So, I headed off to an industrial area to practice hard braking at speed today. This is my usual spot as there's a long pretty clean seldom traveled street to ride. I spent maybe 45 minutes doing nothing but getting up to speed and braking. We all talk about not skidding during braking, but here's the catch. Yes, you can brake at higher speeds without skidding rear tires. In fact, the ONLY time my rear tire skidded today occurred when I was riding at 60 mph and tried to stop in a very short distance (less than the 120 feet indicated distance for traveling at 60 mph). So, yeah, my rear tire skidded a bit to the side, but I stopped in a very short distance. IRL sometimes you don't get the indicated distance to stop. When you don't you're not going to shrug your shoulders and NOT try and stop in the shorter distance. Of course you are... When that happens you brake harder and will probably skid. Hopefully, it's a controlled skid that you ride out. I'm talking about situations where you can't escape and either you try and stop or hit the object. If you think you can stop your bike in a shorter distance than indicated by the speed you're traveling without skidding...well then you're probably "breaking the laws of physics."

x-posted to Motorcycles

Wow, what a week. First there's the person who drove down the middle of the road around a blind curve. THEN... this morning on my way to a funeral ride for a fallen vp of a local mc who was killed by a red-light runner late at night, a car at the very very last second decided to make a left in front of me. I mean... I was so shocked that someone would do that that late...meaning they really didn't see me at all... I don't know how someone doesn't see someone or hear them for that matter. Anyway, I always look at potential killers as I'm riding. I saw the first car pull out and a line of cars waiting to follow suit or for the person to make the left so they could continue on. I thought..."hmmmm... I hope the second car doesn't just pull out..." Well, as soon as I saw ...I don't know the wheel turn or the hood dive... I hit my brakes. I knew if they pulled all the way out that I would not have time to stop, but at least I would slow the crash speed down. At the same time I hit my brakes they saw me and slammed on their brakes. I lightened up on my brakes and wouldn't you know it my rear tire starts to fish tail. Or, it fish tailed during the braking maneuver. first to the left and then to the right... As this was going on I actually thought, "thank goodness my front tire is stable...and wow, keep my foot on the rear brake so I don't high side off my bike. I rode out the skid...which was the most severe I've ever experienced...I mean we're not talking about a little fish tail...but a pretty good one... one where you think if the bike doesn't stabilize you're going down. I then pulled over to a gas station to top off my tank and thought, "holy shit, I really almost got creamed" and "I really need to figure out what happened and if there's anything I could have done to prevent that bad of a skid."

I've been thinking about it... I think the factors contributing to the fish tail were:
a) last second pull out... I would never have stopped in time even executing the most perfect fast braking maneuver.

b) braking execution: I practice fast braking, so I know I didn't grab my front brake but squeezed with a progressively harder squeeze (my front wheel didn't dive attesting to this). I also did not hammer down on my rear brake so as to give most of the braking power to my much more powerful front brake. This is why I was surprised that my rear tire even skidded.

I think what happened was... because the driver slammed on their brakes (thank all the gods and goddesses and big bangs and their own brain for finally kicking in) I abandoned my hard braking which means I let up on my brakes SOME. BUT, I must have already had some good traction on my rear tire (or it had just started to do a straight skid -which is not a problem to ride out), and when I let up on the brake -but not completely- the rear end started to fish tail. For a second it wasn't really free nor did it have good traction. During the fish tail I made sure I didn't release the brake completely -which again would greatly increase the odds of a high side (the bike throwing me as the rear tire regains traction). OR, maybe I released it enough to cause the rear tire to fish tail.

OR, the rear tire was going to fish tail anyway, I maintained control, so no biggie. After all, it was a really fast braking maneuver at around 50 mph.

What do you guys think?

On a side note, our hook up for the ride split earlier than they said leaving us riding around trying to find them...leaving us late. So, we did not head up to ride as we did not want to be late. We rode about 1 hour north to meet a new gal who seems to be super kewl and ALL into it. All in all I rode all day long...

On a related note, the hubby almost did a superman today when a light changed from yellow to red quickly in the busy city with someone trying to make a turn on the changing light. He hit his brakes hard, slid almost to a stop (the driver stopped) and continued on. This all on the shittest road surface you can imagine (for asphalt)...completely wavy on all sides...

whew... motorcycles are fun!!! really they are!

Hi y'all,

The ride to Helen was great. My friend Joni and I met up with a new gal Tasha who brought along two other gals. So, we were five on this trip. Wow, we got a lot of stares, hoots, thumbs up, etc. Anyway, this was my first ride up in the mountains on the twisties. What fun! We rode in the same range as The Dragon so some of the roads were nothing but tight ass turns. Most of the roads were either sweeping curves or fairly curvy. But, we also rode a few roads that were so tight that driving 35-40 mph was pushing it. Let's see... I encountered tight mountain curves, tight hairpin turns, down hill hairpin turns, decreasing radius turns AND off-cambered roads (you know high in the middle). I definitely dragged something during a curve that wrapped around a hill. So, my bike's cherry got popped. ahhhh... What a special moment! I slowed down a little after that. I kept my rpms higher so I could easily back off and used a little front and back brake. I rode towards the back and let the gals who had more mountain experience ride up front. I was surprised that I wasn't that far back from the pack. hmmm... On one road there were a lot of tar snakes and my back tire felt a little unstable for a bit while I was leaned over. It was a really intense and fun experience. I was sooo tired when I got home (I was on the road for 12 hours with some stops here and there). An interesting note is that my back was *really* sore towards the end of the day. I took my usual 1/2 Vicodin, 1 glass of wine, but also 1/2 muscle relaxer. I think I must have unconsciously shifted my weight a lot during the ride as my arms weren't tired (my bike weighs 565 pds. so I really feel the weight when I'm only pushing with my arms), hence my back ache.

Anyway, I love riding the twisties...I hated that I didn't have "time" to look for deer as my riding required 120% of my attention. Here are a couple of pix from the ride...


Some of our bikes at a stop at a local preserve. The girl on the bike asked if she could have her pic taken on Tasha's bike (the pretty bike). ;)



All of us at the same stop.


Joni took this pic of me on my bike at "TWO" bike campground.

Hi all,

My friend, Joni, sent me a few pix from our trip to Savannah. A few other ladies and us are heading up to Helen to ride in the mountains tomorrow. yay!!!

Joni on left, me in center, Jenn on right. We're leaving from Augusta to Savannah.



Arrival at hotel outside of Savannah.



It was so hot and humid. Look at that road ass!


Me hanging on my bike, Jenn hanging on Joni's bike (Jenn's bike is the vmax on the left) in downtown Savannah.

Hey all,

The trip was great! Here's a quick run down... I'll post pix as soon as my friend sends them to me.

Friday: rode to Augusta. On my way to pick up one of my friends I got stuck in stop n' go interstate traffic. The homemade cool vest I wore lasted until I arrived at my friend's work. It was a mesh bag filled with icy packs. We then headed out on 20E towards Augusta. It was so frickn hot that the cool vest was removed as the "ice" packs were liquefied in 30 min. and I ended up only riding in a wet t-shirt and jeans. That was a good thing as we immediately got stuck in stop n' go traffic on 20E. We shut down our bikes for a bit. *HOT* I thought I was going to die from heat exhaustion. We stopped for about 30-40 min. in Madison to recover. We ended up at a friend's house in Augusta eating good food. Met this ole hippie gal who rode a big Road Glide (I think). She was awesome... Rode off into the night with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.

Saturday: rode from Augusta to Savannah by way of 25S to 16. 25S was awesome. Just a beautiful divided highway... I had a hornet fly up my knee length pants. We had to pull over cuz it kept stinging my thigh over and over again until I squished its ass. I hopped off my bike (didn't put it in neutral and it lunged forward slightly) and ran over to some bushes and dropped my pants. My friend ran over to make sure I was ok. That was funny. I'm sure we looked funny... me with my pants down and my friend checking out my leg... hee hee heeee
We arrived at a Days Inn... ran over to the pool and cooled off. Then we rode to downtown Savannah, parked our bikes, and walked around. We were true road hags...all sweaty and dirty. We sure did get some looks. After eating some pizza in the evening we rode through Savannah back to the hotel. As we were leaving our parking spot, which was right next to the pizza place (w/sidewalk tables located 1-2 ft. away from our pipes...we warned them before we fired up our bikes), a bunch of people whooped and hollered when we took off. That was fun...

Sunday: rode from Savannah to ATL area. That took about 4.5 hours. We only stopped for gas, the wetting of my t-shirt, and copious amounts of water/gatorade. Nothing fun to report... I was really comfy riding w/ my feet up on my highway pegs.

All in all I guess I rode about 560-600 miles. The windshield was good on the interstate, my highway pegs were fine -but still need adjusting. The "heavy duty twist lock" on my barrel bag broke on the way home and I had to use an extra bungee cord (I brought 3 extra) to keep the bag closed (luckily nothing flew out). I'm going to exchange it for a new one this week. Riding in comfortable clothes -read barely there- was necessary b/c it was a deep fried hot humid ride that could have killed me if I couldn't keep my body from overheating. When it's that humid sweating doesn't really work. Oh yeah, I had a wet ass every time I got off my bike. My friends took a pic of said ass...of course.

I'm going to order one of those hydration vests. I tried to find one at 4 different shops before I left and all of the shops only carried them in large men's sizes. Oh, so us ladies have to suffer? That's the only way I can see wearing any kind of jacket in the hot humid weather down here. No wonder almost zero riders wear gear during the summers down here (both sport and cruiser riders).

It was great riding with other women. No one cared about looking great, or was a princess, etc. We all looked like sweaty dirty hags -the kind only other bikers could love, but we had a great time.

My brain had a little orgasm today. I found the last stretch of 20W and it was awesome. Why did they build this stretch of highway so awesome? I dunno... But, it's a 4 lane highway separated by a sizeable grassy stretch. The asphalt is in top notch condition. It's banked well and there aren't a lot of intersections or cars. It's like a little race track. At the end you can immediately jump on the onramp to go back on 20E. It was love at first ride. I didn't ride that fast, just 70-78. But there are a number of beautiful curves and some flat stretches to really open her up. A light is pretty predictable in that it will change. Instead of being mad that your ride has to stop...just use the light as a green flag, take the bike to the red-line and go go go. Just make sure you still stay aware of the cars that do jump on the highway and any errant animals. Man... after riding this stretch 4 times the brain just oozed dopamine and I was high high high. ahhh... I love you last stretch of 20W.

hmmm...
Yesterday I had an interesting contrast. At one of my many stops to soak my shirt, a couple of dudes complimented my bike and me. :) At the very next stop, some douche bag made some kind of "biker scum" noise and the clerk made a noise in agreement. The contrast was entertaining.

trying to stay cool!

It's hot here in GA. Heat index today when I went out - 95. It's not AZ hot, but it's still hot...specially when it's humid. I'm keeping my jacket, gloves, long pants, and boots on (helmet is required). Everywhere I look I see almost naked riders. My jacket has a removable outer piece, leaving me a mesh jacket w/ armor. Today I bought one of those neck bands with the water absorbant beads. It really helped. What I want now is to find those beads so I can make packs to put in my jacket pockets. I've seen vests packed with those beads. Wow...they're a little expensive. When I leave for a ride when it's really hot I usually wear a wet shirt to help keep the bod cool.

Any other ideas for staying cool when it's cooking outside?

Our friend Jake (names changed of course), a loooong time friend of the hubby, stopped by our pad on his way from FLA to NH. Of course he rides. Since I haven't really tried to sell the Buell yet, I let him ride it while he was here. No one, rides my Sporty...no one -but me. Anyway... So, him and the man are out riding and bar hopping too. I'm out riding on a new highway in the opposite direction. About 2 hours after I get home the hubby comes inside and tells me to get a hot rag and some towels because Jake wrecked. sigh... I go outside and the hubby is fixing him up (the hubby is a cert. life guard). Jake had road rash on the right side of his face, back of his right hand, and his right shoulder. His ankle was sore too. The bike...well the entire right side was fkd. What happened? No one knows... They were at the bottom of a hill leaving a parking lot. The hubby ascended and was waiting for Jake. No Jake. The hubby looks in the side view mirror...no Jake. Hubby turns and sees my Buell laying on top of Jake. Hubby runs to Jake. Jake gurggled something and then went nighty night. Jake didn't even have time to put his hands out b/c there wasn't any road rash on the fronts of hands. Luckily he was wearing a DOT approved helmet (he doesn't like to wear them). Hubby woke him up, dried him off, and they came home. He had been playing with the Buell and its hard quick braking all day. The front brake on the Buell is HUGE and very touchy. I practiced a lot to try and quell any desire to grab that front brake. I think he gunned it at the bottom of the hill and then something obviously went way wrong. We think he must have grabbed the front brake -some time. Also, he fell hard to the right with no time to react. Obviously, his head hit the ground hard. I've dropped that bike during a slow speed tight u-turn and only had a bruise on the palm of my hand and a little tiny road rash on my knee. He looked like he *crashed* the damn bike. I'm thankful he was wearing a helmet cuz if he hadn't he would surely have been in the hospital, hopefully alive and not a vegetable. The helmet, while not cracked, definitely had scrapes across it. This morning he seemed ok. He had a bad limp and was wondering if his ankle was broken.

I don't care how long you've been riding (and he rides a lot and has been for plenty of years) you shouldn't drink and ride, you definitely shouldn't on a "new" bike, and you definitely need to RESPECT THE BIKE. It doesn't matter how "small" the bike is...it's still a motorcycle and will fck you up.

Today I ventured out for a relaxing ride. I even did the speed limit...sometimes. Nothing spectacular...just wind in the kisser (which is always spectacular). So, here's my list of humorous moments today:

1) I'm waiting at a light and Paunch and John (the man -you know "Chips") round the corner and wave. I almost fell off my bike giggling. I couldn't help it. Every time I see 2 lawmen riding side-by-side (which is rare) the Chips theme runs through my head. heeeeeeee

2) At another light I hear someone calling out to me. I turn and it's a dad with kids in tow yelling to me that my bike was bad ass (yes, so true) and his kids were bouncing up and down and waving at me. I somehow came up with the coolest rev pattern for them. ahhhh sweet sweet music...

3) At the next red light some dudes in a big truck towing something yelled out to me, "sweet bike" and gave me the thumbs up. I waved back and then sped up so they couldn't get in front of me. oh come on... it was a big truck towing a big trailer... that wasn't bitchy was it?

Anyway... that's it... a little bit of humor and a little bit of fun

So, I rode out to meet my friend today. She lives about 160 miles away so we met in the middle. It's pretty kewl meeting another gal who's way into bikes and rides a lot (even wrenches). I like her. :) What's funny? Both our husbands are from New England.

so, my cherry...popping...

It rained today. I checked the weather reports and knew I would make it there with, if anything, some sprinkles. But, I wasn't sure if I would ride all the way back in the rain. I did. As soon as I got on the interstate the skies opened and rained on me. Perhaps you don't know that I don't ride in the rain. I thought it was a good idea to wait until I had enough miles under my belt that the rain wouldn't be much of a problem. I guess I do have enough miles, because the rain wasn't a problem. OH, that's not to say that the rain drops at 70 mph didn't feel like needles in my face until my face went numb. Or, that I wasn't wet or cold or had water in my boots or had rain dripping off of my face down my neck and into my shirts. Yeah, that was fun. The hard part was staying focused for the 1 1/2 hour ride and not succumbing to the urge to just ride home as hard as I could. Thanks to David Hough's books I knew to not brake on wet painted surfaces (lines, arrows, etc.), etc. I arrived home fine; I was just a cold shivering wet mop. A long hot shower fixed that...

It was worth it.

I couldn't take it anymore and came home a little early for a ride (I'll have to finish my work at home tonight). Out through sickening suberbia to the back roads I went. The sky was full of white fluffy clouds punctuated with dark menacing clouds. The air was sometimes hot and humid and other times cool -the kind of cool right before it rains. So, I was just enjoying the ride -big smiles. I relaxed and dropped my arm...or held my tank...or laid on top of my tank. The curves and hills + curves were too fun. The bike was easy -all responsive to me. body english or weighted bars it made no difference... whatever I wanted happened... ahhh... all smiles...

Then the rush...
There's the section of road of which I spoke before where cars sometimes want to race me (or others). Today, a car pulled up next to me (one of those big pimped out chryslers) and pulled 1/2 a car length in front of the white line. Ahhh... really??? Being in a super content mood and feeling very much part of my bike...I thought hmmm, "maybe yes, maybe no." BUTTT as soon as the light changed WHAM! My bike surged -I mean SURGED forward. She almost lifted up into a wheelie as the rear tire grabbed asphalt. I responded naturally and just leaned over her and pushed her down. I could feel the rear tire just banging down...my rpms flew up to the point of redline... I SMOKED HIS ASS
THAT was a rush. HOLY SH*T... My pony may not have it in the upper range -yet-, but she sure has it in the lower range. Wow...

It's a good thing I didn't ride motorcycles when I was younger (I rode a moped until I crashed it on a dirt bike trail -and the engine branded my leg with its logo). I would not have had the control over my brain that just totally responds to challenge and adrenaline with a dopamine rush. Now a days I control it...usually... except for moments like today.

This is the busiest time of my year (well that and december). I've been working a lot at my own job and helping out the husband too (w/ the business). But, I've managed to ride a lot lately. Instead of riding for an hour, lately I've been riding for several. In fact today I rode for 5 1/2 hours (w/ stops of course), which means I'll have to work all night. I just couldn't pass up the low 70s (purrrfect).

Maps are good for picking random country highways and heading out. My solo rides are turning into 100 mile ventures. Today I headed out to Jackson and then picked new random highway 36. While 36 isn't as fun as 20 (lot's of curves and hills), it's fun in a kick back relax and check out the scenery way. This highway made me think of some of my relatives, friends, and days hanging out at the barn. This little highway was dotted with horse/cow pastures, trailers with wonderful "trashy" stuff everywhere, old car lots, old gas stations, etc. My favorite was the guy that waved at me as I rode by. sigh... I'm definitely planning on riding 36 to where it ends... in Covington.

At the end of my ride, I decided to keep going and do a bunch of errands. After my allergy shots I rode over to Azteca Grill, which is right across the street from a hospital. too bad... I had two people actually make left hand turns out of the hospital right in front of me. I guess they were tired of waiting and I was on a bike, so they thought at least they wouldn't get hurt and I would stop anyway. I gave them quality time with my middle finger and lots of colorful language. meh... I kept riding and off to Home Depot I went to fetch items for the hubby.

Stingers... I have a hip stinger. I can't decide if its from wearing tiny thongs all of the time (not tight mind you) or from scar tissue building up around my bolts and nerves. It's probably a combo. So, I'm hoping for the former. I guess I'm not going to wear any panties for awhile and see if that doesn't stop the stinger. hmmm... I don't think that will work out with jeans. I have these wide little band thongs w/out elastic, maybe they will be ok. If it's from a lot of scar tissue, well, then I'm screwed and might have to have some surgery to clean out the extra tissue. panty dilemma... gals any suggestions?

Oh yeah, I haven't posted to bikerornot yet. It seems weird to look for friends that way. But, I guess when you are an adult, it's harder to make friends. I'm mean it's not like I'm surrounded by people all of the time.
update: I did a profile on bikerornot... I'll start posting to forums to see if I can't meet someone. Doesn't that sound sad?

Down here in GA the few women that I see riding are typically riding with their man(98%). Occasionally I see another woman riding by herself. So, you can imagine the looks I (we) get from people. Yesterday, I rode over to GS H-D via another highway as the highway I typically take was backed up for miles. This was a nice change. When I arrived at GS I saw too many bikes to count. Apparently, bikes were gathering for a huge run. I just wanted to pick up my owner's manual and check out the cost of a new air kit and *maybe* a detachable windshield (w/ no docking hardware). Of course, out of all of the bikes amassed *maybe* a few gals were solo. So, with my loud pipes, and me being solo, all of these dudes just stopped and stared as I rode by looking for a spot to park my pony. I rode to the back of the lot and parked. While I was there only a few people talked to me; all of whom worked for HD. We just talked about my new bike, their mod's, what I wanted to do to up the hp on my bike etc. One of my friends introduced me to his wife, but she just gave me this I don't know -why is my man talking to you- silent attitude. But like I said, no one else said a word; however, plenty stared at me (maybe it was the braids). Anyhow, after I finished my business I got on my bike and warmed her up a bit. Again, dudes just stared... stared as I rode by. So, I did my usual and tore out of the lot. I don't know if my online gal friends that ride experience that kind of behavior??? It's weird. I feel like an oddity. I'm no stranger to being a loner outcast, but I didn't think I would be one in the biker community. sigh...

I rode for 6 hours yesterday (w/ stops of course). I enjoyed the shit out of my pony. Now that I'm past the break-in period I'm stretching her legs. :) I've got 660 miles on her already and there's more to come.

The husband talked to his birth sister for the first time ever (they're both adopted). They talked on and off all night. I set up a face book page for him so he could see pix of her and she could see pix of him. Guess what? She rides too. In fact there's a lot in common between the two of them. kewl... I'm so happy for him. Here's a pic of him on his bike on New Year's Day 09 leaving on a run in 30 degree weather. This is his "new" sister at Sturgis.

One of my friends took a bunch of pix of the delivery of my new bike, my first moments with her, and my first ride on her. He also took a couple of short vid clips of my first ride which I plan to upload as soon as You Tube is available (it's being updated at the moment). The clip I plan to upload is really good for getting the vibe of the pipes. Here's a couple of pix and here's the link to some other choice pix, http://pics.livejournal.com/bobberbikebabe/gallery/0000qzs4







Ok, hill climbing... Yesterday I went for a really mellow ride. I just wanted to kick back and ride my fav roads on my new bike and focus on figuring out her rhythm. Besides swerving around a deer carcass in the road (go figure...country roads), it was a mellow trip until my gas light came on. So, I looked for a gas station and found one. As I turned to get on the access road to get to the entrance to the gas station I noticed that said gas station was at the top of the steepest hill I had ever seen as a spot to reach via a wheeled-vehicle. The hill was so freakn steep that if I had stopped I would have dropped my bike and slid down the hill. NO SHIT So, I just eased on enough throttle to keep her heading up the hill. Man, I was NOT looking forward to going down the hill and stopping (there wasn't a gentle slope to the stop sign). Luckily, I found a back road out of the gas station that had a much gentler -no- kinder slope. wow... it was like urban hill climbing...

Wow, today we headed out for a quick run to a shop in the ATL. It was about 46 when we left with winds gusting up to 35mph (there was a wind advisory). We both layered up and laughed at each other thinking the other would bail on the run. nope... As soon as we hit the highway and were riding at 70mph and felt the freaking wind gusts...well...let's just say I really focused on my riding. My bike being steady, was fine. It was riding in the wind with no fairing or windshield that blew -literally. The hubby just enjoyed the cold ride with his fairing and radio, etc. It was soo gusty that I slowed down on the entry of some nice curves. I could feel my nerves tingle, and at times my knuckles turning white. In climbing we would call this reaction, "getting gripped," as in gripped with fear. Of course you can't let it paralyze you or you fuck-up and die. You just consciously relax the muscles, take a deep breath, and intensify your focus. I did all of the above. I was glad we were only on the highway for about 20 minutes. whew... We pulled off and rode through part of the city to reach the targeted shop. There is a pretty lame "biker" bar near said shop. There were 3 bikes parked out in front and a bunch of gentrified folk hanging out. Anyhoo...city riding isn't for me... It's too tight, there are too many people, and the roads suck big butt. Additionally, there are a lot of fairly steep hills with lot's of stop lights. As my bike is new I'm still working on the right clutch/brake/gas ratio when taking off from a stop on a steep hill. It's not bad or anything, I just tend to not ease out the clutch early enough and kind of "push" my bike a little before I realize how retarded I'm being and let out my clutch a little more (this happens about 1/3 of the time). ahhh... getting used to a new bike... After we left, it was back to the highway and back to the freaking wind gusts. I was glad to pull up the driveway today, but also felt a little accomplished when the hubby said that, "you rode well today." I poured a glass of wine and sat on the couch.

I can take my bike in for her 500 mile check. :)

hmmm... I was referred to a BC specialist who reviewed my labs and conducted a biopsy (my poor boob looks mangled and unhappy). He thinks I'm ok. We discussed how difficult it is to interpret my mammograms and ultrasounds cause my tissue is thick and lumpy (tmi? who knows -maybe it will help someone). Based on my extensive family history with breast cancer and the retardedness of my boobs (can't find a lump if my boobs are lumpy and thick -on the inside people), we're going to initiate a preemptive strike on breast cancer. So, I'm waiting to schedule a MRI (to be sure the boobs are clean) and to talk about surgery and what we are going to do. We're thinking complete removal and upgrade... what do I want now that I get to choose? Man, after dealing with fn cancer a kagillion times...at this point I want to decimate my time bomb before it goes off. You can only understand if you've been there/done that (or maybe you can imagine)... It's on fn boob cancer... I've got *your* number.

On a much happier note. I fn love my rad bad bike. I've got 400+ miles on her now. If the rain would go away, I'd have my break-in miles in 1 week! kewl... On Monday, my bike and I went on our first solo maiden voyage. I was a little nervous warming her up. Man, I felt a little newbish. But, as soon as I rolled out of our neighboorhood I was all comfy. What a difference! She's so steady and smooth. There's a little in reserve when I ask for it. I do need to practice fast braking on the new bike because the front brake is smaller and the bike is heavier (go figure...). So, it requires much more of an effort on my part to stop her quickly. This is my one complaint. I'm not sure why H-D puts such small brakes on their big ass bikes (my bike is 565 pds. the husbands' 800 pds). With the Buell (393pds) I just needed to use 2 fingers to stop my bike quickly and safely. Now I feel like I have to use all 4 fingers. Like I said... I need to take her out to the industrial complex and practice those stops. The bike also has a much bigger turn radius than the Buell, but I am working around that. I just counter-weight her for u-turns and circles. Other than that, she's perfect. She'll be even more perfect after I have her engine converted to 1200 ccs. :)

Oh sh*t! Is my new bike fun! I L O V E her! She is a bad ass and looks and sounds like one too. Everyone at my husbands work came out and took copious amounts of pictures of her arrival, my first sit on the bike, etc. I didn't want anyone to take pictures of me taking off as, well...it was my first time on a bigger more powerful bike. But, honestly, it was not even a problem. I did a bunch of passes, u-turns, circles, some lower speed fast stops just to get comfy on her. She sounds like a big bad ass bike with those short shot pipes. OMG, I almost peed my pants when I started her up. I thought, "Oh, no, she's too bad for me." Nope, she's just right. I'm going out for another ride and won't post pix until later tonight.

no news on the lab results...and they close early on Friday (apparently).... bummer... BUT...at least I have my bike to keep my spirits up. And, boy are they up.

UPDATE: I'm riding 500 miles this weekend to break-in my bike (that's the goal). :)

bike love...

Well, this is a f*cked up week. I have this beautiful awesome bike coming tomorrow. But, I also have some bad medical news. The good news first... Today I went on the 100+ mile ride to the dealership to check out my bike and have the handlebar "custom" fitted. I almost fell on the floor when I saw my bike. She looks wicked. The pipes weren't completely finished. My mechanic had both pipes painted and only one wrapped (bad ass). The new seat, handlebar, tach, and engine guards were installed. The fit was *perfect*. AND, the bike looks soo much better with the shorter tighter seat and larger handlebar. You can see the frame between the tank and the seat. The shorter seat also shows off the bobbed rear fender in such a sweet way. sigh... Tomorrow tomorrow... Oh, today was my last ride on my Buell Blast. I put 4,000 sweet miles on her. nice pony...

Bad news: I found a lump in my boob. The doc felt my boob and immediately sent me to the hospital for testing. Scary shit... I have a family history that is thick with cancer. Both my Gma's, my Mom and two of her three sisters have had breast cancer. My Mom has had it twice. My Dad died of cancer a couple of years ago. The geneticist told me that I had a 50/50 chance of developing breast cancer. Sooo... I'm well acquainted with the heavy evil shit associated with cancer. I already have a plan either way (+/- test result) and it involves an upgrade.

So, I'm experiencing really high highs from the new bike and really down lows with the boobs. At least I will have a new pony to take my mind off my boobs.

Yesterday I forgot to add to my list of recent interesting riding experiences the huge edge trap I had to negotiate in a construction zone. An edge trap describes an abrupt increase in pavement height and a concurrent lane change (so the edge is parallel to your tires). Sometimes the change is small and you really only need to pick up your speed a bit to make it over the edge, but other times you are looking at a 4-5in edge that if you tried to just "merge" over your tire would become trapped against the edge and you would lose control of your front tire (typically ending in a spill). I was riding in a road construction zone yesterday and encountered such an edge trap. The "edge" looked like a curb that I had to "merge" over. ugh... AND, the lane adjacent to the new road (creating the huge edge) in which I was riding was narrow. AND, of course cars were in front and behind me. I moved over to the far left edge of my lane and turned my tire as close to a 45* angle (to the edge) as I could given the space limitation. I popped my tire over the edge and rolled on a little throttle then immediately straightened my bike to continue on in the lane. I added a little "f^ck" as I negotiated the obstacle just to express my feelings about such a big edge. success... all was well... I didn't learn this skill in the Riders Edge course I took. I read about it in David Hough's Proficient Motorcycling. His book is awesome and is highly recommended by many riders. Believe it or not, reading about riding actually increases your knowledge about riding skills and is correlated with a reduction in accident rates. So, go ahead and read about riding skills (as well as actually practice). You never know when that knowledge will pop up in your brain when you need it. I know it helped me.