Me and my Passion (aka the Houston commuter's blog)

[sunshine229]

Hi! Nice to see you around. Please... meet me and my Passion:



Passion is my 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 650R. And I am Andrea - aka Mrs. TotalMotorcycle!

I bought this - my first bike in Houston but my fourth bike overall - on Tuesday, September 18th, 2012. Bought it from a really nice guy and his lovely wife. He took care of the bike from new, only putting 920 miles on her. She was pretty much still brand new when I took her over!

I've always loved the look of the 650R... in fact, you'll find me drooling over the one that IslesFan owns if you dig deep enough in his blog / thread. And I really am a Kawasaki fan so it seemed like the perfect choice!

The main purpose of the bike is to commute back and forth a whopping 15 miles per day, which equates to somewhere around 45 mins of riding. It might suck to be in traffic but at least I get to do something I love!

I plan on sharing my commuting stories and any other interesting things along the way. I hope you enjoy!

[sunshine229]

My best commuter stories are bound to come from my rides home. There is something about the evening traffic that just really lends itself to craziness. In the morning, people are quite respectful and easy going, but on the way home it's like WHOA! Now some of you are probably thinking that this is normal and everybody already knows this. But for me, this is the first time in a very long time that I have had to commute to work on anything other than foot. Plus Houston is CRAZY TOWN. These people really do not know how to drive.

So anyways... yesterday I'm on Memorial Drive, which is a 4 lane road with a 35mph speed limit. There is a huge gap between me and the car in front so these crazy people decide to walk across the street and do it at their own pace. In fact, the lady puts her hand up as if to say stop (and I'm like 6 car lengths from her). I slow a bit but figure by the time I get to them they will be long gone. Well. When they get to the right side of my lane they come to a complete stop and she pulls out her "uh-uh-uh-oh-no-you-didn't" waving index finger and starts yelling at the car in the fourth lane in front of her. Apparently the car stopped (due to traffic build up) and ended up smack right in front of these people. So she's standing there yelling at the driver, waving her finger and grooving her neck, all the while I have to swerve to the far left side of my lane to avoid hitting. Crazy!

So yeah, I could have slowed down more or even stopped... but that would have meant being right in the middle of the action and listening to her nattering!

[Wrider]

Lol you're much more relaxed than I am. I tend to swerve as close as possible to those people.

[High_Side]

Nice bike! Have you taken it over any sweet jumps?
Looking forward to your "new" blog

[totalmotorcycle]

Great to see you started a new blog! I know I'll be checking it out often to have a laugh or two on the people you meet via your commute.

Love the red and green photo, all you are missing is a Blue bike in there.

Mike

[Ninja Geoff]

Houston traffic is just plain miserable. Not as bad as Dallas/Fort Worth, but worse than Austin or San Antonio. Stay safe out there!

PS - Ninja 650Rs are awesome. Great bike choice!

[dr_bar]

It's a dang stoplight picture, Green Yellow and Red... )

[sunshine229]

LOL you guys crack me up! I sure miss you when I'm away from the site...

So today I have nothing to report on the commuting front so I guess I'll have to spend some time telling you a bit about the bike!

I am absolutely loving my choice, it really couldn't have been much better! The bike is so darn comfortable and SO easy to handle. When I'm on it I feel like I am in complete control, which is very important in this crappy traffic! (Ninja_Geoff has it right!)

The first gear is not my favourite - I find it a bit low powered. But once in second or higher there is plenty of kick to get me from A to B.

Now I have to admit I was quite distracted on the ride home today and I don't really like to ride in that state. I'm just glad I got home safe. The traffic was extra bad this evening because I left much later than I usually do and so the roads were jammed. Lucky for me I'm done commuting for the week. I only had to work three days this week (Tue-Thu) and thankfully I have tomorrow off! I'm exhausted. This week was far too much work for me.

How's everyone else's week going?

[Ninja Geoff]

Hah, don't underestimate first gear too much, it can lift the front end up without the clutch. Get the revs up to a constant 6500 rpm and crank it open.

Or so I've heard.

[sapaul]

Glad to hear it is all working out for both you and M. Awesome machine, brilliant that you found one in such good nick.