Ride the shit out of it!!

My step-father was in town for part of the holiday, and we got a chance to ride in the 70°F weather. He rode Cylon, my 2005 Yamaha FZ6 for awhile, I was on Raider, my 2004 BMW R1150R. We switched later in the day, and he definitely preferred the FZ6.

I never thought I would be this disappointed to drive my Mazdaspeed3, but it’s true. I have to break my motorcycling streak in order to take Kaylee in for a 12,000 mile service. The streak was 39 work days in a row, almost two months of working! I don’t know what’s more impressive: riding to work that many days in a row, or the fact I haven’t been fired yet ;).

Everyone loves quizzes, and this one should be fun for most of my Gibberish readers. Most of you ride, or are the types of people who would ride. So, give the motorcycle personality test on Hello Quizzy a shot.

Thanks to segue00 on the FZ6 sportbikes.net forum for linking this over the weekend.

I was:
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Today will be the twenty-third day in a row I ride my motorcycle to work. Not a bad streak, eh? There’s only one problem: tropical storm Hanna is expected to hit my area sometime this evening. With weather prediction being as flaky as it is, that could mean it could show up early while I am at work, or not at all. It is high sixties and clear right now: should I ride or not? If so, should I take the more nimble Cylon or the more protective Raptor?
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Yeah, I know it’s Wednesday, but I didn’t get around to doing this write-up until yesterday evening.

What started out as a quick, two motorcycle get-together for coffee turned into five bikes, six hours of riding and jabberjawing, and about two hundred miles of riding.
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Just got back from riding around a bit and visiting my friends Bond and Donut. I was zipped up in my lined textile jacket, lined textile pants, Sidi waterproof boots, and my trusty Held Ninja gloves. I cruised the twenty-some miles up the highway to see them.

It was a little chilly on the way up, even with my wicking base layer and SmartWool socks. Bond’s girlfriend asked me if I was cold. “My thumbs are, ” I replied. “I have sensitive thumbs, apparently.” I kissed the tops of my thumbs, feeling sorry for them.

I left about two hours later or so. I put my balaclava on, mostly because cold air was rushing under my helmet. The wind stung my face where my beard used to be. I shifted my paws around my heated grips, trying to warm up my thumbs and pinky fingers. Boy, was it this cold when I left?

I felt the all-too familiar numb-burning sensation from my bout of exposure in 2005. My heated grips were set to high, but my pinky and thumb on each hand weren’t getting warm fast enough. I flexed my fingers to try to get them to warm up, but eventually just thought, “fuck it,” and sped up. What a sweet sound the wind makes roaring around a bike at triple-digit speeds.

I computed the windchill after I got home: 8°F. Hopefully I won’t have the same sandpaper-on-sunburnt-skin feeling from last time. :)

New things that sparkle can lose their luster with time. I have experienced this first-hand among many things. Friendships, movies, jobs, electronic doodads, cars. Once the Honeymoon phase was over for something I started to see its flaws. Sometimes I just became used to something, and the gee-whiz faded into “ho hum.” But sometimes, just once in a very great while, something goes from being familiar to fantastic again.
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I had to ground Cylon after riding my rear tire bald. He’s been upgraded to flight status after nearly a month of being out of commission, and I didn’t realize how much I missed riding until I got him back today.
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So, I was checking out my motorcycle today and noticed this on the back tire:
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Two years and two weeks ago an almost completely novice and very nervous DrFaulken brought home Cylon, my brand-new 2005 Yamaha FZ6. I survived a guy stepping out in front of me and highway traffic my first day and have never looked back. I’ve said this to a few of you in person, but motorcycling is one of the very few things in my life that has greatly exceeded my expectations. I have learned a few things in the last two years and 11,000+ miles, and hopefully they’ll help new or potential riders avoid the same mistakes I have, or benefit from the same things that have helped me. I have avoided collisions of all kinds, including dropping my bike, despite being told in person and online that new riders ALWAYS drop their bikes or have a crash. Knock on wood, but nothing yet.
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