Feels Like The First Time...Like the Very First Time

I would climb any mountain......Sail across a stormy sea....If that’s what it takes me baby.....To show you how much you mean to me……..(Foreigner…Feels Like the First Time…)

Hear the song by Foreigner playing in the back of my mind….

Success!!!

It never got up to 50. Or at least it didn’t feel like it did. Not too much wind so I didn’t have gusts to deal with.

Ride was typical. I got to play musical motorcycles to get the Yamaha out of the garage. Almost dropped the buggar turning it around…gee has it been that long since I straddled it for more than two seconds?? Riding the star was easy…too easy. It’s just a breeze to operate and nicely balanced. It just felt, well, weird. Not a bad weird, mind you. It was just so different that what I remembered. It was awkward too. I dunno, like kissing a new boy for the first time. You know what to expect, but it’s never quite the same as all the others. For lack of a better explanation I guess this will have to do.

The motorcycle mishap was running out of gas as I headed south. I figured it was warmer going south. Nope, still froze. Three words: heated hand grips!! Flipped on reserve, stopped, gassed up, and rode out. Rode for about an hour then headed home. Raced a fellow in a pickup truck. Okay, I couldn’t resist. He was making his truck talk trash…OH YEAH...like your pickup truck can beat me on the line?? LOL….

Maybe he read my blog and was trying to avoid cheesy pickup lines!!!

Of course, I *had* to get home and ride the Harley. I still had it in the back of my mind that I needed to ride it because it was the one I got hit on.

The major difference between the two is that what ever the Yamaha is the Harley is the exact opposite. Clutch, throttle, shifting, ride on the Star is all soft and easy. Shift point on the Star is short in the lever. As soon as I let out the clutch lever, it engages. With the Harley everything is hard and harder. It’s work. Clutch, throttle, shifting, the ride is stiffer; it takes more muscle work to ride. Shift point on the Fatboy is almost to the end. The clutch engages at when the lever is just about let out.

Which is my second motorcycle mishap. Pulling out of my drive, I almost drop the bike making a left hand turn because I was expecting the shifting of the other bike. Thank goodness I was exercising caution!! I would have been mortified to add that little bit of information to today’s story!

I rode another hour and heated handgrips or not, I froze. It was just too cold. However, I did get over two hours of riding in. Not too much traffic in town or on the back roads! I got to chat at a stop sign with a man who was on a gorgeous Intruder. We rode shared the road a bit then our paths went our separate ways. No racing on the Harley. It just wasn’t ‘proper’ Harley behavior, I guess *smile*.

Then again, what *is* proper Harley behavior? Or any ‘brand motorcycle’ behavior?? It’s about having fun, continuing to grow my riding experience, and remembering why I do this! Challenging my fears. All that was experienced today and done while listening to London Theatre Version of The Phantom of the Opera, so it was a good day indeed!

Keep the shiny side up!!