[briderdt]

It’s a little cold out, but since the weather is nice, and it was light enough (still not fully licensed to ride at night), I decided to ride the motorcycle to work today. A little nervous? Sure. Kept the speed at the speed limit or a little less (probably to the disdain of the few other cars on the road). Fortunately my commute is all on back roads, with one straight shot at 45 mph. Only two moments when the back end wanted to squirm a little — once on a tar snake and once on some paint. Both times my fault for riding over it. Glasses (clear safety glasses) wanted to fog some when I brought the visor down, so I kept it mostly up and my cheeks got a little cold. Not a big deal since I’m used to bike riding in this kind of weather with nothing at all on my face. That and my fingers got a little cold, but never so much that I felt I couldn’t do whatever I needed to do.

Oh, and I have a 17 mile round trip… Can’t wait for the 8.5 miles home. So far this is the fastest and longest trip. Lame? Probably. But then again I’ve only had the bike for, what, 3 weeks? And I’ll be taking the MSF course in 2 weeks.

[briderdt]

…so as to avoid having to cross an extra lane to make a left-hander. I’ve got the Hot Bodies undertail, and the rear blinkers are virtually invisible in daylight. I have some LED strips that I’ll be adding to the bike in the next couple days to address the lack of blinker capacity.

[Sangria7]

I love taking my bike for my 70 mile roundt trip commute….even today when it was like low 40s. My hands were freezing cause with wind chill it was more like mid 30s.

I envy those with short commutes…and its not lame..cause I wish mine was that short

I didnt use my bike until I completed my MSF course, as there was so much to learn from it.

[ScottyJ]

Be careful!

[Jim]

My commute is about 5 miles…so lucky there but I have to go home at lunch time everyday to take my pup out, so I do it 4 time a day. Been keeping up the riding even though it is in the 30’s here in the morning. Thank god for overpants!!

[briderdt]

…was less eventful, and more eventful. I was more comfortable with the speed on the way home (guess that cherry was popped on the way IN to work). But I did notice one particular corner that gave me trouble…

It was a downhill S-turn coming into a stop light. So I’m trying to keep my eyes on a lot of things. There’s a right turn lane, two lanes that go straight through the intersection, and left turn lanes. I’m in the right lane that goes straight through the intersection. The first left-sweeper goes well, but it’s the sharper right-hander that was giving me trouble. And it illustrates the LOOK-lean-go. I found myself drifting out on the turn because I was worried about having to brake for the light in the turn (so I wasn’t leaning, I was trying to steer it). And as I started drifting I was locking on the lane line (target fixation). Bad rider. BAD BAD!!! Anyway, I never crossed the line, and even had I crossed, it wasn’t an oncoming lane, but I know that I need to do two things for the next time (okay, three). One — slow down more so the idea of having to brake for the light isn’t as daunting. Two — LOOK to the curb instead of the lane line, or even the middle of the lane. And three — RELAX!

Otherwise, the only other thing that bugged me was the pickup that was following a bit close on my last 1/4 mile to my house. Guess I shouldn’t be doing the speed limit, eh?

[Sangria7]

Yup – cagers are bad at tailgating when you are doing the speed limit. Part of it is because there is a stygma of motorcycles always speeding….idk

[eon]

There is a great thread over on advrider that talks about how to discourage tailgaters. Consensus seems to be standing up works wonders, along with turning to look at them and waving them back. I like the standing up idea but I have not had a need to try it out yet.
I feel your pain on that light on that corner. There is a tight corner on the way to where I practice my slow maneuvers. Speed limit is 40mph and it would be a great corner if the road was smooth and there wasn’t a light right at the end of it. I keep waiting for it to change when I am leaning over. Hasn’t happened yet…

[Andrew]

Congrats. I haven’t been able to ride in for 2 weeks now due to the cold stuff starting early here in IL.

[Author]

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