[Clay Dowling]

Now I get all kinds of scary biker chicks with dragon tattoos, hair permed and bleached to within an inch of its life and a three pack a day menthol habit. But that’s okay, because now none of the guys with the Harleys will mess with me, since my woman cut the last one.

[Clay Dowling]

That bike is just too much for a beginner. Get something cheap and used for now, and when you’ve put in a few thousand miles on that, get the CBR. When you think you’re ready to make the switch, I recommend going to a race school and getting some training there with your old bike. Then go buy the new fast bike.

[Clay Dowling]

As long as you get some training, which you’ll need to bring the bike on base, I have to think that the risks from a bike are a lot lower than on your day job. You should check to see if the classes are offered right on base, might make things easier for you all around.

[Clay Dowling]

I was driving through Indian (Michigan to St. Louis), and I think I saw two helmets in the entire state. The roads were full of Harley’s (clearly, those Hondas imported from Ohio were not welcome), and there seemed to be a moral imperative to wear as little protective gear as possible.

[Clay Dowling]

That’s the description I wanted for it. I never knew what it was called, but I know I want to learn how to do it. My daily ride has an excess of straightness, but there are a couple of nice curves near my house where braking in a curve can be life-savers.

[Clay Dowling]

voids some life-insurance policies. It’s a beautiful bike, but Honda makes their sport bikes for racing, not for beginners to look cool. Get some serious mileage on a bike before you grab a Honda sport. I have a couple thousand miles under me at this point and don’t really consider myself ready.

[Clay Dowling]

We had a bang-up weekend for motorcycle related deaths around me too. Someone was killed on the road I take to work when a mini-van made an unscheduled left into a gas station and cut off a motorcycle. A pedestrian failed to notice the large, loud machine bearing down on him and was killed by a motorcycle (look out for pedestrians, they’re at least as dumb as cagers). And one kid riding near my old apartment was hospitalized after he fell off his bike and into traffic.

There were sport bikes zipping up and down the main road by my house all weekend, and I don’t think I saw too many of the riders wearing anything more than a helmet. If that continues all summer, I expect we’ll see a death or two out there. They’re apparently not aware of the cop-shop just up the road from my house, or the river which provides a steady flow of wildlife up and over the road.

[Clay Dowling]

Is actually awesome. Good exercise, lots of fun if you look for the fun in it. Get yourself a cheap road bike and you can go pretty fast, which is definitely enjoyable. And will give you practice in countersteering.

[Clay Dowling]

Haven’t been caught in the rain yet, but obviously there’s no issues with heavy nylon shrinking in the rain. But there will be heat and lots of it. When the temperature is in the 30’s or 40’s, I zip in the rain liners and I stay warm.

[Clay Dowling]

That has been the traditional solution for wet leather. Your body will act as the form, and you wind up with leather that fits you better than ever before.

There are also waterproofing treatments you can buy for leather, and they come highly recommended. They need to be reapplied periodically, probably every six months to a year. They do work though.

[Clay Dowling]

Well, expect I have the same problem that briderdt does: the top end on my bike is way beyond what I’m comfortable doing. Maybe if I had a track or a long stretch of closed highway, and a racing suit.

[Clay Dowling]

In MSF class we did the cone weave for fun, kind of a way to relax between exercises. But with that Valkyrie it looks more nerve-wracking than fun. Now I’ve got to go out and practice it on my bike, just to see if I can still do it. And set up a u-turn box and a tight turn box. I don’t remember the tight turns being particularly hard, but in that video it felt like trying to stuff an elephant into a phone booth.

[Clay Dowling]

Just looked that bike up. Pretty cool stuff. If I could find one of those on the other side of the border it might be fun to bring back.

There’s a CBR125 as well. You’d get killed on a Michigan highway with that bike; way too small and the top end is around 65mph, well under the average speed on a highway.

[Clay Dowling]

I hit my first bug swarm last night. As i was coming up to an intersection I noticed a lot of black dots hanging in the air, about 20 feet out. Since I was doing 40 at the time, that was just before I heard the smack of a dozen or two decent sized bugs all hitting my windshield at once.

I’m looking forward to the june bug hatch, because I understand they swarm too. That’s when I might be rethinking that textile jacket….

[Clay Dowling]

Everybody knows that red bikes are faster.

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