Custom Mods...

It’s been awhile since my last post, that’s partly because it just got too hot to ride for awhile, but mostly because my bike was in the shop. We had to take them in for the 500 mile service, which was reasonably fast. But, I had been noticing that the more and more time I spent on the bike, the more and more sore my back was becoming because I had to lean forward slightly to reach the handle bars. I asked what could be done about that and the first suggestion was just to rotate the bars (fast and cheap!). I tried that for a week and it was super scary! The hoses and cables were too short in that configuration and when the handle bars were turned all the way to the right, the engine revved, when they were turned all the way to the left, the clutch wouldn’t engage. In fact, I sometimes I had trouble engaging the clutch on the street. I was so scared that I didn’t even want to ride it like that!

The next solution was “risers”. These are fairly common, but because our bikes are so new, most manufacturers didn’t know how they would work yet – would the hoses be ok? Etc. So, the good people at Freewheelin’ spent a lot of time on the phone figuring this out for me. They finally found some chrome risers. This was a bit iffy as the original ones were black and we weren’t sure how the chrome would look. But, I knew I wanted to be comfortable and safe above all else, so we went with it.

Let me just tell you, they look great!!! DH is totally jealous now! AND, the best part is that I can bend my arms a little and stretch my back out when I’m riding. I’m really happy with this modification!

In fact, I was so happy about it AND the fact that the weather has finally cooled off, that I spent ALL day Saturday on the bike!

Early that morning, it was about 55 degrees out and I knew I was going to ride the bike to the barn. I didn’t have much of a choice as DH had the car for golf and my farrier was going to be there at 9am. I suited up and decided to put the liner in my summer jacket. I thought that if I wore my hoodie under the lined jacket that I would be hot, so I shoved the hoodie in my backpack and headed out. About half way to the barn, my teeth started chattering and I sure wished I had worn that hoodie! Lesson learned: when the wind blows on you at 45-50mph, it feels a lot colder than it actually is!!! On the way home I wore the hoodie…

After DH got home, he wanted to take the bikes to get his hair cut. As we were suiting up, I saw him put on a long-sleeved t-shirt and just grab the outer mesh shell of his jacket. I said, “Umm… you’re gonna need the liner.” He argued about it, being from up north and all, but I finally harassed him to putting it in. When we got to our destination he looks at me and says, “You’re the best wife ever! You were right about the liner!” So we rode to lunch, then to get his hair cut, then to Freewheelin’ to find out about two-way communicators for our helmets (that’s a topic for another time).

We spent the whole day on the bikes and had a great time. I’m looking forward to more of this weather and putting more miles under those tires… though it may be time to start looking into a winter jacket!!!

First Solo Ride

Today, DH had the rental car to drive to the golf course, so I could have taken the car to the barn. But, sooner or later I’m going to have the bike over there by myself (can’t carry golf clubs on a bike). So, I decided that it would be sooner and I just felt like riding it over today. The roads had dried out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so what was to stop me?

I was going to have to wear my horseback riding boots and I knew that the gear shift on the bike was going to rub the leather on those. My solution… vet wrap! I had some around the house so I wrapped it twice around the toe of my left boot.

The next hurdle was going to be carrying my wallet (just in case), my garage opener and house keys (usually DH’s job), a towel (because it’s ungodly hot), and something to drink as we don’t have saddle bags yet. I decided a back pack would work and threw it all together, locked up the house, suited up, and set off.

This route is very familiar to me, I drive it at least once a week and had done it on the bike once before with DH along. I knew that the speed limits were all less than 45mph so I wouldn’t feel pressure to go faster than I might be comfortable with AND I knew there wouldn’t be too much traffic.

It was a FANTASTIC ride over! The only troublesome spot was one traffic light where I had to stop on a fairly significant hill. But, I handled it like I had been taught in my MSF class (right foot on the brake and engage the clutch before letting off the brake) and it went really well. I was a little nervous when I first left the house, but my confidence built with every mile I put beneath the tires.

I got to the barn right at the time my friend and I had agreed upon for the trail ride. They all LOVED my bike! I parked it kinda off the drive, in the dirt, under and between trees so no one would run into it and the seat wouldn’t get too hot. The “coaster” that I got at my MSF course to put under my kick-stand on very hot asphalt or “mushy” surfaces really came in handy. Thanks to the backpack I had everything I needed. I enjoyed my horsey trail ride AND my ride back home on the bike.

I’m thrilled to death that I did it myself and did it safely. Loving every minute!

Riding in the Rain

After work and dinner (AND picking up DH’s rental car for work) we decided to go for an evening ride. It was looking a little cloudy out so we checked the radar map and it looked like we had about two hours before the rain moved in.

I wanted to ride along the lake by the State Park nearby so we turned, once again, to google maps. We decided we could ride down Annewakee Rd. to Riverside Dr. then cut over on Flat Shoals Rd. to Mt. Vernon Rd. We were having a fantastic ride, right up until we realized that at that point Flat Shoals is a DIRT road…. cruiser bikes don’t really do well on dirt roads. So we ended up on Thornton Rd., which is four lanes, heavily trafficked, and pretty fast moving. It was the last place I wanted to be! But, we had no choice really so we merged into the right lane and got up to 60mph as fast as we could. We got passed by one car, but held our own until we got back to slower, more familiar roads.

After that, we decided to head over to the State Park on the roads that we usually take in the car and we would just turn around after we got past the lake. This part was actually REALLY fun! Then we were on our way home. When we stopped at a light, DH turns to me and says, “Hey, looks like we’ll just beat the rain!” You’ve heard of the announcer jinx… that was it!

As we were about to turn onto the second to last street to get home, it started pouring down rain! I mean, pouring down to the point that I could barely see out of the shield on my full-face helmet. I don’t see spectacularly well anyway, so this made me really nervous. I slowed down, way down, dropped into third gear and was just concentrating on safely navigating. The thought occurred to me to pull over, find shelter, and wait it out. However, the radar earlier had shown that once it began it would rain all night, so I figured it would be best to just keep on going. At the next light DH overtook me, much to my relief as then I could follow his tail-light home, making navigation easier. Of course, once we got within 100yds of home, it was bone dry and we were soaked to the bone!

But, we made it home safely! DH said all the way through he was thinking, “Frog Togs, Frog Togs, Frog Togs.” I don’t think we will make it a point to ride in the rain, but sooner or later I think we will be investing in some good rain gear! Squishy boots and wet undies do not make for good motorcycle rides!

July 4th Weekend Ride

It’s always been my opinion that long weekends were specifically designed for breaking new ground, expanding horizons, doing something new, and having a great time. So, at my insistence, DH and I were up and at ‘em at 7:30am. We sat in front of google maps on my laptop to dream up a route for a morning motorcycle ride. For the holiday weekend, I was determined that we were going to find a new route that neither of us had ever ridden (or driven) before.

This is actually harder than it sounds. We initially thought that we would ride for an hour or so and then have breakfast at the IHOP by our house. However, when you don’t have an actual destination, its hard to use mapping websites to plan a route; all you see on the map is a maze of little roads, especially in GA! So then we decided that we would head west and have brunch at the Mirror Lake Country Club where we were married thirteen months ago! So we put the address in and of course google maps wants to find you the fastest, shortest route. That really doesn’t work when you’re riding for fun. So then we had to modify the route piece by piece, back road by back road.

We finally settled on a route that was about 34miles long round-trip (I’ve posted the highlighted map below). The route started out on roads that we knew, but we were quickly on unfamiliar turf. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a ride! Kinda warm out, but on shaded country roads, cruising along between 45 and 50mph around winding turns… what could be better?

After a great brunch we hit the road again heading back towards home. We actually got lost a little because we were unfamiliar with the roads and the area, but on the bikes it doesn’t really bother us! We just kept heading in the right direction and knew we would eventually come to a road we recognized. Next thing you know, we’re at Hwy. 5 and almost home.

This was when I realized that my fuel indicator light was on. I was a little worried because I don’t know what kind of range I have left after that light comes on (looks like I’ll have to do a little reading in the manual!). Fortunately, there is a gas station right around the corner from the house where we stopped. I ended up putting almost 3.5 gallons into my 5 gallon tank AND on 3.5 gallons we got 150miles! We are now at 250miles on the bikes, loving every minute of it, and still excited about it every time!

We broke the century mark!

Friday June 3^rd:

Since we are now a one-car-family, DH is going to have to take the car to his Saturday morning golf-league – can’t really carry golf clubs on a motorcycle! Of course, that means that I’m going to have to take the bike to the barn. I’m not too worried about it, but I did want to do a practice run when DH was with me just to be on the safe side. So, as soon as I got home from work and changed we hit the road.

The first part of the route we had ridden before… all the way to the Kroger (this is DH’s favorite place). After that it was new territory by bike… I really have NO words to describe how much FUN and how AWESOME this ride was. We left the house with 68 miles on the odometer and returned 2.5hours later with 101 miles. That’s right! We broke the century mark! This trek involved several traffic lights, several stop signs, rail-road tracks, lots of curves, some take-offs from hills, and some really sharp turns (including one with loose gravel). All of which we navigated successfully. We are also starting to get a lot more comfortable, which is a good thing, but we always remain VERY cautious.

After we got back to the house DH says, “Hey! I’m hungry, let’s ride to the BK.” It’s not far from the house and was very refreshing after a long ride in humid 93^oF weather. Another newbie lesson, get a small drink when you stop for food on the motorcycle. You can refill it if you need to, but I felt really silly when I had to throw away half my medium drink because I couldn’t take it with me on the bike! Seriously, it’s like a whole new world! Things you don’t think twice about in the car are, all of sudden, valid concerns!

Here are some pictures from our BK pit stop!

By the time we got back to the house the sun had set and twilight was rapidly fading to night. Overall, it was a fantastic way to end the ride, the evening, and the week.

Our first "long" ride.

Tuesday was back to work, but ALL day I was fantasizing about cruising around on my bike! I texted DH half way through the afternoon, “You wanna ride tonight?” As soon as I got the “Sure!” response I started planning the route. I knew I wanted to do a longer ride than we’d done to this point; I wanted long roads where we could sustain 45-55mph and I wanted curves of various angles to practice on. So I picked some back country roads that I’ve traveled quite a bit on “horsey” business that I knew were pretty light traffic-wise.

As I was driving home, I got a call from DH. Apparently, the bike shop had left their diagnostic part attached to my bike when they prepped it! They politely requested that we get back over there ASAP to return it. So, as soon as I got home I changed into jeans, threw on my gear, and we were off. Instead of taking the direct route to the bike shop, we took the round-about way to avoid most of the rush-hour traffic. They were SO excited to see us riding! The motorcycle community is better than family – what you look like under your gear really does NOT matter, it’s all about being safe on the road and loving your machine. I also learned another newbie lesson at the shop: without thinking I just pulled straight into the parking space. Well, it happened to be facing somewhat downhill. When I handed my key to the guy to take the bike back to service and retrieve their part he looked out the window and said, “Oh! You’re gonna make it hard on me! Just pull right in!” Then I realized… motorcycles don’t have a reverse gear! He’s gonna have to push 500lbs backwards uphill! That’s when I thought, “Wow! Better him than me!” Lesson learned – avoid parking on any kind of hill if at all possible, if not then park so that you don’t have to push the bike uphill to get out!

Then it was off on our country cruise! First we had to wind our way back out of the “city” traffic to the back roads. There were a few traffic lights that we had to face and on the very last one, it turned yellow when I was right up on it. So, I hit the throttle and zipped right through. But, as I looked in the rear-view I realized that DH wasn’t going to make it. [[**snicker** I’d told him before that he would be so far behind me people wouldn’t realize that we were together!]]  So, I decided to pull over on the side of the road and wait for him (there really wasn’t anywhere to just pull off the road). This worked out ok, but people did have to slow down to pass me. We will have to re-think this strategy in the future (comments and advice welcome!). But, the good news was that no one appeared to be upset with me, I guess they realized what I was doing. So, we made it to our back roads just fine.  It was about a 25mile loop with only five stop signs and a BUNCH of twisties!!! I probably slowed down more than I needed too for most of them, but again I lean on the cautious side. I think it’s a great loop for us to practice on and my turns will only get better.

When we got back to the house all I could say was, “AWESOME RIDE!” My endorphins were really flowing and I felt great! We love these bikes and LOVE to ride them!

MSF strategies in action!

Monday, Memorial Day, called for another breakfast adventure. We planned to meet three of our friends at the Cracker Barrel so that they could see the bikes. We set off along a very similar route to the one we’d taken to the IHOP the previous morning except at the second traffic light we made a left instead of a right. Well, this was the first left turn that I’d made where there was a curb involved. I was SO worried about hitting that curb that I looked right down at it. Guess what happens when you look down at the curb…. Well, since the bike tends to go where you’re looking, odds are you run into the curb. Which I did. Fortunately when I realized that I was going to run into it, I called on my MSF training and straightened the handle-bars before really laying on the brake. The front tire locked, and I remembered to back off and then reapply the brake. Overall I saved it really well and didn’t go down. Unfortunately I did scrape along the curb a bit. Fortunately the only damage sustained was to the bottom of the heat guards on the exhaust, which you have to lay down on the ground to actually see even if I point it out to you.

I felt so silly, but I also felt good that I had remembered enough of my training to make a decent save. The rest of the ride to breakfast (and back home afterward) went without incident and our friends LOVED the bikes. One of them (Bill) has a Harley and wants to ride with us sometime soon!!!

Here is some video Bill took of us as we were leaving after breakfast…. THANKS BILL!!!