Honda 599 New to Now

[BigChickenStrips]

"I'll show you a real bike... or at least the back end of one."

ha ha ha...

sounds like you had a good time. i gotta trick my existing friends into riding, or find some new ones that do.

[Sev]

"I'll show you a real bike... or at least the back end of one."

ha ha ha...

sounds like you had a good time. i gotta trick my existing friends into riding, or find some new ones that do.

Getting them to ride is really easy, just get them to read this:

Season of the Bike
By Dave Karlotski



There is cold, and there is cold on a motorcycle. Cold on a motorcycle is like being beaten with cold hammers while being kicked with cold boots, a bone bruising cold. The wind's big hands squeeze the heat out of my body and whisk it away; caught in a cold October rain, the drops don't even feel like water. They feel like shards of bone fallen from the skies of Hell to pock my face. I expect to arrive with my cheeks and forehead streaked with blood, but that's just an illusion, just the misery of nerves not designed for highway speeds.

Despite this, it's hard to give up my motorcycle in the fall and I rush to get it on the road again in the spring; lapses of sanity like this are common among motorcyclists. When you let a motorcycle into your life you're changed forever. The letters "MC" are stamped on your driver's license right next to your sex and height as if "motorcycle" was just another of your physical characteristics, or maybe a mental condition.

But when warm weather finally does come around all those cold snaps and rainstorms are paid in full because a motorcycle summer is worth any price. A motorcycle is not just a two-wheeled car; the difference between driving a car and climbing onto a motorcycle is the difference between watching TV and actually living your life. We spend all our time sealed in boxes and cars are just the rolling boxes that shuffle us languidly from home-box to work-box to store-box and back, the whole time entombed in stale air, temperature regulated, sound insulated, and smelling of carpets.

On a motorcycle I know I'm alive. When I ride, even the familiar seems strange and glorious. The air has weight and substance as I push through it and its touch is as intimate as water to a swimmer. I feel the cool wells of air that pool under trees and the warm spokes of sunlight that fall through them. I can see everything in a sweeping 360 degrees, up, down and around, wider than PanaVision and higher than IMAX and unrestricted by ceiling or dashboard.

Sometimes I even hear music. It's like hearing phantom telephones in the shower or false doorbells when vacuuming; the pattern-loving brain, seeking signals in the noise, raises acoustic ghosts out of the wind's roar. But on a motorcycle I hear whole songs: rock 'n roll, dark orchestras, women's voices, all hidden in the air and released by speed.

At 30 miles an hour and up, smells become uncannily vivid. All the individual tree-smells and flower-smells and grass-smells flit by like chemical notes in a great plant symphony. Sometimes the smells evoke memories so strongly that it's as though the past hangs invisible in the air around me, wanting only the most casual of rumbling time machines to unlock it. A ride on a summer afternoon can border on the rapturous. The sheer volume and variety of stimuli is like a bath for my nervous system, an electrical massage for my brain, a systems check for my soul. It tears smiles out of me: a minute ago I was dour, depressed, apathetic, numb, but now, on two wheels, big, ragged, windy smiles flap against the side of my face, billowing out of me like air from a decompressing plane. Transportation is only a secondary function. A motorcycle is a joy machine. It's a machine of wonders, a metal bird, a motorized prosthetic. It's light and dark and shiny and dirty and warm and cold lapping over each other; it's a conduit of grace, it's a catalyst for bonding the gritty and the holy.

I still think of myself as a motorcycle amateur, but by now I've had a handful of bikes over a half dozen years and slept under my share of bridges. I wouldn't trade one second of either the good times or the misery. Learning to ride was one of the best things I've done.

Cars lie to us and tell us we're safe, powerful, and in control. The air-conditioning fans murmur empty assurances and whisper, "Sleep, sleep." Motorcycles tell us a more useful truth: we are small and exposed, and probably moving too fast for our own good, but that's no reason not to enjoy every minute of the ride.

Hehe, actually we were sitting at the light one time and Gord started revving his engine, a nice deep thrum, then Johnny started revving his engine, and he looked back at me, from my left Rick (the guy breaking in the harley) gave a half-hearted thrumm.

So I stared right back at Johnny and started revving mine, 4k, 3k, 5k, 3k, 8k, 9k, 7k, 13k and the bike was just howling, shaking under me and ready to take off.

Johnny started laughing, I never stopped staring. God I love biking.

[BigChickenStrips]

So I stared right back at Johnny and started revving mine, 4k, 3k, 5k, 3k, 8k, 9k, 7k, 13k and the bike was just howling, shaking under me and ready to take off.

you may wanna have that looked at...

[Sev]

Twist your wrist twist it back over and over. You let it rev high, then drop it off, then rev it a little higher. Makes for a better and more intimidating sound.

Most guys just redline it and keep it there all at once, but if you work your way up to it you have people sitting there thinking, "is he done yet? That just keeps getting louder and louder."

[KarateChick]

Hey, so I going to write something in your Blog...hope that's okay.

I had a real confidence building and fun ride with Sev. The weather was just awesome yesterday hitting 27C (about 81F) with lots of sunshine and fluffy cloudy blue, blue skies. For anyone newer to the forum that didn't know it yet, Sev is a fountain of information and a real fun, humourous guy.

Despite a fairly beginning when I pulled up to our meeting place [KC pulls up, bike leaps forward as it totally stalls, "Uh, hiya Sev!"], yes, no doubt making him think "OMG, what am I getting myself into here...", he just smiled and said hi. Probably good I didn't stop and dump the bike in front of him... or worse, knocking over HIS beautiful yellow bike. Yes, his bike IS great...I think I'm in love. (I love yellow & had wished mine came in yellow in Canada ) To top things off, my visor was hanging on by 1 side only as a bunch of pieces had popped off just as I was leaving and since I didn't want to be late, I left it up, hoped no more pieces would come flying off and dashed over as quickly as I could. Sev very patiently fixed it while we discussed the various flavors of bugs we sampled when riding visor up.

On to riding! I'm fairly new to biking and felt no pressure as we cruised through the city and freeways. He had me lead the way and set the ride at my pace and if I did anything squiddly, it was purely accidental. (I hope I didn't though). It really was confidence building knowing that while I still had to be very aware of what was going on around me, Sev had my back. A lot less likely that some jerk would blast by me barely missing me like last time or trying to squeeze between me and another car. Didn't think any cager wanted to mess with the big yellow bike & biker whose face you couldn't see behind his visor. I, on the other hand, have felt small and invisible many a time especially since all my riding to date on this bike & the previous one had been on my own. There were SO MANY bikes out enjoying the day too and once I figured out how to do it without looking like a total goof (Sev's feedback ) I started some waving too so that he wasn't the only one who had to do it. I'm still breaking in my bike and got some good tips from Sev as he was able to watch my shifting, stops, etc.

There was this one hill in the city heading down that has some curves in it and since I hadn't been on it before, I made a careful approach and headed on down. Obviously Sev had been on this hill many a time and loves it cause he blew on by in the lane beside me taking those turns with ease and really working his bike into the leans Ah, maybe one day....

I can totally see what he means when he says "biking gets into your blood". That's exactly how I felt about skiing when I got into it 4 years ago too (remember, we get lots of snow here so most don't bike the whole year round). Today's going to be a scorching one at 31C (88F) - well that's a scorcher for me, and I'm so tempted to skip k-class and go ride for a few hours after work. Hmmm, why push through the sweat and pain of a workout when I can ride...? The outside beckons...

Fun ride yesterday, a great way to end off the day from work . I just hope you weren't too bored Sev!

And uh, sorry if I jacked your blog but you were on this ride too...

[Malice]

I can't believe I wasn't invited on this ride.

[KarateChick]

Hahahaha - Sev, sorry, your blog is being Jacked!

Welcome Malice. Drop one or either of us a PM. Always willing to meet someone new. Can't speak for Sev but sure he is too.

[Sev]

First of all Gord, "fudge" you, you were at work. You're welcome to come on the next one Sat... Oh wait, you're going to Vegas (where's that little smiley that flips people off???). I cannot believe you'd register here just to complain about not being invited on a ride! HAH.

Second, I was planning on writing this up but work and my general lazyness managed to infere... sigh.

Anyways, yes it was a great day KC covered all the important parts. I stuck her out front so she wouldn't feel compelled to match my pace (does that sound arrogant?) the whole time. It also made it a lot easier to keep the group together as I'm sure I'm the more suicidal rider. I'd be hard pressed to remember everywhere that we went, but we spent some time in the river valley, rode through downtown and then back through the city over to the Whitemud and down Terwilliger (twice if memory serves).

We went down 101st street (ave? I dunno), I take that road every chance I get as it has about... 4 good tight turns in it. Most cars do about 40kmh down it. I do 80... and would go a lot faster if it wasn't so short, and there weren't 2 crosswalks on it. Sigh, I need to get out into the mountains.

We stopped and had a booster juice, I haven't had one of those in years.

Yeah, her helmet pisses me off, I don't understand why anyone would design a visor attachment that is nothing but a series of three interlocking peices of plastic held in place by a metal clip. It's the stupidest design I've ever seen, and I cobbled it back together, though not any sort of decent shape. BTW, I still think the red bugs taste the best... What do you think Gord?

LoL, I'd totally forgetten you stalled your bike, well now it's here for everyone to see for time immemorial, well done.

What KC forget to say was that she knows some of the best roads in the city (city speed) ones I hadn't even thought of trying, but will be back to visit. I can already see the speeding tickets being wracked up as I blast up and down the river valley and over bridges. I could just about make a perfect circle with these new roads Tons of fun.

Like I've said a couple of times, it was a lot of fun (and it was kind of interesting to go back to riding like I was new to the sport again). I'm looking forward to next time. Next time is Sat, want to come Gord???

*Edit* Rolled over 9200km today. Parked it at 7346 last year. Almost 2000km just messing about in the last month and a half. With more to come!

[Ninja Geoff]

What do the red bugs taste like? I'm hoping strawberries. Maybe with a side of mud and leafs.

And what kind of helmet is it? A heads up would be nice so i don't get the same helmet and get the urge to smash it to little pieces.

PS - and

[DirtyD86]

you've got a lot of talent as a writer, great thread