Took it out for my first spin tonight!!!!

[Mickey_D100]

           

It was short, maybe twenty to thirty minutes . . . but oh, what fun!  I was able to get things working again this afternoon (clean battery terminals are gooooood), but then had to leave as soon as I got it started.  I got home around 10, 10:15, and had been thinking all the way home about whether I should take it out.  I decided that I was going to get suited up and putt around the block and see how I felt.  If things were clicking and feeling comfortable, then I'd go from there.  

I came home, and she needed some choke to get going.  CT told me when he sold me the bike that the GS is notorious for needing several minutes of choke-on warm up, and it did.  The rumble of the kerker exhaust was music to my ears as I sat there and waited for blast off.  I did some of the MSF intro to bikes activities, like walking the bike using the clutch to get a feel for it, real slow starts and stops, feathering the clutch, trying to really familiarize myself with the bike.  I decided to take it out and down the block once she was all warmed up and purring nicely.

I made my first turn and accelerated up to third gear smoothly.  During the MSF I had some problems riding with my head down and looking at the gauges, my hands, the ground, the bike, whatever.  Tonight I felt great, heads up, extremely alert, eyes scanning everywhere, and very aware of things going on around me, while not fixating on anything.  Things felt very smooth so I decided to push a little further from my block.  The great thing about my neighborhood is it's all residential, with an outer loop around it with a limit of 45 - pefect for some traffic-free cruising at a rate faster than I ever got in that parking lot.  There are a few big ol' sweepers around and I took them NICE and slow, concentrating on looking through the turns and rolling on the throttle smoothly throughout.  

All in all I probably rode for maybe ten miles, with virtually NO traffic either with me or against me.  The sound of the wind, the feel of the bike, the smooth lean during a turn, I'm hooked!  I've seriously been thinking for the last hour about throwing all my gear back on and going out for another half hour.    But I'm gonna call it a night and count on the fact that there are MANY more days to come of this action.  

Thanks again for everyone's helpful responses with my starting problems, and I'm glad I found this place!

[pandy]

Sounds like a GREAT first start!! You're going about it in completely the right way, both mentally and physically, and you can be VERY proud of yourself for that!!!!!!!

If you ever want to go for a spin, let me know! I usually get home from work at about 6PM (I think you're in San Jose, too?). I think that brings the San Jose GS club up to three members now??

Congratz again, and happy riding!!!!    

pandy   :mrgreen:

[leo]