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Saturday, November 8, 2014

Ride Your Own Ride

Well I want to go back a bit into learning to ride the motorcycle. I recently was talking to a friend who is considering learning to ride on her own. She ask me if it was easy. I told her no it wasn't easy. Her husband said, " Oh don't tell her that". He obviously wants her to learn but thought my comment would scare her off.
Personally I think not having someone explain what you are getting into and letting them find out the hard way will scare them off. I have watched quite a few women get on the bike and try to just take off only to have the result of never wanting near the thing again. So I am going to try to relate some of my experiences so that women reading this might avoid the pitfalls and learn to ride successfully. Then they can ride and enjoy the experience as much as I do now.
     First, I was given some great advice by a dear friend, Bob. He told me to ride my own ride. Meaning not to allow someone to push me to ride beyond my abilities. I experienced being pushed beyond my abilities in trying to keep up with some friends that we were riding with before I started to ride on my own.  I want to express that they are all wonderful people and never wanted me to feel the way I did, but they rode way beyond my abilities at the time.
     I would try to keep up and simply could not. I felt they were annoyed with having to slow down and wait for me which made me feel bad for holding them up. It also caused consternation with Joe as he was pushing me to keep up also. They would race through the turns in total unison and look great. I was struggling to keep up. They would stop and wait for us to catch up and when we arrived, they would take off completely ready to go. I on the other hand became exhausted and finally just stopped somewhere and got off. I became both physically and mentally fatigued, which is just plain dangerous. When we arrived at the destination, I would get the knowing looks, like I was handicapped or something. All of this made me simply want to quit.
     Joe at this point recognized that I was not ready to ride with this group of friends. We tried it a few times with not so good outcomes. So he just said we were going to ride on our own. We started by riding around locally on the back-roads every weekend. I was the one pushing to ride now, because I was afraid I would forget how. Joe was good with this and thought it was funny that he wasn't the one suggesting riding. Then we did a ride to Phoenix and Tucson. We did a ride to Yuma. Then we did a ride to Prescott, Ariz with another couple. Each mile and each ride took me a little farther into understanding the bike and how to handle it. I learned the feel of the turns and how to get the power I needed to pull around the turns. I learned when to downshift and where to place the bike in the turn. My confidence grew and I developed experience and the muscle memory to operate the bike, so that I could focus on what was around me.
     I am extremely lucky in that Joe is an excellent Teacher. He has great patience and took the time to talk to me about the experience of each ride. He listened as I told him what I was having trouble with and gave me tips on how to improve.
    Taking this time to develop skills was necessary to my safety and to the safety of those around me. Nothing is scarier than watching a pack of bikes from the rear and see that most of them have no business riding in a group. Riding in a group takes mad skill and is not the place to cut your teeth on the motorcycle.
     Well several months ago we went on a ride with some of the friends that I had struggled to keep up with in the beginning. We started out the ride with me following Joe. We stopped at the top of the mountain and when we left I took off in front of Joe. I was able to easily keep up and match the precision of entering each turn. I did it with ease and the ride was a blast. We got to a point where the traffic had come to a halt and the only option was to split lanes. I had never done this, but I knew I could confidently put Betsy wherever I needed her to be. I simply fell in line and splitting lanes was relatively easy. I pulled up at a stop beside Joe and told him that I could keep up! I think he was a little hurt when I pulled out in front of him, but when I said that he got it. He understood that this was a major accomplishment for me and that his major work was done.
 I enjoy riding with a small group now, it is safer in traffic as a group of bikes is more visible than one bike by itself. However if the people you are riding with are unskilled the situation can be extremely dangerous. It is far more important to be alive and whole than to look cool. Don't let someone push you beyond your abilities. Make sure you ride your own ride!

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