D - 472 Days: From Worst to First

I was upstate from Wednesday, 12/24 through Monday, 12/29. On Saturday, I received three motorcycle-related gifts: an amazing leather motorcycle jacket, lined leather gloves for cold-weather riding, and Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor's and fellow actor Charley Boorman's memoir of their motorbike trip around the world.

I was anxious to test out my new gear with a Sunday ride with my Dad. We intently watched the weather forecast on Saturday night and were slightly disappointed to hear a prediction of strong winds throughout the day and mild early morning temperatures dropping with rain moving in as the morning progressed.

I got up before 9:00 on Sunday and the weather was beautiful. I quickly headed over to my Dad's and we suited up. I borrowed a Large helmet and pushed it as far as it would go onto my Extra Large head (in other words, perched it up there and tightened the chin strap hard to hold it on). Good enough.

We backed my Dad's Harley Sportster 1200 and Pam's Vulcan 500 out of the garage and fired them up, and then I was riding a relatively new motorcycle for the first time. The smooth, steady and quiet purr of the Vulcan's engine was a fun departure from my bike, the similar 1980's bike on which my Dad first taught me the basics, and the little 250cc Suzuki that I rode in my MSF course. When I turned on the ignition, I couldn't even tell at first if it was on (it would have been easier if the Harley's big engine hadn't been rumbling right next to it). The shifter moved effortlessly as I accelerated through third gear, and when I looked at the speedometer expecting to see 35 or 40, I instead saw 60 (so much smoother, sounder and quieter at 60 than my bike at 40, I double-checked to make sure it was indicating mph and not kph).

There was hardly a car on the roads, the weather held and we rode for about 50 minutes, me smiling for every mile as we twisted up Route 13 past Chittenango Falls Park and into Cazenovia, past the lake, back along Ridge Road. The wind blew strong at times (you could probably say "fiercely" at others), pushing my helmet back off its balanced perch at times when we rode straight into it. The 500cc engine always felt sufficiently powered and I had to wonder how the Vulcan 900, with almost double the displacement, would feel.

I followed my Dad into a parking lot and he got off his Harley to switch rides with me. "She's a little edgier than that one," he said. "Blinkers are on each side and they cancel automatically." And again we were off.

I followed him out of the lot, gave the Harley a good twist of throttle as we turned onto the main road, and commented (this is a direct quote), "WHOOOOOOOOO!" The Sportster has two and a half times the engine (and volume) of anything I'd ridden previously, and had an awesome Big Bike feel that I appreciated with every acceleration, shift, and stop. The transmission shifted into each new gear with a deep and satisfying clunk and the throttle was delivered with a lot of enthusiasm and beautiful music from the big engine. I understood right away why Harley riders feel the way they do about Harleys.

On the way home, we rode toward some dark clouds that looked like they meant some business, but made it home before any rain started. The Motorcycle Gods were clearly smiling on us: as we stood in his gar-lage (gar-lodge?) to debrief on the ride, they presented to us a Labatt Blue box with two bottles sitting inside and calling our names ("Ol' Dad!" and "Danno!"). So on top of everything else, I experienced the joy of discovering another instance when it's perfectly acceptable to drink beer before noon. That will come in handy in the summer, when I don't do much camping and there aren't football tailgate parties.

As we recapped our ride, I told my Dad that this was my best ride yet for the following reasons:

1) At 43 miles, it was my longest ride yet.
2) It was my first ride on hilly, winding, hardly trafficked roads.
3) I got to ride the two nicest motorcycles I've ever used.
4) It was approximately the nicest weather in which I've ridden.
5) It was my first ride wearing appropriate protective gear (ill-fitting helmet notwithstanding).
6) I had plenty of gas and didn't strand myself on the side of the highway.
7) It was my first ride with Ol' Dad.

From my worst ride straight to my best one. Not a bad little turnaround.