January Ride
Well, against all odds I was able to shake the dust off my motorcycle and get a short little ride in on Friday. We just went about a mile or so down the road to a deli for lunch. I was with my buddy from work that has the zx11 that I am trying to buy off him. He was riding his zx10r and he basically took my bike away for the trip back and I was left with the zx10. My leg barely cleared the tail of the bike and I had to go searching for the footpegs and reassure myself that I could actually reach those clip ons way down there.
My first impression with the bike was how precise that the throttle is. This was the first fuel injected motorcycle that I have ridden and it took me a little to get used to how precise you needed to be on the throttle. Before he took off he told me to twist the throttle and get a feel for the power of the bike. Once underway I was impressed with how immediate that the steering was on the bike and how easily it moved from side to side. I took it easy around a traffic circle and noticed that you couldn't see anything in the mirrors, but then again with that much power on tap you really only had to look way far ahead of you :) I stopped at a light and when it went green I rolled into the throttle and snicked it into 2nd and whacked open the throttle and was rewarded with a burst of speed. Before long I was back at the shop and left with a feeling that I would like to taste the throttle on that bike some more on some less traveled roads farther away from the police.
Friday was also pretty good because I have a prospective buyer for the zx6, which takes a load off my mind about coming up with a way to pay for the zx11 I've mentioned before. I'll find out soon if they are interested(a guy that started last week wants a bike for his wife to ride). It's kind of hard to think of the bike that gave me almost 15k miles of enjoyment as a perfect starter bike for a female, but in reality it is well suited to that task. The seating height is low enough so that she won't be tippy toeing at traffic lights, the power is located in the upper rpm range with a rider friendly midrange that doesn't hold any surprises. One of the things that I liked about the bike the most was that it doesn't do anything to shake your confidence no matter how close to the limit that you are.
Of course today the weather is really cold (the usual cny weather for this time of year)....right now it's 9 degrees outside which makes the 60 degrees that it was on friday seem like a distant memory. I am hoping the spring gets here fairly early so that I can get more riding in this season before winter comes back to ruin the fun. Last season I only got a few hundred miles in because of my back problems which I hopefully can keep at bay this season. To make the longing a little more urgent I picked up a copy of Leanings at Barnes and Noble friday night. I love Peter Egan's articles and he is the reason that I subscribe to Cycle World. I'm almost halfway through the book already and will probably be 2/3 done by later tonight.
Come on spring I wanna ride darnit :)
My first impression with the bike was how precise that the throttle is. This was the first fuel injected motorcycle that I have ridden and it took me a little to get used to how precise you needed to be on the throttle. Before he took off he told me to twist the throttle and get a feel for the power of the bike. Once underway I was impressed with how immediate that the steering was on the bike and how easily it moved from side to side. I took it easy around a traffic circle and noticed that you couldn't see anything in the mirrors, but then again with that much power on tap you really only had to look way far ahead of you :) I stopped at a light and when it went green I rolled into the throttle and snicked it into 2nd and whacked open the throttle and was rewarded with a burst of speed. Before long I was back at the shop and left with a feeling that I would like to taste the throttle on that bike some more on some less traveled roads farther away from the police.
Friday was also pretty good because I have a prospective buyer for the zx6, which takes a load off my mind about coming up with a way to pay for the zx11 I've mentioned before. I'll find out soon if they are interested(a guy that started last week wants a bike for his wife to ride). It's kind of hard to think of the bike that gave me almost 15k miles of enjoyment as a perfect starter bike for a female, but in reality it is well suited to that task. The seating height is low enough so that she won't be tippy toeing at traffic lights, the power is located in the upper rpm range with a rider friendly midrange that doesn't hold any surprises. One of the things that I liked about the bike the most was that it doesn't do anything to shake your confidence no matter how close to the limit that you are.
Of course today the weather is really cold (the usual cny weather for this time of year)....right now it's 9 degrees outside which makes the 60 degrees that it was on friday seem like a distant memory. I am hoping the spring gets here fairly early so that I can get more riding in this season before winter comes back to ruin the fun. Last season I only got a few hundred miles in because of my back problems which I hopefully can keep at bay this season. To make the longing a little more urgent I picked up a copy of Leanings at Barnes and Noble friday night. I love Peter Egan's articles and he is the reason that I subscribe to Cycle World. I'm almost halfway through the book already and will probably be 2/3 done by later tonight.
Come on spring I wanna ride darnit :)
posted by Squidley63 at 4:46 PM
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