camthepyro wrote: Why don't you keep your bike at your apartment?
my truck has been broken into 2 times stealing about $900 worth of stereo equipment, and my g/fs car has had its $1300 convertable top slashed once and now that she leaves it unlocked so it wont get cut again and it has been "rifled through" at least 2 times, and a lot of the neighbors have had vehicles vandalized or thefts from vehicles.
Sadly, i live on the nice side of town in a pretty nice apartment complex. but the theives from other parts of the city know the people on this end of town have white-collar jobs and lots of money to put into toys liek stereos and whatnot so they come here to commit crime. and i am moving next weekend to a duplex with a private garage so i'll keep the bike there when i move. (so i can ride EVERY DAY!)
so i did get to ride this morning. i left my apartment at abotu 6:30 because i never sleep-in. i had a bad charlie-horse last night and my left leg was stiff and sore but sometimes you just gotta ride. so it is again about 50 degrees but to me riding is still like in middle school and getting my hand up a girls shirt for the first time- im game no matter what. so i mount up with all my gear, and hit the road. i know of a nice twisty road about 4 miles from where the bike is kept so im going to head over there and try it out. i pulled out onto the "main road" to get there and was smooth on my acceleration. i stay in the "fast lane" because there are a lot of parkign lots and side streets that people could pull out of but theroad is pretty quiet. i accually passed one car that was only doing abotu 30 in the 45 zone. i get to the twisty road and it was great. those signs that say "25mph turn" whiz by at about 50mph. the road is very short so it was over quick but i felt good on it. so i went over to see if i could find my rider coach at the community college where i took the course. she wasnt there but i talekd to another guy who said he loved my bike and that yellow was the best color for it. I agree. so off i go again. i found a nice little 2 lane "country road" with farmland on either side. i passed a guy and his wife on a goldwing going the other way and we exchanged "biker waves". i got going pretty fast on some straightaways and Damn it was cold. but the road goes from long straight stretches with long smooth curves into a more wooded twisty section. then.... .... suspense music... .... .... i almost hit a dog!
when i say a dog, this is a stretch, this thig looked like a cross between a pit bull, a welsh corgi, and cujo. i know your supposed to accelerate to make the dog miss its trajectory but this dog was so close to the road and jumped out of a bush on the road side, i was right on me boefore i even saw him. worse yet, i didnt know a different way home so i had to ride by 2 times. scared the crap out of me and i can officially say was my first "close call". so i turned around, passed the dog at a better speed and went back through the nic section with the sweeping curves. i rode up to a section of town i am not as familiar with but decided to head back toward my apartment as my lady-friend should be waking up abotu now. so i stop at a gas station and get a capiccuno (sp?) to warm up. i got a couple looks from people pullign in and out of the station as i stood by my bike sipping my cup. a lady in a minivan pulls up in the next parkign space over and gets out. her daughter (probably abotu 12-13 years old) starts checking otu the bike as they walk in... the lady grabs her daughters hand and literally pulls her into the store part. i guess maybe she had a bad experiance with a biker? quite funny. so i head back to the apartment on the bike and i get there... the power is out. no 50" plasma TV, no TMW forums on my computer, nothin... so i chill with the lady for a bit but then i decided to go back out riding. I drove out toward the other end of won from where i had been riding earlier because i know a nice long 2 lane road i want to ride. so i go out and hit this road about the middle of it. so i turn left and ride to the end of it, i go to turn around in a parkign lot and accidentally forgot to downshift so i slow donwn and let of the clutch and got it down to abotu 300rpms. the ngine bogged down so i grab the clutch and downshift from 4th to 1st, trun around and im off again in the direction i came. there is an awesome place on the road where it goes to 4 lanes wide (2 lanes each way) and there is a redlight intersection that the road curves pretty sharply even if you want to go straight. so i was doing about 50 mph and there are cars stopped watining to go and i ripped through the intersection at a 45 degree angle going around the corner. i dont know if it looked cool but it felt cool like a video game or something. then i rode out to the other end of this road (abotu 15 miles?) saw soe people out cleaning up trash with orange vests saying "I AM A DRUNK DRIVER" [rant] i think thats a REALLY good idea. puttign drunk drivers in jail wont really solve much. drunk drivers unlike other law breakers, are not intending to hurt anyone. the guy(s) that broke into my truck intended to do harm to my propery, but the person who drinks and gets behind the wheel wasnt thinking "i'll probably hi someoen and kill a young mother and her child, or paralize someone so they will never walk again" they just made a bad decision (sometimes several times). throwing them in jail will give them time to think, think abotu how to not get caught next time. i think that makign them go to classes (like AA) and do comunity service are much better solutions. as for people who break into car... DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD. [/rant]
ok but anyway i got to waive to th cop that was supervising them. by this time i really need to pee so i better head home. i took a different but similar 2 lane road that loops around so i wouldnt have to stop for the drunkies again, then i went toward the main road. by this time of day there are a lot of traffic. i did really well, quickly gettign it up to speed. i took the long way throught the neighborhood to get back to my grandmothers (went in the back enterance of the neighborhood and she lives at the front) but then i put the bike up. i had a great ride. i am feeling a lot more confident with my startign and shifting although i am still dumping the clutch a lot. oh well im sure the more i ride the better i'll get. i put about 95 miles on today. a few miles shy of the 100 i wanted but if its not raining tomorrow mornign im going to ride otu to a dam near here and that ashould be a soild 60 mile ride round trip.
ok so my friends just got here so i must go entertain them, but thank you all for reading.
yay for motorcycles!
[b]Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency! [/b]
