Yesterday shook my confidence. I had enjoyed a number of small successes riding motorcycles up until yesterday. My confidence grew as I learned to get the bike in motion, to shift, to make easy turns. Well yesterday, three major bumps in the road for my assurance... Not really three major bumps. How about two minor bumps and one punch in the head? So, I stalled the bike twice riding to work. In the middle of traffic. Not too fun... especially on a bike that won't start easily. But, again, I kind of enjoy that about the bike. Later in the day, I was on my way home to let the dogs out. And I ran out of gas. Nice. Smooth. But some kind gentlemen helped me out and I was quickly on my way again. So, about the punch in the head... let's just say it involved gravity and the hundreds of pounds of bike versus 120-lb me. Yeah. Super.
Well, the choice was mine - to let the bike and myself rest today. Or to hop on and charge out into the sunshine. Today is gorgeous, by the way. So, I drove back up beautiful winding Gleneagle Drive to school and I practiced turns in the parking lot for about 1/2 hour. I could barely make a full turn in that huge wide parking lot. But as I continued, I got my turns down to half the width. I don't know how people do full figure eights in two adjacent parking spaces. That's crazy.
But I'm getting better at turning. At remembering to shut off my turn signal. At coming to a stop. At putting the bike in motion. I rode the curves down Gleneagle a little faster this time. Things are coming along. I'm not about to give up.
No comments:
Post a Comment