Joy! And a kick-ass jacket

I finally, FINALLY got to take the Buddy out today. It was a bit of an effort, pushing it out of the garage by the people-door (the big door does not open) and through the four or so inches of ice/slush/snow/crap that remains in the shady part of my driveway. Ugh. I never thought the bike was heavy until I shoved it through the snow. But today was *almost* 50degF and it was sunny and gorgeous, and, well, okay...REALLY windy....but I just had to go for a ride. Why?

'Cause I got my new jacket!!


No more wearing my husband's way too big parka and having it balloon out around me while I am zipping down the road. No more wearing a zillion layers underneath it to stave off the cold wind whistling down my neck and through the zippers.

This is my jacket, the Rev'It 'Siren', in black. I love love love this jacket! It is probably one of the most expensive articles of clothing I have ever bought....actually, it IS the most expensive article of clothing I have ever bought, but OMG, so totally worth it. I am still getting used to the very close fit, especially in the shoulders, but it's comfortable and so VERY WARM. It's so warm and so comfortable to wear that I think I am going to have to look for some pants, too, for the winter, because from the thighs down, I was frozen. Ah, well, such is winter.

I also have to work on figuring out all the pockets and zippers and attachments and such. There are a ton of zips on this thing, and it took me a few minutes to actually get myself all fastened into it. Once I was riding, though, it was fantastic.

The ride today was fun. I rode to the Starbuck's near my house for a latte, and to test out my riding skills, since it's been at least two weeks since I got on the bike. Later on, I rode to work and back, which was a total blast. I am very much looking forward to spring. It will be so nice to be able to take one of the liners out of the jacket, and to arrive at my destination without my thighs being cold. It's almost March, so spring is definitely on the way. As much as I love snow and winter weather, I've had enough.

(and yes, I know I should be wearing boots in the above picture....I usually do, this time I admit I forgot.)

Scooter Commute!

I usually go into my office on Wednesday mornings for a couple of hours, and since I have a brand-spanking-new scooter and a brand-spanking-new M class endorsement, I figured that today would be a GREAT day to ride into work on my Buddy! It was cold, sure, but it's winter! It's always cold! Plus, it was actually much warmer and less windy than it has been...all the better to ride in, right?

After I dropped the little kids off at preschool, I drove back to my house, got into my riding boots and parka, gathered up my purse (and camera!) and got the scoot out of the garage. Here we go....





The route to Workplace is along roads that max out at 45mph speed limits. One of the roads is a multiple lane, divided highway (with a 45mph speed limit). The whole trip is about 7.5 miles, and usually takes me about 10 minutes in my car. I was really excited about doing this, even though it was really cold. Once I got my Buddy out of the garage and started it up, I started getting nervous.

Getting out of my neighborhood was no problem. I felt fairly confident taking off into very light traffic on the main roads, and I kept up with traffic. Once I got to the multiple-lane road, though, I was starting to worry about whether I was going fast enough. My speedometer registered 50mph and I stayed in the right lane the whole way, but man! It was a bit unnerving going that fast, in traffic, with only the handlebars to hold on to! Plus, the wind made it really difficult, and every time I went over an imperfection in the pavement, I got nervous about crashing. In fact, all I could think about, besides riding the scooter, was crashing. How bad would it be to hit the ground at 45mph? I'm wearing my helmet...how bad could it be?

My mind was going a zillion miles a minute, too.

Man, this trip is taking a lot longer than it does in my car....I had no idea seven and a half miles was so SO far...it is really windy out...and cold...I better remember to call Travis when I get to work so he doesn't worry...

But I made it to work in one piece, not frozen solid, and without mishap or other negative incident. Hooray!

There was even a parking space right in front of the building, just waiting for my cute scooter!



I showed it off to a friend who has her desk right next to this window, and then I showed my boss and a couple of other people I work with. They all thought it was terribly cute, and totally me, and also I was a bit nuts for riding in this cold. :)

I worked for a little while, then rode home. The trip home was a bit warmer, and I felt pretty decent about the riding, although I think I am getting really tense because my wrists and hands were killing me by the time I got home.

Having gotten this out of my system, I don't think I will ride the scooter to work again until it gets a little bit warmer. For now, I think I will practice ride around the neighborhood and take short trips to the store and for coffee and stuff.

The bottom line, though, is I DID IT! And it was awesome!

Still thawing out -- MSF Day 2

Okay, so when we last left our Intrepid Heroine (that's me), I was practically frozen to the core. The second day of the class, Sunday, was at least as cold as Saturday. The temp was 24F when I left my house, with 10-15mph winds.

My cold-combatting strategy was multi-fold: I prepared a LARGE travel mug of coffee to take with me, attired myself in multiple layers of clothing (more on that in a minute), and pulled out some of my medieval stockings to wear under my boots. I also located a pair of vinyl exam gloves, a hat, and extra socks. HaHA! Take THAT, Winter! I was going to be warm!

Riiight.

At any rate, on Saturday night I ended up getting up during the night with my two year old son, who needed a complete change of clothing and bedding. I was tired when I went to bed, and tired when I got up, so coffee was a necessity.

Because we had to finish day 1 a little early due to the setting sun, it was decided that class would start as soon as all nine students arrived in the morning. I swear, I tried to get out of the house so I could get there a half an hour early, but I just couldn't manage it. I hate to be late, and hate for people to have to wait on me, so I was slightly mortified to find that I was the last to arrive. As per my instructor's usual demeanor, it was no big deal. At least that was a positive.

We went through the material for the morning, then took the written test. Fifty multiple choice questions ended up not being as difficult as I had thought it might be. Thankfully, I am a good student and test-taker. I wasn't reeeeally worried about the written test, but I did want to take that test in a hurry and get it over with. I was the first one done, and I scored a 100%! Rock!

At lunch, I finished putting on all the clothes and gear I was going to wear on the range. In case you are curious, this is what I wore, from the skin out:

my usual underwear
a pair of cotton-lycra bike shorts
a thermal longsleeve shirt
a cotton tshirt
heavy jeans
a pair of midweight socks
a longsleeve turtleneck
a wool sweater
a fleece neck gaiter
vinyl gloves
winter motorcycling gloves
my husband's goose down parka (size: very large)
my mother's black leather combat boots (no lie, they really were my mom's)
and my full-face motorcycle helmet

THIS time, I was warm. The vinyl gloves made a HUGE difference; my fingers still got cold, but not as much as the first day.

Ok, so out on the driving range....we had the same bikes as the previous day, which was good in that we were familiar with them. The exercises consisted of a lot of turning and stopping: riding down a straight path, then stopping as fast as possible without locking up the brakes, riding in S-curves, riding over small obstacles, etc.

There was also the bane of my existence: U-turning in a confined area. Argh. I totally sucked at this. I could not control my speed, and my brain could NOT get into the groove of using my clutch to control speed and NOT the throttle. I hated it, and I knew it was on the skills test. The worst was knowing I could TOTALLY do it if I were on my scooter.

We also practiced swerving to avoid obstacles, which was a total blast! I liked the one exercise where the instructor would wait til the last minute to tell you which way to swerve. I nailed those.

After a while, it was time for the skills test. Yikes!

There are four skills or items on the test: a quick stop, swerving to avoid an obstacle, riding a curve with consistent speed, and the dreaded U-turn in a confined space.

First up was a combination skill -- ride into the U-turn box, make a figure eight and ride out, speed up into second gear and swerve to avoid the 'bus'. Then stop. Piece of cake, right? Holy cow. I sucked at the U-turning. I sucked so hard at it that I almost stalled, I put my foot down at least twice, and I went outside the box lines at least twice. Eight points off for that mess.

The worst about that was I made the mistake of watching one of the people before me, a woman who was having a hard time in the class anyway. She started her figure eight and dropped the bike and fell under it. She was done, and now I was nervous.

Next was the quick stop. I totally nailed that, stopping really well using BOTH brakes AND getting all the way down to first gear before stopping. They did say I should have stopped a little sooner, though, so I lost a point there.

Three-quarters of the way through now....last skill was riding a curve. I used all my competitive horseback riding skills for this one and it paid off -- a beautiful curve and only one point off for slowing a bit during the height of the curve.

The bottom line, though, after all the bikes were parked and most of the gear was off, was this:



I PASSED!!!

They gave me my Virginia class M designation and a MSF competion card. Now I get to take it to the DMV and get my license updated!

I am so thrilled! I can ride a motorcycle!

Now, as much as I love winter, I really would like it to be just a little warmer, pleeeeease, so I can ride my scooter without a ton of clothing!

Oh. My. GOD. It was ccccccold.

So, this being one of the very few free weekends I had available, I opted to take my MSF course and get my M class endorsement this weekend. It's January, and while I do not live waaay north, my area is subject to some pretty cold temps now and again. Like now. And again.

Saturday morning, Day 1 of the class, dawned frigid and WINDY. I think the actual temp was about 31F, but 20mph+ sustained winds put the windchill around 19F or less. Holy icicles, Batman! I was wearing what I thought were enough clothes, but my late afternoon on the driving range, my toes and fingers were numb and I was approaching miserable. Couple that with my inexperience with manual transmission vehicles, and the quirkiness of a motorcycle's controls (both brakes on one side, the shift lever having to be moved up to change gears, etc.), and I was having a rough go of it. I was discouraged, and although my instructors were awesome and encouraging (and I was definitely not the worst in the group), I was still feeling like I'd never get this. By the end of the day, though, we had moved on to an exercise involving riding around the range in a big oval, shifting gears according to the number of cones placed around the oval, and I was having a good time and feeling FINE about it all.

Except for the frozen extremities.

By the time the class was over for the day, my feet hurt terribly. I managed to get home and into the hottest shower I could stand. I think it took me like three hours, the shower, a creme brulee latte and an episode of Doctor Who before I felt like I was warm. I was exhausted, intended to study my course book, but collapsed into bed instead. Day 2 was on the horizon, with temps at least as low as Day 1.

This time, though, I had a strategy.

More later....