The (semi) thrills!
Due to rain, trying to get a well fitting helmet, personal training session, and a vet appointment, I only managed to ride Monday afternoon and just now. I ended up buying a helmet from a different store (not a motorcycle dealership), and it fit much better than anything I had tried on yet. The salesman actually care enough to give me fit pointers instead of leaving me on my own or saying "Oh, it won't press on your ears as much in a week or two" (a lie in my opinion). I am still having pain/pressure on my ears taking helmet off but hopefully that is just residual pain from trying on soo many helmets over the past weekend. This is not the first time I wished I did not have big ears. It makes wearing hats fashionably almost impossible.
Today's ride was the best by far. I did the big loop around my entire neighborhood (about seven miles), but instead of making the easy right turn at the last major intersection, I got in the left turn lane, and headed to the local supermarket (1 1/2 miles east instead of the 1/2 mile west back to my house). It's a two lane road each way, but traffic is slowed somewhat by two schools with a speed camera next to each one (in my car this annoys me to no end, but on my bike, it makes me feel safer). I have not yet received the bike chain lock I ordered from Amazon, so I just drove in/out of the supermarket's parking lot and headed home.
I am still having problems up/down shifting at the correct times. On occasion going from first to second I also manage to put it back in neutral (amusing since I still struggle a bit to get it into neutral at long lights - but I'm getting better at it). That is a pretty dangerous situation though, since if a car is behind me, I am not picking up speed and have no flash of a brake light telling him/him I'm slowing down. I can usually pop it into second pretty quick once I hear the engine revving pointlessly.
I am hoping to practice relatively high speed turns (20-35mph) in the movie theater parking lot tomorrow morning after my personal training session. I want to get over the fear of really leaning the bike, because that is where most of the fun of motorcycle riding is! Even riding around now though with the visor down, the visor is soo clear that it seems like I am not looking through one. Everything seems more "real" to me, almost like I'm just jogging - but at a high rate of speed :).
Oh, and I felt confident enough today to give the low "motorcycle wave" to another rider with my left hand, only controlling the bike with my right one. Wheee!
Today's ride was the best by far. I did the big loop around my entire neighborhood (about seven miles), but instead of making the easy right turn at the last major intersection, I got in the left turn lane, and headed to the local supermarket (1 1/2 miles east instead of the 1/2 mile west back to my house). It's a two lane road each way, but traffic is slowed somewhat by two schools with a speed camera next to each one (in my car this annoys me to no end, but on my bike, it makes me feel safer). I have not yet received the bike chain lock I ordered from Amazon, so I just drove in/out of the supermarket's parking lot and headed home.
I am still having problems up/down shifting at the correct times. On occasion going from first to second I also manage to put it back in neutral (amusing since I still struggle a bit to get it into neutral at long lights - but I'm getting better at it). That is a pretty dangerous situation though, since if a car is behind me, I am not picking up speed and have no flash of a brake light telling him/him I'm slowing down. I can usually pop it into second pretty quick once I hear the engine revving pointlessly.
I am hoping to practice relatively high speed turns (20-35mph) in the movie theater parking lot tomorrow morning after my personal training session. I want to get over the fear of really leaning the bike, because that is where most of the fun of motorcycle riding is! Even riding around now though with the visor down, the visor is soo clear that it seems like I am not looking through one. Everything seems more "real" to me, almost like I'm just jogging - but at a high rate of speed :).
Oh, and I felt confident enough today to give the low "motorcycle wave" to another rider with my left hand, only controlling the bike with my right one. Wheee!