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It is with great pride that I announce our CMC family is growing once again! This time we are welcoming our newest chapter into the fold! With relentless effort from Bill Boyd Irma and Marilyn Denyer please welcome CMC 093 Nackawic NB to the CMC!! Congrat ×

AcesNEights' Blog

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The Pressure is Off


AcesNEights

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So on Thursday March27th “I was looking out my window” (cheers Grizz) and although the temperature was less than ideal the roads looked very dry. I must admit there was a large amount of sandy areas, and was very determined to avoid these. With that said I rolled my bike out of my garage and started it up. I let the bike warm up about 10 minutes or so, the bike itself was pleading it was ready, it responded with nice crisp throttle rolls.

I used the time while the bike was warming up to GEAR UP, I must admit I was a little nervous, not about getting hurt, but rather possibly dropping my bike and being upset at myself for being an idiot :mad: So for the first 20 minutes or so I just rode around a 2 block radius of my house, just getting the feel, The only bike I had ridden really was the little Honda CBR125 used at the Humber course. So my Honda Shadow 500 was a very new and different experience compared to the other. After I was comfortable with the handling and controls I ventured a little further from home, This is when I realized that @ 60 kph the wind is stronger than I had anticipated, so back home I went. :oops:

I thought to myself that was F U N ….. Hmmm. So I went upstairs and put on a pair of sweatpants on underneath my jeans. Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting track pants & jeans are a good alternative to proper weather riding gear, but I just had to get a few more klicks in before putting my bike back in the garage.

Thinking about it some more I thought “Oh, I know, I have to go order a new set of contact lenses.” So I planned my route to try avoiding the higher traffic areas, It was going to be about 15 km each way :wink: One of my first observations upon arriving at the plaza was how BIG the parking spaces were, backing my bike into a spot I thought to myself “this bike is a lot easier to park than my SUV”. :grin: I took a much larger street for my ride home and @ 4 pm it was quite busy. Shortly after getting underway it began to SNOW!, luckily it was just some light flurries and was not enough to even change the colour of the road; I felt much better being on DRY roads. The ride home was very straight, but some good practice in heavier traffic. So all in all I put just over 50 kms for my first ride ever on public roads. It felt AWESOME getting that monkey off my back :???::smile::grin::cool:

Cheers

Aces N Eights

Stay tuned for my next post:

My First Ride - Things I did well, and things I need to work on :)

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Stafford

Posted

Congrats Rob! :)

 

Always good to get that under your belt. Something else to consider:

 

It is not only the engine (and yourself) that need to be warm to function optimally. Even if the roads are bare and dry and devoid of sand, if you are attempting to ride in temperature ranges that are within 10C (plus) of 0C, know that your tires will require a longer time to warm up. Your traction suffers exponentially the lower the road temperature.

 

I found that out the hard way myself a few years ago: http://swedwards.com/winter-of-discontent

 

Not to worry though, Spring has got to show up sometime! :)

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Congratulations, and the awesome feeling will only get better and better for you.

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Congrats on a successful first ride. I've found the downside of that is that it just leaves you craving more. Here's to satisfying that craving :)

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stompper

Posted

Hey Rob.  I can relate! Although I've ridden a Honda Shadow 1100 for years, I'm anxious to get my new HD Fat Boy on the road but am nervous about all the sand still and the fact I've never ridden this beast. I like your planned, slow and cautious approach. I have no plans to rush things.Thanks for the tip. Safe riding dude.

 

Stompper

Kawartha Lakes 020 - Peterborough

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pegleg

Posted (edited)

March 21, 2017 I attended the 057 Georgina 10th anniversary meet and greet. I am proud to say I was the only member who rode on 2 wheels. The weather was nice for the ride there, cold and snowy when I left. I live only a few kilometers from the restaurant so I rode home with my head held high. 

Pegleg 057 Georgina

Edited by pegleg
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