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Hi everyone. I figured since this is what I consider my first real riding season,I would try my hand at this Blog thing to keep track of my progress and all my stories.

Brief background for those of you who haven't seen any of my very few posts. I am 33 years young, and live in the north central part of the beautiful state that is Wisconsin.

I took the MSF through our local Harley Dealership, the Rider's Edge program. I got my license, then spent a looooong time finding a bike. In the meantime my boyfriend, Bill, bought himself a bike, then took the MSF. Mind you , I still don't have a bike at his point!!! Well, last year, on tax day, April 15th I bought myself what I consider to be an awesome ride. I got a 2005 Yamaha Silverado 650, you know a VSTAR. I only got about 600 miles in last year, so thats why I consider this to be my first real riding season.

This past Sunday we brought the Bikes out of storage, and got them ready to go for the riding season....that was an adventure in and of itself. I will tell you all about getting them ready for the road, and my first mini ride of the season in a little bit...just wanted to get the initial post up for now.

nice!

im not sure if i would have bought a bike if i lived in a place w/ "riding seasons."

anyway... glad to hear it's riding season over there now.

im also racking up some miles. i've got 2100 miles now since i started using the bike last january.

I'll bet SilveradoGirl puts on a ton of miles this season, enough to make up for the "Season" thing in her location. I also live in an area that has seasons, but joyfully, the riding one is loooonnnggg...... I've had my bike parked for only three months and it was only that long because due to an medical condition, I had to take my bike off the road several weeks earlier than normal.

Great start to your blog, can't wait to hear more of your first full year of riding...

PS: I also agree with your feelings about your bike, the 650 Silverado is a beauty...

Doug

Okay, after about an hour or so and a little bit of cussin' I finally figured out how to post pics on this website. So here are a few pics of my Silverado.

Very nice, I'm glad you got it worked out

As has already been established, I am from Wisconsin, where we have riding seasons. I am not going to lie to you either, I am a wuss, so my season is even a bit shorter than some. (I hate to freeze ) Usually sometime in about October/November the batteries come out of the bikes, and make it to the basement for their winter home. About Aprilish each year they come back out and thats when the fun begins.

This year was no exception! We just built our house (Feb,2004), and last summer we first installed our yard. We spent a lot of time and money, so we decided until we had all our spring chores done with the yard, we would not bring out the bikes. We knew as soon as we did, all available free time would be spent doing something with them, and neglecting the yard we worked so hard for the year before.

We pulled the bikes out of the garage onto the driveway and were looking them over, making sure all was good. (mine is filthy) I was thinking over the winter that maybe I would like my passenger seat and sissy bar taken off my bike to change the look a bit. So.....out came the wrenches. We got it off and I looked at it....Bill looked at it.....nope, looks better on, so we reinstalled everything and did one last recheck. It was good as is I guess.

Bill then went to go get the batteries. Kind of funny, we were both like little kids on Christmas morning. We put the batteries in, and then it was the moment of truth. Time to try to crank 'em up. I hit my starter button and I got an immediate pop, then dead. Hmmmm...tried again, after all we ran gas out of the carbs for winter storage, it will take a bit to get gas flowing again right? Tried again, and again, and a few more times too...Same thing each time...she tried to fire, wanted to so bad but just wouldn't. I kept saying, it wasn't getting gas. Bill was kinda disgusted by this point, so he turned his attention to his bike, a 1992 Honda Nighthawk 750. Second try, it fired right up.

Now his bike is idling next to mine and we are trying everything known to man to get mine to start. Is the kill switch up? yes.....Is the fuel on? yes.....Maybe we pushed way too much fuel through already and its flooded. Nope took the plug out, dry as a bone and looks good too. Is there gas in the tank? look inside, yep.

Bill is a fairly impatient man, so off came the air cleaner cover, and out came the starting fluid! One little squirt, she fired right off....soon as I hit the throttle, she died. We were two steps away from taking apart the fuel pump when Bill said to me "humor me honey, hit it one more time". So I hit the starter and just like that she fired right off like it always used to, and kept on running. I asked him what he did and he said the only thing he did differently was turn the fuel petcock to reserve!!! I about died..45 minutes later and that's all it was?!?!?

Then I started to think and it all came back to me...HOW COULD WE HAVE FORGOTTEN???? Our last ride of the season last year we were out and my bike kept loosing power (remeber I am a newb). I pulled over and checked a few things and off agian....about mile later, same thing.....Bill pulled up behind me and told me to check my gas....yep, it was pretty low...I go to switch it to reserve and OOOOPS, it was already on reserve!! (btw I still blame HIM for this ) So I beeline back to town, and try to make it home. We figured if it would make it home, it would be better to store with as little gas as possible anyways. I made it home just fine, we weren't too far away. BUT as you alreay read....totally forgot about that little episode this spring. So when I turned the fuel from the off position, I naturally turned in ON not to RES....o well, newby lesson learned I guess.

After all that we went for a short ride (after fueling up). It was a beautiful day, and I'll tell you all about that later on.

Thats a beautiful bike. Dont worry, i've seen well season riders do the reserve thing before, it's quite entertaining! I hope you have an awesome riding season.

Great bike! Do you ever go cruising around to the Dells? I've gone up there a few times, and always enjoyed the scenery.

zarakand wrote:Great bike! Do you ever go cruising around to the Dells? I've gone up there a few times, and always enjoyed the scenery.

I haven't ventured that far yet....the Dells are at least a 3hour drive from my place...maybe by the end of the season

After all the mayhem from my earlier posts, it was finally time to take the Silverado for it's first ride of the year. Just a short little jaunt, maybe 20 miles or so.

First things first, we headed to the gas station to fill up. I always lead when Bill and I ride. He follows me to help keep people off my fender. Cars right behind me still make me a bit nervous, he has no worries at all, about anything. As we approached the gas station I couldn't beleive what I was seeing. The station has 16 pumps and almost all of them are full of motorcycles!! It was a sight not seen too often in my small little town (population, about 4,000). So, in the parking lot I turn, totally in awe of the sight before me (not paying a whole lot of attention to anything else) And I almost choked off my bike! I was busy looking at an awesome Ultra Classic and forgot to downshift into first. I just pulled in the clutch and pretty much ended up duck-walking my bike to the pump. I was so embarased, but I don't think anyone really noticed. As we were filling up everyone was meandering around the lot, talking, checking out other peoples rides. A few of the guys came over by us and thought my bike was a Harley til they got closer. They commented on how nice it looked and gave me a positive thumbs up for riding my own ride. That ALWAYS makes me feel good. It was a lot of fun. As we were gearing back up 4 more bikes pulled in!! I was simply amazed. It must have been bring your bike out of storage day.

As we left the station we headed east over the bridge. The bridge spans the Wisconsin River, and is about 50 feet above the water. The railroad track runs alongside the river and there is a paper mill there too. At the end of the bridge is a 4-way stop. I hate that intersection in my car, so on the bike I really hate it. NO ONE in this town knows how to negotiate a 4-way stop correctly. There is nothing that drives me more crazy than people who can't understand the whole right of way thing, only on the bike, I don't have too much leverage to be a jerk to them. They are all bigger than me afterall...damn cagers.

We headed North on an old 2 lane highway. Speed limit only 40-45...which was okay with me, it was a bit breezy and cold, so the slower the warmer. I was amazed at how comfortable and confident I felt. Like I had always done this or something. I never had that feeling last year. It was a lot more fun. I noticed stuff on the roadsides, and the scenery more than I ever did last year. It was way too cool!

We headed out onto an old country highway next. It has lots of corners, and I LOVE going around corners. As confident as I was feeling, I had to take that way home and have some fun. Mission accomplished, I had a blast!!

Only problem was, when I turned onto the road to go back home...I was looking directly into a setting sun. I was blind....I couldn't see anything. I was squinting, had one eye closed, then the other....then I'd ride one handed and shield the sun with the other. It was a real bummer. I need a tinted shield for sure. Everytime I looked in my mirror at Bill he was just riding along. When we got home I asked him how he could see. He said the sun just caught the top of his helmet, so it was blocked. It was just below the top of my helmet. He said he saw me having troubles, but was really impressed with how I dealt with it. He also said that for the first ride of this season,he saw definate improvement over my riding last year. he said I seemed way more relaxed, and I guess I was. Reading all the posts here have helped me alot in the off season...Thanks everyone