries left me, and I relaxed to enjoy my first ride in too long.
The daffodils took the opportunity of the beautiful day to begin blooming, adding bright spots of yellow to the still-wintry landscape along with the reds and pinks of the camellias. The Canadian geese are returning more plentiful as they migrate northward. I spotted many sparrows darting about but didn’t see any robins. I was pushing my luck to hope I could spot another eagle, but all I saw were turkey vultures buffeting about in the strong winds.
March, despite the lovely temperature and sunshine, is coming in like a lion; the wind was gusting some but picked up later in the evening. But I am so happy that the day was perfect for my return to riding.
All week long the forecast held shifting rain chances for Saturday, but we were pretty sure we were in for rain. In fact we did get some rain on Friday, so it was a wonderful surprise to wake up to sunny skies and dry roads Saturday morning with spring-like temperatures—a day made for riding.
We were up earlier than usual because we needed to pick up the Rocket from the dealership. On Tuesday the dealership sent over a tow to collect the bike which couldn’t be safely ridden due to the front brake caliper’s missing bolt. Sunrise Cycles repaired the Triumph, and we hoped for nice enough weather on Saturday to pick up the motorcycle. So Bill got an early ride as we headed over to my parents’ garage. He took the scenic route up Shore Drive so he could look out over Lake Whitehurst. There was a light haze at tree level but bright sunshine everywhere else.
Last weekend my mind must have been as numb as my fingers because I made no note of the odometer passing 1500 miles. I’ve now ridden the R Nine T roughly equal if not slightly more than Bill. There was road work underway, so we had to head behind the shopping center where we rode over seven speed bumps. These bumps are good practice; one of the learning experiences in the MSF course is to ride the bike over a 2×4. Some of these speed bumps are a few inches higher than a 2×4. To get over the 2×4 in the class, we were told to lift up on the handlebars as we approached and stand up on the pegs. I hadn’t really worked on this skill since the class, so I was having fun with the practice. But I did mess up one speed bump; I was going over it slower than I realized, so I started to sit back down too soon and got a bump in the bottom by the seat.
As we rode, I noticed the muted greens of the shrubs, holly, and pine trees. Either the winter light softens the green, or the other trees that leaf in the spring have a brighter sheen. The more muted color reminded me that it was winter and nature is at rest since the near 60 degrees high definitely felt like spring. I did see the strength of the winter light as it scattered sparkling light across the river.
I enjoyed today’s ride very much even though my right hand went numb. I hadn’t had the numb feeling for several rides, so I don’t know why the numbness came today. I shook my right arm out as I approached stops and that helped shake off the numbness. It didn’t affect my ride; my turns were really tight. I find myself enjoying the balance of the motorcycle as I play with increasing the speed. No handlebar lock but both my left and right turns in the hospital lot were within the lines. My first on street U-turn I rode up on the grass but had a better second one. My no-look turns are almost second nature, and my gravel lot turns are getting more consistently tight. I even felt the bike come to a complete stop on the footless stop as the odometer hit 0.
Because of the road work, Bill led us into some traffic to head back to the garage. The day was so pleasant that I actually began to feel hot sitting at the stop lights. We sat at one light so long my left hand on the clutch started to tire. Some riders will shift into neutral at lights and rest the left hand. But Bill has explained the danger in that. If I’m in neutral and a car comes up too quickly or even possibly running into the back of the bike, being in first gear will allow me to move into one of my escape paths. Motorcycle riders who ride in traffic should always scope out their escape routes when stopped at intersections. I need to work on this skill more. And any time I need more skill work, that means more riding which I am always up for!
For Christmas Bill surprised me with a new Arai motorcycle helmet (see picture below). It was not a complete surprise as earlier in the year, we had looked at some Arai helmets. He did surprise me with the style of helmet, though. We had looked at a beautiful helmet with a Japanese koi design, but the helmet I received was the 2023 Isle of Man TT helmet edition, and it is wonderful.
Last Christmas I gave Bill the 2022 Isle of Man TT helmet, a gorgeous gold, red, and black helmet with the triskelion from the flag on it. My helmet also has the triskelion on it, but is brighter with the neon yellow, bright red, and white and black checkered flag in the back. The TT stands for the Tourist Trophy motorcycle race, the deadliest motorcycle race there is. Riders race through the roads of the Isle of Man, even in the rain, so they are about the toughest motorcycle riders there are. And while we admire their courage and craziness, it isn’t the type of riding we aspire to, especially me.
I happily wore my new helmet on my much more sedate ride through the neighborhoods. It had some differences from my Schuberth helmet. For one thing the Arai is an all-in-one helmet not modular. This means that the bottom chin guard portion doesn’t open making for a tighter fit over my head. The fit is also snugger as I can feel the cushioning pushing into my cheeks. But the most complicated difference is the chin strap. On the Schuberth the strap connected via a plastic fitting that had ridges to hold the connector in place. The Arai has the more traditional helmet chin strap using two rings. When I tried the helmet on at Christmas, I was surprised at how easily I could slip the right strap through the two rings and then split the rings and slip the strap back through the right ring. Fully geared up in my Schott’s leather jacket and my Helite safety vest, it was much more of a challenge to affix the chin strap. It was also a challenge to undo the strap after the ride, but with some patient effort, I was able to do both.
We were supposed to have a cool, sunny day for our ride, but there were massive clouds moving in a strong wind. As I mounted the R Nine T (both bikes started with no problem, thank goodness), I spotted an osprey high in the sky. No rude, possibly drunk drivers were encountered, but there were an oddly high number of people moving in and out of driveways or doing odd turnarounds in the street. Since it was Saturday and not New Year’s Eve, I could only figure that the odd traffic was due to college bowl games. Happy to know Ole Miss won.
There was another issue with the new helmet—new helmet smell. The fabric was off-gassing, and when I was in the garage and waiting to start the ride, it was off-putting, and I knew I would have a difficult ride if I had to endure the smell throughout. However, with the wind generated by the ride, the odor was blown away, and I was fine.
We spent extra time going through cul de sacs and working on tight turns. Last week I realized I needed to focus more on using my legs to help balance me during turns, so I worked on using my legs as counterweights during my turns. How this works is when I am turning to the left, I apply pressure with my right leg; this side is easier because the rear brake is on the right side, so I am used to applying pressure on the right side. When I turn to the right side, I apply pressure on the left side which is more of a challenge.
I especially made sure to work on my legs as counterweights when I was practicing in the gravel lot of the historic house. My turns went really well and I had no dabs. While I ride in the gravel lot, Bill parks next door in one of the church lots and watches. When I’ve finished my gravel lot ride, I head over to his lot to rejoin him. Today, as I rode into the church lot, I spotted a bald eagle in the air above the historic house. Bill hadn’t spotted it and was riding off, but I stopped and pointed up to the sky causing the R Nine T to stall as I hadn’t taken the time to shift into neutral. I didn’t care; watching a beautiful, large bald eagle soaring into the sky is worth a stalled bike. Bill saw me and circled back around to watch the majestic bird with me. We continued our ride with huge grins on our faces.
During the ride, I got to 0 on the footless stop and saw Bill throwing both legs out as he tried to get the Rocket down to 0. He later told me he got the speedometer down to 1 and had thrown his legs out just in case. My no look turns went nearly perfectly during today’s ride. But I also learned that there is a downside to pre-loading the front brake—cold fingers. It was cool enough for me to have the heated grips on low. But my two fingers are out on the front brake and not on the heated grip. It was uncomfortably cold, but I’m hoping when we get to actual winter temperatures for our rides, that the higher setting on the heated grip will be enough to help warm up my two fingers on the brake.
We are entering January, so the cold weather is coming. But I don’t mind, just don’t let it rain or snow as that would prevent us from riding. I am looking forward to even more rides in 2024, and I wish you all a very happy New Year! Thank you for reading.
Flutterby Biker 