Mileage

It's been five months to the day I brought home my beloved Buddy (Pumpkin Queen) scooter. Since then, I've gotten my M class endorsement on my license (OMG, I can ride a motorcycle! ME!), taken the excellent motorcycle class, and put on this many miles:

I've gotten over my fear of being blown backwards off the bike, obtained REAL riding gear so I am good and safe, and learned to navigate some of the Richmond traffic, especially in the suburbs.

I was reflecting the other day just how much less scary this riding thing is....it used to really terrify me to commute to my office, because of a couple of divided highways that ended up being faster than the posted speed limit. Over the past five months, though, I have learned to handle more speed, and now I feel pretty confident about my bike at 55 and 60mph. Of course, I don't ride that fast all the time, nor do I want to, at this point. But, I know I can handle it, and I feel good about keeping up with traffic.

I am not over-confident, however.

A couple of near-misses have definitely encouraged my healthy respect for traffic and other vehicles, and have definitely solidified my view that pretty much everyone else might be trying to kill me. It's amazing how distracted people can be when they are all hunkered down in their great big SUV's, chatting away on the phone.

So, yay for me. :)

And in further proof that this house is full of scooter fanatics, I give you this evidence:

Scooter/scooter


Little scooters

Have a terrific day! And if it's nice out, go for a scooter ride!

Almost...

Had my first near miss today on the way to work. Ack.

I was going up the divided highway, riding in the right lane, doing the speed limit (45mph), and here comes some guy from the other side of the highway. He was crossing through the median, turning left across the road to go in the direction I was going, and instead of turning and staying in the left lane and then moving over to the right, he turned directly into the right lane. Guess where I was? Yep. Right lane. I was trying like hell to stay out of his blind spot, but apparently either I was already there, or he just plain didn’t see me. Either way, next thing I know I am in the sand and crud on the shoulder, trying to steer, stay upright and honk the horn at him. He was close enough to me that I could have reached out and kicked his rear quarter panel at one point, before he finally saw me and moved over. Then, of course, he took off.

I was strangely (for me) not even shaken up, or upset, except that I was PISSED. It was all I could do not to chase him down and ask him exactly what the hell he was doing. There’s a four-way stop a little farther up the road, and I was hoping I could catch up to him. I didn’t. He was pretty good at staying well ahead of me, which was fine. I certainly didn’t need to be getting into anything with any drivers, but I sure thought about it.

The good news is that now I know my bike does 60, and I can ride it when it does.

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!