11 posts tagged “motorcycle”
Speed - This is a birthday gift for a friend who rides a red Ducati 999 superbike. 20"x20" square. His helmet is white. Jacket is black. get it?
As in, girls who know how to change the oil or spark plugs in their vehicle (be it the 2 or 4 wheeled variety). This is pretty cool, if I'm not working that evening I am going to try to attend.
Sunday morning I looked out the window and saw the weather was pretty good, so I took Henry for lunch at the sbux near msft campus and then took him for a tank filling. I hadn't taken him out in 3 weeks because it had been raining, and I'm too new a rider to be comfortable riding on wet roads, not to mention i don't have rain gear. Anyway, since I hadn't ridden in 3 weeks I expected to feel rusty, but the reverse happened. I was riding better than I did 3 weeks ago. Weird. BTW, Henry looks very nice with his plates on him.
While I was sitting in sbux I watched him from the table by the window and was nervous when a car with a 'student driver' bumper sticker pulled in next to him. The woman who got out looked middle aged though, and her husband got out of the back seat behind her. He went and started circling the bike, looking closely, while she got their daughter (maybe 4-5 years old) out of the car. A teenage boy got out too (I'm guessing he is the student driver). They all looked at and circled Henry several times before coming into sbux. I don't blame them at all, Henry is a gorgeous piece of machinery.
I'm obviously the only person with a helmet inside and I'm REALLY not feeling chatty so I become engrossed in my iPhone and hope they don't stop to talk to me. Which thankfully they don't. But then after 10 minutes or so the husband leaves the family inside sbux and goes back out to look at Henry again. This sort of makes me nervous, admiration is one thing but stalking is another. I just don't want him to start looking with his hands and fidgeting with things or sit on Henry. After a couple minutes the son goes out too. Then wife and daughter. And I'm ready to leave now, but don't want to stall just to avoid talking to them. So I suck it up and realize it is stupid to not leave when I want to leave because someone is standing by my bike and I think they are slightly weird. It's broad daylight after all. Anyway, I'm being paranoid for no reason. They are a nice Eastern European family, and the wife really likes the bike and wants to know if it is hard to handle/learn to ride. The husband has a scooter. And a broken arm. Apparently he had broken both of them in a scooter accident of some sort but now only has one cast. I highly recommended the motorcycle safety foundations course to both of them.
Oh, one other thing, they asked if I'd gotten Henry in the US or had him imported from Britain. That was kind of cool. (I got him here, in Issaquah)
Today a friend of mine gave me a gift he had been saving for when I got a motorcycle. As he told it, if a friend gives you a gremlin bell and you hang it on your motorcycle - down at the bottom of the engine, just above the road - it protects your bike from road gremlins. But it has to be a gift from a friend to be effective. And he didn't give me just any gremlin bell, but a US Marine Corp gremlin bell. Watch out gremlins! My bell is super badass.
Hearing this explanation of the bell I skeptically asked if this was the new motorcycle rider's equivalent to snipe hunting. I was assurred it was not.
So I get home and look on-line and no, there are a number of gremlin bell manufacturers. Most of them will tell you its ok to buy your own and it will still work, but I think they may not be objective on the matter given that their entire business model is based on selling gremlin bells. Just a hunch.
Anyway, I don't believe in gremlins. If I did, I certainly don't believe that bells would in any way be an effective deterrant. But I'll hang the bell proudly on Henry because it was a gift from a friend, and that means something to me.
I’ve answered why Henry, and why I named the bike at all, but why did I get a motorcycle to begin with? If you don’t ride, you might be thinking “mid-life crisis”. If you do ride, you probably think the obvious answer is “because it’s awesome”.
When I was an invincible immortal (translation: 4th-6th grade) I whipped around a homemade desert dirtbike track on the back of my friend Dawn’s dirtbike. She drove, I was too uncoordinated to kickstart the thing without flooding the engine. I think we wore helmets, not for safety, but because we thought they were cool. Then Dawn moved far enough away that we grew apart and found new friends because our parents didn’t want to drive us across town to visit every weekend. Thus ends my motorbike riding history.
A couple years ago a motorcycle passed me on a scenic highway and it was like reality was briefly parted in its wake and in the space left behind I thought ‘that looks like fun’ and had a wistful feeling of yearning to experience it. Then the fear rushed back in and I remembered all the reasons why I couldn’t, why I shouldn’t, why I wouldn’t. As far as I know, no one in my family has ever ridden a motorcycle. I was *cough* years old. I was a mom. I was <insert social stereotype here>, and suffering from the belief that I had to live up to some societal expectation applied to me by other people.
It wasn’t just social pressure keeping me off 2 wheels though. I was scared shitless. I’m a control freak. I hate high speed because it feels out of control. After the startling realization that I wanted to ride a motorcycle, it was a year before I started considering asking to ride with a friend. And ‘who do I ride with’ was a major consideration. I thought long and hard about who I trusted to be skilled and experienced, someone who wouldn’t be prone to testosterone fueled grandstanding and showing off that would either put me at risk or scare the crap out of me, and who had a bike that I would be comfortable riding. Magic 8 Ball says: all signs point to the office next door. That’s right. My coworker who has been riding 20+ years, who I knew would be understanding of my fears and take care of me, who rides a bike the size of a small sofa (not a crotch rocket that I’d have to cling on their back like a koala, but something with a back seat for <deity>’s sake, I couldn’t fall off if I tried). And still, pulling out of the parking garage the first ride, I was terrified. All that was running through my brain was ‘ohmygodohmygodohmygodwhatamidoingstopstopstopgetoffnow’. But by the time we got back to the office after lunch my cheeks hurt from smiling. I was still terrified the second, and third, and fourth time I rode passenger. But each time it got easier.
This year, my resolution was to live deliberately and not just drift through life doing what I’d always done, or what I thought I was supposed to do. To be fearless. To not waste time on the planet but actively seeking out new experiences. To figure out what makes me happy and do that. Which is all pie in the sky, but at the end of the year how would I know if I’d actually done it? I decided that in 2008 I wanted to learn to do two new things that I’d always wanted to do but hadn’t. One was learn to roller blade, which I did this summer. (I’m not great at it, but I haven’t fallen on my ass yet and I have a RETARDED amount of fun doing it). The second was to learn to ride and get my motorcycle endorsement. I have now done two things I wanted to do, but for whatever reason didn’t think I ever would, or could, do. And that makes me feel strong. And happy.
Okay, so you might ask why my bike is named Henry. You might wonder why I named it at all. Let me start with the easy answer first.
The Triumph Thruxton is a British bike, styled like the café racers of 60’s England. So I figured if I was going to name the bike, it should be a good English name. I considered several options and settled on Henry. There are several English Henry’s of note, perhaps most celebrated is Henry the VIII. But Henry also had appeal as a name I’ve never actually known anyone named Henry – so it’s not like there are any personal feelings (good or bad) associated with the name.
But why did I name my bike at all? Well, that is more complicated. I’ve never had a vehicle that I was passionate about, at least, not in a positive way that would lead me to affectionately name it. (I have had crappy unreliable cars in college that angered and frustrated me to the point of calling them names, but those aren’t names that are polite for mixed company). I’ve never cared about my cars beyond having them maintained – yet my children’s strollers were all named – it was easier to say ‘put Nancy in the car’ than try to explain WHICH stroller we were going to take. In case you’re wondering, the other two were Bob and Tom Servo.
Lately I’ve been thinking about buying a vehicle that I am excited about, that isn’t just a metal box that gets me from point A to point B, but a vehicle that I love to drive, where road handling and performance matters, a car that I am proud of. I have thought a lot about the kinds of cars that I get excited about, and they are all muscle cars, big V8 engines in aggressive Detroit beasts. I could probably afford to buy the car, but can’t afford to own it right now – insurance and gas would be too much for my budget to handle. But I can afford a motorcycle.
Lots of people told me I should buy a used bike to ride for the first 6-12 months that I wouldn’t feel bad about roughing up as I learn to ride. But I didn’t want just another vehicle to get from point A to point B. I wanted a bike I would be passionate and excited about. I sat on lots of bikes, went to lots of dealerships, figured out what I like and what I don’t like. I initially avoided the Thruxton because I have a friend who has one and I didn’t want to be a copycat. I tried liking the Triumph Bonneville, tried talking myself into it, but was failing miserably and thought I'd end up getting a Ducati Monster 695 (which would have been given an Italian woman's name) until I was finally talked into sitting on a Thruxton with after-market modifications to the handlebars. The minute I sat on it I said “this changes everything”. This was my bike. And my bike needed a name.
So now you know why Henry.
He is a 2008 Triumph Thruxton and he came home with me on Friday. It had been close to a month since I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundations course and been on a bike, so I was really nervous at first - rode five miles back and forth down the short dead end road the dealership is on to get the feel for him before going out into actual traffic. But once out on the road, I was really comfortable. I am still learning a lot and being safety conscious about where and when I choose to ride, but so far it has been awesome. I've gone out for short rides Saturday and Sunday, and hope to maybe catch quick rides at lunch this week while the weather is nice.
I passed my motorcycle safety course last week and have a shiny new endorsement for my drivers license now. I'm shopping for a good finance rate to buy my bike, but in the meantime I picked this up on Friday while at I-90 Motorsports...
why is this a Fun Shirt Friday qualifier? because of this:
That's right. My t-shirt is even called the Dylan.
and I just might stop to check you out!
ok, the Violent Femmes are teh awes0m0rz but i really am high as a kite, it isn't just a music reference being applied to something else. i am totally high on endorphins. i used to work out in the morning before work. i am NOT a morning person. i always had to drag my ass to the gym, then rush to shower and get to the office... tonight i worked out at 6:30 pm. 20 minutes rowing, 20 minutes elliptical. my resting heart rate is normally 69 bpm and according to the monitor i was working out with a heartrate of 145-150. i left the gym, it is a beautiful sunny day, i'm singing along with music from my 'hercules' playlist on my zune which makes me feel happy and invincible and damn do i feel good! i know i'm jacked up on my own biochemicals but wheeeee this is fun. i am SO going back to the gym tomorrow after work. w00t!
other coolness, my son turned two this weekend and got a tricycle. everyone thought the helmet would be huge on him, but it actually fits better than anyone expected. of course it was time for his big sister to move up to a 2 wheel bike, so we got her one even though it isn't her birthday for another 7 months and wow is she a natural at it. they are as always, the cutest kids in the world. the weather didn't really cooperate for the morning party at a local park so we ended up squeezing into my place, but it was still fun and it got sunny in the afternoon which worked out for bike riding. i'll post more pictures later after i've sorted through them all.
speaking of 2 wheel bikes, my novice motorcycle safety course is scheduled finally for the first week of september! yay! i'm going to call every week or so to see if they get any cancellations for an earlier course, but september isn't so bad. i'm nervous and excited.
and that leads nicely into other nervous and excited things, i drove a stick shift car today for the first time in 13 years. i wasn't nervous until i sat in the drivers seat and realized just how long it had been. and this car is a RX-8, way nicer than my crappy old '79 Pinto. i was driving on my own, so at least i wasn't having anxiety about screwing up in front of anyone. but i drove a circuit around the parking lot before pulling out just to remember wtf i was doing. for the first couple blocks i was thinking 'wow, this is a lot more work than an automatic transmission, this kind of sucks' but by the time i got to my destination, i was having a lot of fun. on the return to the office (i was just delivering something a co-worker had forgotten in her office to their team offsite) i remembered just how fun it is to drive a manual transmission car. i didn't stall or grind gears at all, and was super excited to find i am still able to balance the clutch and first gear so i don't roll backwards down a hill when stopped. i was amazed at all the really bad drivers on the road. yeah, you have to pay a lot more attention to driving, but hell, SHOULDN'T you pay attention while driving? i felt so much more connected to the vehicle... just makes me wish i could afford a new car, but even though i might be able to find a way to make the payments, the fuel expense would be crazy. have you seen how much a gallon of gas costs these days?
Eliza is a beautiful Triumph Thruxton motorcycle I had the good fortune to ride (passenger of course, not driver) twice last week - which makes the total number of times I've been a motorcycle passenger = four. By the end of the second ride on Eliza I felt like i was getting competent as a passenger, more able to tuck in and lean with the bike on turns instead of just being nervously rigid behind the driver and worried that my leaning would throw everything off or make their job harder.
I understand now why people who ride are so enthusiastic about it - it really is an amazing experience that defies words. Without being a terrifying jolt of adreneline like a roller coasters or bungee jumping, riding is a fantastic mood booster - a friend used the term 'mainlining happiness', which is as good a description as any I can think of.
yay. so much fun.
