Awesomeness and Annoyance

A Saturday afternoon ride in the autumn on a beautiful, mostly sunny day in the mid-50s is an awesome ride, mostly. Unfortunately, riding at 3:30 in the afternoon in late autumn is also a ride of annoyance because the sun is a late afternoon, low in the sky sun. Because sunset is now at 4:50, the sun is low enough to beam right into my eyes when traveling south. What made it annoying was my sunglasses, which I wore for extra sun glare protection, kept slipping down my nose and off my eyes. I spent a third of my ride lifting my visor to adjust my glasses, not a very relaxing ride.

My ride, however, when I could focus on it, was fantastic. Everything went smoothly and I nailed both on-street U-turns. The BMW R Nine T motorcycle is so well-balanced that during one set of turns, as I was following Bill, I needed to slow to almost a stop, and I marveled at how there was no wobble in the balance as I slowly let out the clutch to increase the speed. I also hit zero on the footless stop and, as the bike lurched to one side, I simply rolled on the throttle and released the clutch and let the motorcycle recover its balance.

I did mostly enjoy my ride. As we turned up one road, the sun-dappled the leaves and created a beautiful tapestry of greens, golds, reds, and oranges. I wanted to stop and take a picture, but since I was wearing my leather jacket for the cooler ride, getting my phone out is a more complicated process. Instead, I resolved myself to follow the Japanese proverb: Ichi e, ichi go, which translates to one moment, one memory. The visual was so stunning, I decided to leave off mentally complaining about the sun glare and sunglasses and appreciate how the angled light brought out the autumnal colors in a beautiful way.

Other than the foliage, the natural world was rather muted. There were some small groups of Canadian geese, perhaps the slower migrating ones. The only large bird I saw was a turkey vulture circling above. I didn’t spot any butterflies, and I wasn’t expecting to. The squirrels weren’t as active, just a few among the trees. Except there was one super crazy squirrel who decided to cross in front of Bill’s Rocket just as he came around a turn. I saw a large motorcycle wheel, a bundle of fur, and held my breath. Luckily, by kicking his back legs and tail underneath him, the squirrel managed to escape the massive motorcycle and live on.

Next week, I’m hoping we get out to ride a bit earlier. Maybe not, though, as the highs next Saturday are forecasted for 45 degrees. It’ll be time to get out the winter pants!

Fingers-Crossed for Next Weekend

I woke up Saturday wanting very much to ride my motorcycle, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Earlier in the week, I stayed home two days from work and, when I did return to my job, had to take breaks due to overwhelming fatigue. As much as I wanted to spend a beautiful partly cloudy mid-60s Saturday cruising on my bike, I knew I lacked the strength to do it. So the best I could do was pay a visit to the R Nine T as Bill gassed them up, and listen to the engine turn over, but I couldn’t go anywhere.

And I realized I made the right decision because our short trip to the grocery store nearly wiped me out. My treatment ended on Tuesday, so I’m not even a week out into my recovery. I am hopeful, though, that another week of recovering will allow me next week enough strength for a short ride at least.

The best I could do as far as riding goes was ride vicariously as we watched Zack Courts’ latest “Daily Rider” episode. He rode the Kawasaki ZH2, a supercharged inline 4 that looks like a fun bike to zoom on. Of course watching someone else having a fun ride on a bike is no where near as fun as riding myself. But riding a motorcycle does require both physical and mental strength. One doesn’t need to be a powerlifter to ride a motorcycle, but there is strength needed to recover a motorcycle that’s near to tipping, and there is strength needed if the motorcycle does tip over to pick it back up.

But mental strength is even more necessary on a motorcycle. I’ve written about the need for awareness on the road when riding a motorcycle. In a car a mindless drift into the curb can be an inconvenience, but on a motorcycle, it can lead to a crash. Even a little drift onto the verge on a motorcycle can end in a crash if there’s a surprise ditch or a large rock that slides out under the tires. So I recognized the need to let another beautiful riding weekend pass me by sans motorcycle.

Meanwhile, this next week I will work on my recovery; I don’t want to let another beautiful fall riding weekend escape me!

First Ride of 2024

Saturday morning found us up and out early in an effort to beat the rain. All week the forecast was for a rainy Saturday, but we had a few hours in the morning to squeeze in our ride before the showers started. So we headed over at first light and were on the roads before 8:00 AM.

Well there was a little delay thanks to me. Because of the early hour, I decided to wear my Rev’It Factor 4 winter riding pants. These caused me some issues trying to get the pant leg down over my Daytona boots. The cuffing issues came after the Daytona boots’ zippers fought me. But I was finally dressed, geared up, and ready to ride once I got my helmet on. And yes, the helmet fought me too.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I received a beautiful new Arai Isle of Man Tourist Trophy helmet. It is a full-face helmet, meaning the helmet is one piece with a liftable visor. The closure is a strap that must be fed between two rings then back through the right ring to secure the helmet (see picture). I worked the helmet down over my balaclava and went to secure it, but I just could not get the two rings to separate. After a few minutes of struggle, the thought occurred to me that perhaps I didn’t actually have both rings. Sure enough, I felt around and discovered that the left ring had wedged up in the padding of the left cheek. Correcting that, I was quickly able to feed the strap through and back, secure the helmet, and start my ride.

We only rode half a block before stopping for a squirrel who stopped in the road in front of Bill’s Rocket while pondering its best course of action. Eventually, it decided to head to the near-side field off the road, and we were able to continue our ride.

I was a little surprised when Bill turned away from the curvy road. With the early hour, we were seeing far more people out walking their dogs than cars on the road. He led us on long stretches of straight roads even circling back around to lead us up the 35-mph road twice. I found this choice interesting as on our first pass by, we startled two large turkey buzzards snacking on the side of the road. On our second ride by, the buzzard nearer the road flew up next to Bill, and I saw the large, nearly 6-foot wingspan next to the large Rocket. I asked Bill about the closeness after the ride, and he said it was about 5 feet away, but from behind it looked closer.

I realized we weren’t going to do U-turns and slow speed maneuvers due to our early morning grogginess. So I was completely surprised when Bill headed up to the light at the intersection of our neighborhood road and took us into a new neighborhood. I say new but it was only new for my riding it on a motorcycle; I had driven the roads many times before. After the initial surprise, I was further surprised when Bill took us left then right instead of left and left. Had we gone with the two lefts, we would have made a short square back into my parents’ neighborhood. But by going left/right, we headed up a main road (35-mph) through two more lights, up another main neighborhood road, before heading back to the intersection and returning to our usual route.

Technically, this was my first ride in main traffic. However, since it was such an early hour on a Saturday, there wasn’t much traffic to ride through. But I am hoping that this ride my open up more roads for future rides.

I did have a “whoa” moment as we headed back to the garage. As we turned left onto a street that is crisscrossed with uneven asphalt strips from recent road construction, my rear tire slipped a little, enough for me to feel the whole motorcycle slide sideways. However, I didn’t panic and grab the brakes but instead rolled off the throttle. The traction control kicked in and kept the motorcycle from slipping sideways and falling, and I was able to ease the bike upright as I completed the turn. It was an interesting sensation that occurred in the blink of an eye, but I was happy with my cool-headed reaction. I’ll have to watch that stretch of the road on future rides though it was probably a random large bit of gravel that got in under the tire.

Early Saturday morning rides agree with me though with January here, I expect the cold weather will prevent too many more of them for the near future.

Chin strap of motorcycle helmet showing strap through the two rings.