[Motorcycling] 7/8 Update...

[George Fazio]

So, I did a lot of riding this week.  Monday was a trip in the car to 
Montgomeryville Cycle.  They didn't have anything I liked for grips or 
mirrors, and it was too late to ride by the time I got home.

Tuesday, work let us out early, so I got home and looked up a friend of mine.  
He couldn't go out riding, but I rode over to his place in Womelsdorf on the 
bike.  I avoided US-422, and took a longer way that used PA-419.  It was 
probably about 30 miles round trip.  To be honest, things are getting fuzzy 
already.  I might have gotten out later, but don't really remember.

Wednesday, Doug and I got out for a short ride in the morning before all the 
rain came.  We picked up a few small things at the store, and came back home.  
I'm guessing that was around 15 miles round trip.  I remember is was 9 miles 
after I got gas, so that seems about right.

I didn't get out riding Thursday or Friday.  Thursday the weather was still 
bad, if I recall correctly, and Friday I had the first session of PA 
Motorcycle Safety course.  It was interesting in that I want to have as much 
knowledge as possible about how to do things correctly, but it was a typical 
classroom environment bordering on being boring.  The two "kids" (they're at 
least 10 years younger than me) that they paired us up with are pretty cool.  
We worked together really well answering all the questions, etc.

Saturday, I spent most of the day on a motorcycle.  The morning (8AM - 1PM) 
was spent in the second session of the PA Motorcycle Safety coarse - one of 
the riding sessions.  It was a grueling 5 hours in the heat.  But, I came 
away with a lot from that session.  We did the basics of clutch control, 
braking, etc.  Then we started getting into cornering.  It's amazing how much 
of a difference proper technique makes with that.  I'm better with 
controlling the clutch in 1st gear, if only from having to use it all day.

After class, Doug and I came home to get our bikes (I didn't want to take mine 
because the dent in the tank is embarrassing to me).  We rode up to Leesport 
to the Honda dealer, and I went shopping.  I ended up coming home with new 
grips, and I have a new set of mirrors with 10" stems on order.  Hopefully, 
the new mirrors will let me see behind me now.  10" is almost twice as long 
as what's on the bike now, so it should.

Later Saturday, we went out again to go to dinner.  I'm still trying to decide 
whether I was just too beat from being out in the heat all day, or whether I 
just did a stupid move on my own.  Either way, I dropped the bike in the 
parking lot of the restaurant.  I managed to keep it from smashing on the 
ground, but it was completely over.  I think I grabbed the break while I had 
the wheel turned, but I'm honestly not 100% sure because it happened so fast.

When we finished dinner, we went for a ride to found out why this bridge that 
Doug swears he has used before (like 10 years or more before) wasn't on any 
of the maps.  As it turns out, it's closed and looks like it has been for a 
good long time.  Though there are still signs well before it saying bridge 
out, so there might be hope of it getting rebuilt.  From there we looped 
around through Lebanon County and took the back way home from PA-419.

Sunday, I had to do work around the house - specifically, mow the yard which 
is a 3 to 4 hour affair depending on a number of factors.  I spent most the 
afternoon sleeping off a migraine, and then took the bike to dinner around 
6PM.  After dinner, I took the bike West out to PA-419 and then looped back 
on another road to get home.  I got passed again by another impatient driver 
(in a passing zone this time), and I swear that I was doing the speed limit 
by my speedodometer.  Maybe I need to get that checked out since it's pretty 
far off from the speedometer on Doug's bike.  For the entire weekend, I have 
over 80 miles on the bike.

I'm looking forward to finishing the Motorcycle Satiety course, which should 
end with me getting a Class M license.  In the mean time, I have homework for 
the classroom portion on Friday.  The guy said that, if we all answer the 
rest of the questions in the book, we can do a quick review, watch the rest 
of the videos and possibly get out of there early (after taking the written, 
multiple guess, test).  That's incentive right there.

I set up a new list at sepa-motorcycling at lists.lunaticcafe.us.  The idea 
was to have a general, open list that everyone could post to about rides and 
such in the Southeastern PA area.  I've been thinking about that idea, and 
I'm not sure that it will get any traffic.  There are 5 people I consider 
friends with bikes that might use it, and two of my cousins have 
crotch-rockets and might be interested.  Beyond that, I'm not sure who else 
the list would pick up.  It would be 100% open to anyone, so friends of 
friends, etc. could join.  But, there are probably some web forums (which I 
hate) somewhere that serve a similar (or the same) purpose.  Let me know what 
you think.  In the mean time, I'm not making the list public until I make a 
decision.

George