First Ride ...Scary!

Yep, that's me.  On my 2006 Kawasaki KLR 650.  A gift from my wife ..yes, fellas, I said a gift from my wife.  I was about to go on my first legal road ride.  I had just finished my motorcycle safety class at New River Community College about 30 minutes before this picture ...which in Virginia, makes you street legal for 30 days.

So, the last motorcycle I owned was also a Kawasaki.  It had knobbies, but not turn signals.  I was 14.  It was a KD 80, a dirt bike.  That was, let's see... 29 years ago.

You might think, given that I haven't owned a motorcycle in 29 years, that I would just poke around the neighborhood.  That would make sense.  It would be safe.  But here's the problem.  I wanted to ride on the forest service roads behind Mountain Lake ( ...yes, Dirty Dancing was filmed there ...nobody puts Baby in the corner! ...sorry.).  That's about 20 minutes away from my house ...20 minutes of highway.

I left my house ...so far, so good.  I spent about 3 minutes riding around in a Virginia Tech parking lot ...so far, so good.  Then straight out to the highway ...holy mother of God!

First of all, it was WAY louder than I was expecting.  Not the bike, but the wind ...crazy loud.  It was also a very windy day.  I was getting blown around like a ragdoll ...or really it was more like an incredilbly stiff human on a rag-bike.  I was going all over the place!  And, I don't know if you know this, but there are cars on the highway ...cars!  Big metal boxes flying past me (yes, they were passing me ...I was gripping the throttle so tight it wouldn't turn very far ...good God.)  This was just not what you do 10 minutes into your first ride on the road ...really, you just don't.

So, I bailed and pulled over.  That would have been reasonable ... if it was true.  Nope, I kept going.  My heart was pounding in my chest.  I actually felt as though I was going to fly off into the air at any moment ...I'm sure it happens all the time.  I mean I've never actually seen someone take off like a kite from the seat of their motorcycle.  But, I feel like it must happen all the time.   Most people don't hold on nearly as tight as I was holding on.  That's the only thing that kept me from going completely airborn.  If I had loosened up even a little ...if I would have let the least bit of blood back into my knuckles I would have been a goner ... a goner I tell you!

Later, when I was home ...still ...quiet ...fingers aching ...I read in an online forum about riding the KLR in the wind.  Even experienced riders seemed to have had a fright on really windy days.   What the hell was I doing out there!  A fright indeed.

I did make it to the forest service roads.  I was a little tired from holding every muscle in my body as tight as it would go for 20 minutes.  But, once on the gravel roads it was fantastic ...like I was 14 again.  It's funny, the bike is much more unstable on dirt and gravel.  You can feel it wiggling and shimmying around under you.  It freaks some people out.  When I finally hit the gravel road there was a couple on Harleys about 50 feet down the road.  50 feet was enough, they were turning around to get back to the safety of the pavement.   Safety?  Pavement?  Not so much for me, thank you.

After an amazing ride through the mountain forest, I had to head home ...if there was a word that somehow conveyed shaking, I would use it here.  I took and incredibly long way home, but I did avoid the highway.  The back roads were actually beautiful and enjoyable.

My first ride I got to experience joy like I was 14 again and terror like almost puking in my helmet kind of terror.  The fun kind!