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. :)

Bam bah lam... She's always ready. She's all rock steady. Gooo Black Betty...

Off to the parking lot/industrial area I rode for fast stop and tight ass turn practice. In this industrial complex there are steep sloped parking lots, a tight 2-lane road, a series of speed bumps, grassy/gravely areas, and a culdesac. So, you can imagine the fun I had practicing my skills out there. Most of my focus today was on fast stops at speeds up to 35+ mph, and tight ass circles/turns. I warmed up with a series of quick stops at 20 mph with the goal of not putting my feet down and taking off after braking. I also did not want to slide my rear tire. After a series of successful stops I increased my speed in 5 mph increments until I topped out at 35-40 mph. I only gave myself 1 second to stop my bike. If I wasn't full on my front brake in one second then I considered the pass a failure. In my Riders Edge class and through reading David Hough's book I learned that allowing yourself 1 second to gradually squeeze the front brake helps prevent the front tire from sliding out. While you gradually squeeze the front brake you have to slowly let off the rear brake to fully transfer the stopping power (& weight) to your front brake/tire (where the majority of the stopping power is really located). While you can ride out a rear-tire slide, if you let up on the rear brake you can totally cause a dangerous high-side spill as the rear tire snaps as it regains traction (throwing your ass off the bike). So, *don't* let up on the rear brake if your rear tire begins to skid (unless the surface is slick). Riding a rear tire skid isn't too bad (I've done it a bunch), but you just don't want to get in the habit as when you are in a real world emergency you can overdo the rear brake and really slide that rear tire out. Anyway, the fast braking exercise *really* builds your (my) confidence.

In between braking runs I practiced tight ass u-turns and circles. To do this I had to make sure my engine was pulling, which means I had to either give it some gas combined with a little rear brake or give it gas combined with keeping the clutch in and out of the friction zone. I also had to shift my weight to the outside peg (stand on the outside peg) and hang my butt off the outside edge of the seat. Of course, you have to push the bike down. All of these maneuvers combined allowed me to do some wicked tight circles and u-turns (left & the dreaded right turn). Fun!!!

I threw in some faster swerves, riding at speed in the little space between the double lines, and riding off road.

When I left the lot, I felt like the mistress of disaster on my bike. I'm looking forward to practicing on my new bike.

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.

As the new bike has been foremost on my mind, I didn't post about a few "fun" experiences I've had out on the road lately. These experiences relate to the importance of practicing enough to have those defense moves down in "muscle memory."

The other day while riding I was coming up a hill and dropped the usual 10 mph off of my speed (can't see over the hill) when I saw a present waiting for me. Here was this big ass semi initiating a u-turn in the middle of the 2-lane highway. I immediately got on my brakes (at about 50 mph) and prepared for a hard stop. I also watched his hood and he jammed on his brakes so I abandoned my quick stop and kept going. Moral of the story... you never know what is going to be on the other side of the hill AND you had better be able to stop your bike without dropping it.

Yesterday I had to do reduce my speed quickly (& prepare for a quick stop) at about 60 mph as a highway light changed. In a split second I had to determine if I could make the stop without too much burned rubber (& no one would rear-end me) AND if there was a possibility that the light would change and some people would gun the light (thus I would be in another quick stop situation). I executed a really nice -almost hard- stop without sliding. That experience let me know that I could probably get on my brakes harder if need be at a higher speed (I've always had the heebie geebies about quick stopping at higher speeds).

So, today after a short errand run I headed over to a perfect side road/parking lot to practice. I practiced quick stops (only up to 25 mph), swerving, figure 8s, u-turns, etc. You know... all of the MSF stuff. My goal is to work up to mentally being able to practice a quick stop at 35, 45, 55 mph. Why? Because you will more than likely have to hit the brakes hard and you had better be able to do so without dropping your bike. Practicing these quick stops little by little should help me get over any mental blocks I have about doing a quick stop at such speeds.


back to thinking about my new bike... ahhhhh...

I went on my new favorite ride for my Christmas Eve ride today. It actually is only 37 miles. weird...it feels like a longer ride... Perhaps it feels longer because I have to ride through a somewhat congested area before I hit the country roads. Although there was a lot of traffic in the populated area at the beginning and end of my ride, the vast majority of people drove like normal folk. I *almost* turned around and went home after I saw the congestion during the beginning of my ride, but I knew that the country roads would be clear so I just turned on my "hyper radar." It was just what I needed to lift me up.

Sometimes I look at my hubby on the days that I don't ride and think...gosh I would hate my husband to lose me because of a studid bike accident. But, then he rides...putting me in the same situation. We both love to ride, so we both understand each others need to ride. I guess we both have accepted the risk for the other and have talked about the "what if" scenarios. I'm not a happy person when I don't do *something* that is challenging and rewarding like riding horses, climbing, and now riding my bike. I suspect it's the same for my husband. It's part of who we are... We might not live long lives due to who knows...but at least we will actually live life rather than safely cruising through life waiting for our death.

I passed my husband today at the end of my ride. He was out riding looking for stocking stuffers for me. Before my conscious brain realized who he was, I thought, "damn, that dude is hot..." Then I smiled as I realized the hot dude was my husband. I fn love my man.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Yule, Happy Kwanza, Happy day-off...y'all.

The hubby and I went on an errand run today. We took the back roads, as they are always fun. One of our favorite roads presented quite a surprise today. I was leading the ride at quite a quick pace. There was this bizarre apparition that I saw at the last minute. Luckily, very luckily, I was the first to disturb these weird giant goat things (not deer or maybe mutant deer) that were standing next to a fenced in pasture. In my brain as I was approaching I thought I saw some large weird deer, but inside the pasture not next to it. Anyway, I was lucky because being first "it" kind of looked up and froze. The hubby saw it and slowed down to stop, which was a good thing because "it" then darted across the road in front of him. whew... If that thing would have seen me coming before I saw it, it would have darted out in front of me. I would maybe -maybe- have had time to swerve. I probably would have hit it and been in the hospital tonight. The hubby was a little weirded out for me, but I was calm. Being a climber taught me to keep my head together tight so I wasn't freaked out (hanging on a cliff by your fingertips does that). But, I'm drinking plenty of vino tonight. This is weird...and probably an artifact of me riding with the hubby a lot when I first started riding...I'm not as good as a defensive rider when I'm riding with him than when I'm riding by myself. I think today was a really freakn good lesson.

At the end of a somewhat pleasant ride (why, does traffic start soo early around here?), I had to use some sign language to communicate my displeasure with someones driving skills. I was in a dicey area so my radar was really "on." Out of my peripheral vision I saw this lady who started to pull over into my lane. I was right next to her. She must have been deaf, as my bike is loud as, well LOUD. She was not on her cell phone, she was just a super dip shit that didn't look before moving into a lane. The beauty of this incident was that she KEPT pulling into my lane after she saw me. I rolled on some throttle and turned around and gave her the BIG BIRD. I couldn't *wait* to see her at the upcoming stop light. She was a somewhat older lady (not old at all, just not young). She did all she could to avoid eye contact with me. What? You don't want to actually look at the person you almost ran over? *This* is what I mean when I write/state "ride like everyone wants to kill you." because some dip shit really does want to kill you...

Times like these were made for a big flame thrower mounted to the front of yer bike (hummed to the tune of the old Tasters Choice commercial).

I know this young sport bike rider who recently was tagged by a car. Before I tell you about this recent accident, let me tell you that he's not one for safety (in AZ he wore sandals and shorts when riding and did not wear a helmet). He lives at the top of a hill, and his driveway is the first one on the top of the hill. There is a warning sign stating "Blind Drive" before the hill to warn people in hopes that they will slow down "just in case." Well, "just in case" happened to him the other day. He made a few errors, I believe, that led him to the accident. One, he backed out of his driveway. *really?* *really?* Are you kidding me? It's just plain stupid to back your motorcycle out of a driveway if you can't see cars coming up the street. Way to hang your ass out...literally. Then, he didn't assume that people driving cars ignore such signs and typically do not slow down at all. So, you've got the background info...now play it out in your head. Yep, his back tire was out in the street, car zoomed up hill and tagged his rear tire. He flew off of his bike and narrowly missed a tree. The helmet saved his head. He walked away. I was a little bit of an ass when he told me this story. I looked at him and asked, "why did you let him hit you?" We all know as riders that our safety is in our hands. Typically, drivers of cars walk away from accidents even if it is their fault...motorcyclists get hurt...even when it's not their fault. Moral of the story...ride like everyone wants to kill you and have lady luck on your side when the shit hits the fan.

When you undertake any "high" risk activity it's always a good idea to learn about the risks involved and how to mitigate them or decrease them to acceptable levels. When I rode horses I learned how to fall off or jump off while my horse was running. When I climbed I learned how to fall without hurting myself by falling on purpose until I felt comfortable falling. When the real thing came I was able to keep my wits about me and execute manuevers to "land" safely. It's the same with riding a bike.

Not a lot of bikers like to talk about motorcycle accidents, statistics, and evasive maneuvers. I guess because it's scary to not only evaluate the risks involved while riding a bike, but also realizing that you probably don't know how to get yourself out of a bad situation. There are classes sponsored by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) that not only confront the risks straight on, but then train you how to 1) avoid the riskiest situations in the first place (extra defensive driving) and then 2) execute evasive maneuvers when you are at risk for an accident (either single vehicle -just you and the bike OR you, your bike, and a car). It's empowering when you realize that really, you have to be the one in charge of accident avoidance. You can't depend on anyone else trying to avoid hitting you or cutting you off, because more than likely, it's going to be you that is hurt if the other person doesn't avoid you. Yeah, it would be nice to think that the people driving cars are just going to see you and stop or swerve. But, we all know it doesn't work out that way all of the time.

Accident statistics reveal that a good number of bikers involved in car accidents just expected that the car would swerve or stop and so did not take any evasive maneuvers to avoid the impending accident. This is where good training comes in handy. Riding is a skill that is both mental and physical. It only makes sense then that accident avoidance involves the physical aspects of riding your bike as well as the mental aspects of quick assessment and action. When you learn how to execute quick swerves, fast braking, riding over obstacles, stopping in a curve (dangerous... must straighten fork first), etc. they become what your brain and your body default to when impending doom looms in front of you. Think of it as programming for your muscles and brain. So, practice those evasive maneuvers every so often so you can call on them when they are needed.

Another component of accident avoidance is lowering your risk by limiting how, when, and where you ride (critically important as a newbie). For me, right now with my experience, I do the following:

1) ride only with my husband who has 18+ years of experience. He actually rides in front most of the time, which seems contrary to popular biker protocol. But, by riding up front I benefit by having him encounter potentially bad situations first. With his experience he might be aware of a dangerous situation that I might not have noticed AND I have extra time to react. Additionally, he pushes me at times -not beyond my limits. By pushing me I actually learn that I CAN do something that I probably wouldn't have done at the time as a newbie (handle a curve at a faster speed than I thought, accelerating a little sooner -opening up the throttle,etc.). Riding too carefully or slowly can be potentially dangerous too.
2) ride between peak traffic hours (i.e., after everyone goes to work and before they come home/ during church hours -I live in the South).
3) ride only during the day
4) ride only in peak conditions (nice dry roads)
5) ride as much as possible
6) take MSF courses
7) The hardest for me... be patient with my 500 CC bike... The better I master my skills on a smaller bike, the better rider I will be when I actually do buy my dream bike. My man is always saying to me, "I rode on my 500 cc Ninja for 4 years before I bought a bigger bike." sigh...

Of course, as I gain experience my riding habits will change. But for now, I'm choosing to limit the conditions under which I ride so that I can actually focus on my skills. It's not limiting how much I ride. Believe me, I'm putting the miles on my bike. I'll even follow my husband around town to places like Home Depot, just to get in some riding time. No, he doesn't mind. -at least that's what he tells me ;)

Mitigating risk, it's definitely not a sexy topic, but it's obviously a wise topic.