Hey everybody,
This is gonna be a lengthy post (sorry). Weather was freakin sweet this weekend in Northern NY (Watertown area for those familiar with upstate), mid-high 40's sat and sun. I left Rochester fri night, to go up to my parents place to pickup my ninja 500.
Friday night: Dad drools all over my new riding gear (helmet, jacket, gloves, pants, boots). Now he must have the same lol.
Saturday: My dad has to do building checks occasionally on the weekends for his job. Which usually takes a few hours to drive from start to finish. Along the way is some nice scenery (Lake Ontario, St. Lawrence river). He got out his Goldwing 1100 from storage, this is my first trip ever on my ninja, so it took me a few miles to get into the swing of things. First we head to town to get gas. Leaving the gas station was my first time i used my turn signals, instead i accidentally laid on the horn
I'm sure the people driving by were like
lol while I was waiting to get out onto the road.
So we take some backroads to bypass the busy areas of Watertown, we took a lot of back country twisty roads with some nice long open straights. Once at the first building, he went in to do the building check, I stayed out in the parking lot and worked on slow speed maneuvers (u-turns, figure 8's, etc.) it has been 2 years since I did the MSF, and it came back to me fairly quickly. First couple circles I did I messed up big time, I looked straight down at the ground and did not shift my weight to the opposite side of the bike, then I realized, "oh yeah look where you want to go" and adjusted my weight where it should be, worked MUCH better, had the handle bars turned at full lock with the clutch completely released and was fairly stable. This bike definitely builds the confidence pretty quickly.
We stop at a bar to grab some lunch, dad runs into a few co-workers, so me and him start talkin smack about each others bike, he kept saying he'd leave me in the dust on the long straights. Well, after we left, I made sure he wouldn't get that say again
when we left the 30mph speedzone to a 55 it became a sprint up to 70ish, he wasnt gaining and I wasnt losing any
so needless to say that had his attention lol. Overall the trip saturday was about 140 miles of fairly hard riding.
Sunday: Warmer than Saturday, we head out, since I humbled him yesterday, the riding wasn't nearly as hard, much more laid back cruising, with the occasional blast down a long open straight. Once in the open parking lot again, I kept working on my slow speed maneuvering, keeps gettin better. After the building checks, we spent more time touring around lake ontario. The ride today was 186 miles.
Sunday night: Back in Rochester, my first attempt to unload my bike by myself (since my friend blew me off about helping me unload this bike). First I will say this. I hadn't eaten anything today or really had the time to for that matter. When I am really hungry, I feel very weak and my motions don't feel smooth but more twitchy. Anyways, I backup my truck to a small hill, use my loading ramps to bridge the gap between the tailgate and the hill. The surface I was parked on wasn't exactly level. I get in the back of the truck, grab the handlebars, and start to push backwards, the mud on my boot slips and I fall backward onto the bed side and the bike comes down with me and is laying on my legs. I push the bikes back up, no damage, GOOD SAVE lol. I get the rear tire onto ground, the front tire slips off the ramp and falls 6 inches and I catch it from going down again, thank god it is over! Then, from the hill I unloaded from to my apartment (about 100 yards), I received literally 5 compliments about my bike!
Alright, just had to share my story about starting off the riding season!
Awesome weekend!
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