To: nedod@linus.mitre.org Subject: a sunday ride Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 16:06:07 -0400 From: gayathri SO its beena hectic few weeks, with no chance to ride at all on the weekends, since I've been out of town, or work calls, or whatever. So saturday was spent doing Motorcycle Things, like going down to Z Leathers with Steve and Tamara and checking out their leathers. Steve ended up ordering a set of race leathers (fairly inexpensive for a custom suit, ~1100$ all told) and Tamara and I helped him pick the colours. (Black, Gray, Royal purple (aka indigo), yellow and white) I'm not happy with the armour that comes with it - my soft armour 'feels' better in my vanson jacket, and the hard armour in the Hein Gericke feels like it covers more - does anyone have pointers to any articles or web pages with armour comparisons? After going to Z, we ended up at Chaparall to check out helmets for the gdgf, and a birhtday present for Tamara (a helmet). We found Dianese backplate suit with rib, collarbone, back and tailbone pretection, that fit better and seemed to cover more, to put into the Z... I finally picked up the license plate for my bike - Z Custom is near South Bay Triumph, and ran into Maverick, the sales guy - he'd recently gotten into an accident that wrecked his t595 - it had landed upside down in a ditch 50 feet from the top of the road, still running. So now that its being fixed with some kind of turbo-charger thingie (that's an official engineering term) that will give it a mere 311 hp. now I dont know if that's at the crank or the rear wheel... um. dood, can I ride that sucker when its done?!? Then we go to Chaparall - why is it their prices in the store are so much more then their catalog? Its stupid. And the salesdriods... We found helmets for both at Chaparrall, tho they didnt have small whites *salesdroid - we have medium whites* *me - so my head just got bigger while we talked?!?* Sunday, I must ride. I'm so cranky, I don't even want to talk to my friends. I just get up, eat somethine quick and get ready to go. I'm leading today, and it all feels good. I pick up my own internal pace a little - and it doesnt feel stressful. We're almost up to Newcomb's Ranch, when I come around a corner and a biker comes by frantically waving to slow down. I drop it down immediately to about 45 mph, and come around the long corner to a straight to see a mass of cages and bikes ahead, and a large helicopter in the road. The helicopter carries the rescue staff for any cage or bike accidents on the Angeles Crest - usually they are called when its bad. But its a STRAIGHT?!? I fear a cage has clipped a bicyclist and then run the bicyclist over. Not really wanting to see anymore, I turn our little gang around and head back to the palmdale turn off and take the long 'way to breakfast. (we find out later, a motorcyclist had blown past a number of sportriders at a high rate of speed and essentially carrommed off the cliff wall, totalling himself and the bike). Parts of this road have been re-paved recently, and I'd like to get my hands on them - I dont think its cured well, since my tires feel like they are on glass. (whee! I like slippin' round the curves! *NOT!*) I get passed by two t595's in gold yellow, and can see Steve (who I let pass me a while ago), looking a little confused, until they pass him. hrm, maybe my tires are low, they dont seem to be slowing down with the slippery road... nope, they are just squids. The funny thing is, that even tho I know I'm going faster then normal for me, and that I'm being really active about body steering the bike and really really thinking about what I'm doing, I recall something Catness had said a year or so ago about folks who comment that they were riding their best ever just before they crashed. I think she said, "Maybe that ought to tell you something." and it does - i don't want to get too cocky - see, I no longer have 'oh shit' moments on the bike anymore. Most of the times, its an "Oh, that shoulda been an oh shit moment" when I automatcially compensate for the stupid things that happen on the freeway everyday. Even on these roads - bike passing me out of nowhere doesn't happen all that often, and even when they do, I'm not nearly as rattled as I used to be. Bikes and cages on the wrong side of the road when I'm riding don't bother me much either, until afterwards, when I realize I've already compensated. I feel as if I'm seeing further down the road and that's a good feeling. But the fact is I don't trust these moments, and am still trying to find ways of seeing further down the road, thinking about 'can I stop right NOW if I had to?' No wonder my brain hurts... I think its about time I took a racetrack class, which is why I'm seeing about getting the ascot together... the fact is, on a recent ride where last year I was almost in tears because it was so difficult, this time, it was 'fun!'. This weekend also saw me try taking a passenger for the first time. Hey. its not as bad as I thgouth. :) ok, it helps to have a good passenger... Gayathri