First time for everything

[Kscreations08]

I had a lot of first's lately. TL;DR at the bottom

If you haven't heard, I crashed about a week ago. World War 3 hit my house. Baby Mom's wants to sell the bike. I'll be buying another to replace it. She accepts this and has decided that practice is still important, so I'm still riding the ninjete (She still hasn't posted it for sale yet ) Oh well lol. I've been trying to post on here for the last couple of days but work has been crazy. Online Customer Support for Lordandtaylor.com. if you guys are looking for fancy stuffs, I run the live chat feature all night under the name Kevin S. Not much I can do except answer questions for you lol. Anyway, onto the good stuff.

When weather permits, I ride. To and from work, nothing major. I did take an hour long highway ride out to visit family one day, and ended up on an illegal night ride back (permit). Time got away from me. Aside from the legality issue and the fact that this was my first long night ride, it was actually quite comfortable. I had my older brother in his car in front of me the whole time. Oh! And I also had a bunch of other riders wave throughout the day first time for that

Rode to work the other night (nice night). Weather man is predicting rain at 8AM the next morning. No biggie, I get out at 7, home by 7:30. I clock out and head outside to find out the weather man was ****ing wrong! It started at 6. Well... this'll be fun. First impression, this isn't hard. 500 feet later. Whatthehell I can't see a thing. Wiped the visor with my glove at a red light. That worked... once... 200 feet later. Ok. we are gonna put the visor half way up. HOLYSHEEP I'M DROWNING! Put that back down. Ride between the raindrops. That'll work Made it home alive. Looking like I peed but alive.

The next ride, a day later. I was headed out for a morning ride, fresh out of work. At 8AM, I leave my house and decide to head up the mountain. The road up is 2 lanes, 1 direction, usually light traffic. Turns out, in pure Pennsylvania style, nice weather=construction. What I didn't know is that they had happily destroyed the entire road. For about 5 miles, all uphill and winding, I was riding on glorified dirt, gravel, and sand. The construction guys were also nice enough to slow traffic to the point where I was surrounded by cars. It was a beautiful reminder of my accident a week ago lol but there is no way of getting off this road until you get to the top of the mountain. "Ok kid. grit your teeth, pucker your butthole, and cover your brakes. Keep an escape ready at all times and don't accelerate or brake too hard. What's too hard in these conditions? I don't know but we aren't going to find out today." lol Made it to the top with no issues It's a gorgeous day and after the traffic dissipated, it was perfect weather for cruising. Heading into the business section of Mountain Top (actual name for the town), I ended up having to do a pretty quick stop for a rogue red light. It turned yellow with me too far away to justify running it, but too close for a regular calm stop. Regardless, handled like a champ and stop right on the line. As I checked my mirrors, just as my feet hit the ground, a harley boy comes riding up to the left of me. This is my first time next to another biker on the road guys!!! Another biker and I are sitting at the light, together, 2 rebels against the world. Outlaws. Misfits. Lol I was like a giddy school girl. Don't judge. You all remember the feeling. So anyways, we are sitting at the light and he asks me how I'm doing. We proceed to chat while waiting for the green. He compliments my bike. A harley guy... likes... my... bike... I was beside myself. Act cool dude. Act. Cool. Light turns and he pulls out straight. "I'll ride with him" I think to myself, smiling. Slowly released the clutch and rolled throttle and went nowhere... Yep. Turns out I'm in neutral... Dumbass. I turned left lol

TLDR: First time for everything

1. First long night ride. Fun
2. First biker wave. A dozen. Cool
3. First rain ride. Not fun. Not Cool
4. First biker conversation at a red light. Embarrassing

Oh yeah. I also need to tighten my clutch cable. The bike is in my garage right now because the clutch lever is super loose for some reason. Loose enough that it wasn't engaging 100% of the time. Also not cool

[Alex]

/moved to ride reports

[Kscreations08]

Whoops lol Thanks @Alex Never posted in Ride reports before

[justinocean]

Hilarious story man. I've had plenty of moments where it took like 5 times to pop out of neutral, at that point Im waving at people saying "yep Im the dumbass"...
Keep on it and you'll find a group to ride with sooner or later. I found a bunch of midnight partying gear heads who think wheelies are Gods gift to mankind and have gf's that ride with them that never talk or smile. But they're fast.

Yeah just last week I was riding with three other guys coming out of Garfields at the mall. I was feeling all giddy as a schoolgirl and thought I'd show off in front of them by pulling a mean friction zone sharp and fast turn from a standstill. So I ended up missing the angle, overcompensated and basically pulled out like an 18-wheeler. I turned across the entire lane, hit the curb on the other side, popped over it onto the sidewalk then rode ON the sidewalk for like ten feet.
After it was all over I realized I was headed in the right direction before I pulled out at all. I was now facing back-asswards to my friends. My friends were looking at me like seinfeld would kramer glaring a "what the hell are you doing??"
Might have lost some street credit.

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by Kscreations08

I ended up having to do a pretty quick stop for a rogue red light. It turned yellow with me too far away to justify running it, but too close for a regular calm stop.

I remember the first time I encountered the first time I encountered this situation very distinctly, I was being an idiot and pinning it light to light in the rain on my 250 and got a yellow at a point where I had to brake from ~80mph in the rain leaned over a bit to nothing in what felt like no distance at all. I still remember my surprise when I looked down and saw that I had stopped exactly where I needed to having used what felt like my maximum braking power.

I remember many other of those feels though I never really held that kind of reverence to the idea of talking to another rider while riding since I had talked extensively about riding with more experienced riders for years before getting my 250. Pretty sure the first time I met another rider on the road it was at a stoplight at the end of a windy road where I was blown away at how much faster than me the guy was through the corners on his cbr600rr and asked him for some advice. Still haven't followed it though I do want to "go to summit point in west virginia(the closest track) and you'll figure out how to go fast"


I hope you get to keep your 250 and that your defensive riding skills grow quickly

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by Kscreations08

...........I also need to tighten my clutch cable. The bike is in my garage right now because the clutch lever is super loose for some reason. Loose enough that it wasn't engaging 100% of the time. Also not cool

Inspect the cable carefully.
Those tend to stretch when they are getting ready to snap in the middle of nowhere.
That would be another unpleasant first time.

[crazymadbastard]

Really enjoyed the story, be safe out there!