[Motorcycling] Motorcycle Update...

[George Fazio]

OK. So, I decided to setup a mailing list for stuff about the bike. I know I'm 
not that important, but humor me here ;-). Anyway, after the excitement on 
Saturday (I'll get to that), and getting out on the road for the first time 
this evening, I figured it might be cool to send out updates. I'm going to 
try to keep them short (unlike this email), to the point, and infrequent 
(once a week or so).

So, if you're interested in joining the list, go to http://lists.n3gqf.info 
and subscribe to the motorcycling list.

Now about that excitement on Saturday, which we're not telling Neil about for 
those of you that work with me... He'll be upset since he sold me the bike, 
and was telling me to be careful, etc.

So, Dan and I went to get the bike on Saturday. We were riding (well Dan was) 
up PA73 going towards Reading. Dan was following me, but quick flew by me and 
pulled into a school parking lot - obviously I followed. Long story short I 
ended up on the bike practicing in a lot. Now you all know I've never ridden 
motorcycle before, and most of you know I've never driven manual anything. 
Here is where the problem comes in.

After stalling the bike a few times, I finally got it going. I came to a stop 
near the end of the parking lot and went to start out again. I grabbed too 
much throttle, panicked, didn't think to pull the clutch in to disengage the 
engine, went for the brakes, hit gravel and was thrown from the bike as it 
was falling over on its side. Needless to say, I'm fine. My pride was hurt, 
and the handle bars (we think) scraped up my side a little.

The bike, however, fell on one of those concrete things that they put in the 
parking spaces and dented the gas tank. It looks ugly, but it still holds gas 
and the bike runs fine. I also bent up the rear brake pedal, and snapped off 
part of the front brake lever. Dan and I (mostly Dan) did emergency surgery 
on the rear brake pedal in the parking lot because it was bent up against 
the engine, and then Dan made me get back on the bike (because anything worth 
having/knowing is worth a little pain and suffering, right?).

After that we rode up to the Honda dealer on PA61 in Leesport to order a new 
front brake lever (I got two just in case), and then went back to my house to 
further fix the rear brake pedal with a bench vise and some good old 
fashioned elbow-grease.

Once proper repairs were made, we rounded up Doug (my roommate) with his bike 
and went to another school parking lot for a few hours of riding. This 
proved to be mostly uneventful, but very educational.

Today, Sunday, I was practicing working the clutch and throttle in the 
driveway. Doug came outside, commented that I was starting off much more 
smoothly, and asked if I want to do a quick loop around the neighborhood. I 
started to think it over, decided thinking about it was probably bad and 
just said yes. So, we got on the bikes and did about 3 miles. I know it 
doesn't sound like much, but I got out on the road, and that's progress after 
yesterday. I had the bike up to around 40 in the straight away, but was doing 
30-ish most of the time. The speed still makes be a little uneasy, but I'm 
sure I'll get over it. I also learned that right turns from a stop are not as 
easy as other more experienced bikers make it look. The bike was well in the 
left lane when I pulled out from a stop, so I'll be practicing that because 
it bothers me that I couldn't keep it in my lane. Overall it was a good 
experience to get out on the road, even if it was a really short trip.

I probably won't get out tomorrow because I'm usually pretty wasted after 
getting up a 3:30 AM to take Doug to the airport on Mondays, and I want to be 
alert on the bike. But, I'm going to try to get out some more during the 
week. Hopefully, I don't lose anything being off it for a day. BTW, I think 
Dan might be right when he said the bike was the best therapy he ever bought. 
I don't know that I'll ever be going to Alaska on a bike, but I don't see 
myself getting rid of it either.

Well, this concludes this addition of what is George doing on his bike this 
week. If you want to tune in for more, just join the mailing list.

George