First Bike, Honda 919

Another adventure on the motorcycle this evening... long story short, another motorcyclist, on some sort of sport bike, decided to follow me deliberately for a couple of blocks, from his body language it looked like he was eager to chat. It was half hour past sunset.

I turned into the parking lot of the Sam's Club gas station I was headed to anyway, and he followed, which didn't alarm me but I didn't really feel like socializing. I thought I heard a voice shouting at me, wasn't sure.

Next I heard a loud *CRUNCH* behind me as I turned right again into the station, and after I made sure nobody was right behind me, I slowed and stopped to look.

The guy's back tire was lodged in an SUV's front bumper! I guess the guy stopped short or something, maybe while trying to get my attention? At any rate, there were many screamed four and five letter words between the SUV driver and the sport bike guy, enough that I did not at all want to get involved. I fueled up quick and left before they were done gnashing their teeth, after all, I saw nothing, only heard a crunch, the guy obviously wasn't injured, the bike was rideable, and it wasn't my fight.

It's been an interesting weekend!

 

Golly, that's about the best tip I've gotten yet!

 

Got a book to read.

Got some spare control levers.

Got my license.

Got my insurance.

Got a blister on my left thumb.

Got some "starter" gear... a mesh textile armored touring style jacket, and a mid-grade helmet. Upgrades to leather and better helmet will come soon. This stuff is definitely an upgrade from my auto racing helmet & long sleeve dickies shirt that I've made do with for the past week.

I feel like a real motorcycle-guy now.

Where's all the free p****?

 

^Good point.

Another achievement unlocked:

Out riding last night, getting a feel for my new gear, and I start to get assaulted with big heavy raindrops.

It was a test of light touches on the controls, especially the throttle of course. Soon becomes a gullywasher. Of course this is the first rain in a couple weeks so the 5 minutes between feeling the first drops, and finding temporary shelter offered a very sketchy set of conditions... New rider, nighttime, oil on top of water, on/off throttle. I felt a sense of accomplishment having successfully maintained full control.

15 minutes after this picture, I ride 6 blocks west to find dry pavement, I must have ridden into the very corner of the thunderstorm cell.

It was fun, in a "challenging test of skill" sort of way. I managed to experience absolutely zero loss of traction on either tire.

The slipperiest part of the whole ride was arriving at stoplights and placing feet on pavement. I played ice hockey for years so I understand walking/balancing on ice in sneakers, but I have to tell you, the wet pavement at a stop light offers slipperier conditions than an ice rink!
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About helmets. For a few days I was rocking my Auto racing helmet. Two observations about getting a motorcycle helmet. 1) I didn't realize how poor the peripheral vision of the auto helmet was until I got the M helmet. 2) M helmet is very noise isolating. In a way that was a little disconcerting. I felt less in touch with my surroundings, comparatively. To the point that I think I might try to find an older design of helmet to wear around town in daily traffic, and use the quieter one for the open road.

 

I gave the auto helmet some thought... designed to be used while you're stuck in a multipoint harness, so you're going to be relying on mirrors anyway? Better to have smaller window opening for strength?

 

What size is it?^

 

I am enjoying the heck out of this motorcycle thing. About 250 miles ridden over the weekend, going nowhere in particular. And I can't imagine having picked a better bike to start off with, for me.

 

Neato.

Nice luggage system.

 

I'm a large... does it have the same wild ass paint job as in that picture I'm not sure I'm qualified cool enough to pull that off.

 

Not sure if I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but the original owner took my motorcycle on a Deal's Gap trip before selling it to the guy I bought it from... My bike has been there but I haven't. Yet!

 

I rode another hundred miles tonight.

 

And where does one get these centurion crests, dinosaur spikes, tiger ears?

Asking for a friend.