[owlie]

I have to admit that I never quite saw the attraction of loading down a bicycle with a week’s worth of camping gear, though I have a handful of coworkers that think it is a great time… Oh, wait, I never quite figured out camping as a good time!

Congrats on the new GSX and welcome to the group.

[owlie]

Congrats on the bike and welcome to the group!

Post up a pic, we can’t properly oohh and ahh without pictures.

[owlie]

Welcome to the group!

There are a couple of members in the Seattle area. They were swapping favorite rides a week or two back, but other than up around Snoqualmie Falls, I don’t remember any of the details.

[owlie]

Unfortunately, the S40 doesn’t come with ABS, but since you have some experience riding, it probably wouldn’t be a bad bike to come back into riding with. I think generally, you only see ABS on the larger/more expensive bikes.

[owlie]

ah well, with the women’s pants, they seem to think that larger sizes mean longer legs. Even the XXLs don’t have enough room in the hips and waist. I might be on the bigger size of things, but generally an XL works fine in real clothes. I have researching them as one of my winter projects…

[owlie]

Hello!

I have to second Etermal & Eon’s advice to take the MSF first. But you’ll do what you want to do there in the end.

Protective gear is for when you crash, not when you ride. Any get off at more than 10mph or so is going to shred tee-shirts, khakis, and skin, so even if you don’t get the whole kit and kaboodle, you should at least wear jeans and a denim or leather jacket whenever you are riding in addition to helmet, boots, and gloves.

Personally, I didn’t get a good jacket until I’d had my bike a couple of weeks, and I still haven’t found pants that I’m willing to try out…

[owlie]

Funny you say that…

I took the inspiration from this thread and went to check out one of the local BJJ schools. Its been around for a few years, but I had never been in to see it. I was impressed. They guys that run it are technically focused and appear to manage the newer students pretty carefully (ie the meatheads were only paired with experienced partners and were consistently instructed to work on technique rather than trying to bash their way out). The students who had obviously been there a while were in for the fun of it, and the testosterone level was quite reasonable. They do have MMA, but it is taught separately from the grappling (yay!). I am thinking about going to play next week (they said I can watch again, but it was hard enough to not just jump in the first time around…).

On being a woman, didn’t the reference to homemade chocolate chip cookies give you a hint?

[owlie]

Okay, so I finally got a chance to watch the video, and so I can actually comment instead of thread-jack.

The top five was priceless. I dragged my husband to a local gun show last weekend, and he asked me if I was going to pick up something. I told him that I would only if I could find one of those small lady’s guns with engraving and bling. Then to have you bring up the engraved revolvers, it was perfect. I do have to disagree with your compatriot that the knife on the boot is a gentleman’s weapon, in the boot, perhaps, but otherwise, it is just fighting dirty…

[owlie]

Just because you aren’t planning to buy new doesn’t mean you can’t visit the dealerships and get an idea of what you are looking for. It will also make it easier when it comes to talking to private parties because you aren’t going to call every Tom, Dick, & Harry only to discover that you really don’t like the particular bike. Just because you sit on a bike or say hi to a salesperson doesn’t mean you have to buy a bike from him.

[owlie]

I picked it up while I was in college, but dropped it the last two years because the football team found out the group. I had a group here in Alaska, but as things sometimes happen, it dissolved as people move on.

My own semi-funny story- The guy that led the group at OSU when I was there was Brazilian, but he didn’t pick up the sport until he came to the US- and in the backwards college town of Stillwater, OK at that..

[owlie]

Wow. I didn’t see that coming. I wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. You would have thought they wouldn’t have done what the did to the Blast if they were considering this…

[owlie]

You guys have heard about the first two times that I dropped my bike. And, although I spent alot of time thinking about whether I was doing something stupid after the second drop, it didn’t shake my confidence up.

It was the third drop that really killed me. And every time I pull out of my driveway, I have to face it. In all honesty, if it hadn’t been for a specific set of circumstances that occured that day, I would have taken my bike back to the garage and never gotten on it again.

It sounds like you are doing what you need to be doing though. For me, it was alot of time doing hill starts and slow races. Even now, before I ride on down the road, I do about 20ft of slow race and 3-4 hill starts before I leave my driveway. But at the top of the drive, I still feel trepedation about pulling out.

Take your time, and everything will come together as it should.

[owlie]

Honestly, if it has been 20 years since you’ve ridden, I would suggest two things:

1) take the MSF course. It’ll give you a chance to remember all the things that you’ve forgotten about riding, and maybe teach you some new things.
2) go to the dealerships and sit on some bikes. One of the things that I did was plant my feet and rock the bike side to side under me. It gave me a feeling of where the center of gravity was and helped me decide of the bike was too heavy to feel comfortable starting with.

[owlie]

Okay, I’ve been on this board for roughly six months now, and I’m just now finding out about the BJJ enthusiasts!

I could wax eloquent about how much I love to roll, but it would probably bore you all to tears. It has been about five years since I had a group to train with, and I really miss it. I miss listening to my breathing as I figure out how to leverage my opponents weight. I miss those fantastic moments when you realize that, no you aren’t going to get the choke, but hey that arm bar is totally there. I even miss the feel of elbows digging into my thighs to break my guard.

For me, the hardest part (well, other than being a workaholic) is that I have to find a group that I trust. I tend to find one of two things: 1) guys that want to recreate the UFC every friday night and 2) guys that won’t challenge me because I’m a woman.

I passed the last of the CFA exams (which consumed three years of my life). I think maybe it is time to look around and see if the local landscape has improved…

[owlie]

Fantastic! I like seeing lots of zeros after the first digit.

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