Saturday, May 6, 2017

First ride

Sunday after a function we had at the hall I couldn't wait any longer. So I put on my full knights armour, got the bike out and off we went. First mini-challenge, drive a heavy bike you've never really ridden before down a washed out driveway. I was so nervous and tense my adrenaline shot up with every small slip of the tires. Stupid really. I had to force myself to relax. That was the situation for most of the ride anyway. "Relax!" The first curve, "Am I too fast? Whoa does she lean too far into the turn.Am I too fast/slow? Coming too far to the road shoulder..... just relax!"

It took about 20 km for me to settle down and enjoy the ride. I went up north, through Kaitaia, Awanui, Waipapakauri to Waihara. There I turned around and went back. My nerves settled and the grin got wider. Overtaking slow cars? Whooohooo. Flying past. This is great. I got a feel for the curves and bends. Just before Awanui on my way back AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH a warning light on the dash. What now? Oh, oops, low on petrol. This shows how nervous I was.

Turned into BP station in Awanui, filled her up, felt great to walk into the shop as a "biker". Paid for the petrol, hopped on the bike and after the attendant brought me my key I left inside and after I figured out that a bike doesn't start if the kill switch is turned to off I was on my way again.

Back home (up the driveway wasn't as bad as down the driveway) I felt really good.

Next task: sort out a way to attach my action cam to the bike and to do some videos when riding.

Sunday, April 30, 2017

The Beginning or "Midlifecrisis? What Crisis?"

So here I am, owner of a motorcycle. How did this happen? Well, changes mainly. Lots of changes in my life. Good, bad, all of the above. It's called life. Is it midlife crisis? I don't know, Don't care.

It took me some 2 - 3 months to make up my mind, gather enough courage, buy the riding gear and be ready for the big step. And it became a big step i.e. a big bike. I came to a crossing on the road to bike ownership where I had to make the choice between reason and what some might call unreason. between a light bike and a heavy one. Between 40 HP and 100HP. Between 650CC, 800CC and 1200CC. Unreason won. I felt I am too old to be reasonable all the time.If that makes any sense at all.

I bought a 2005 BMW R1200GS. 1st of May 2017 was the day for pick up.

I was so excited that I stuffed up the ties of the bike onto the trailer. Drove out of the driveway of the seller and the bike shook and the ties came off. Shit! If that would have happened when on the road ..... don't really want to think about it but I did think about it a lot. A 200kg bike falling off a trailer. Right! Cool! No!
The rest of the trip was uneventful, I unloaded the bike myself, another unreasonable activity but all went well. That was on a Monday and I didn't have time to go out on it until Sunday. So there was a lot of petting, stroking the seat and sitting on it in the garage,