.:Saturday, September 27, 2008:.
WOAH!!!
| Alright, I expected this motorcycle safety class to be challenging. What I didn't expect was for it to make me so incredibly tired that I feel as if I could sleep for a freaking week! Classes started on Thursday & Friday night. We started class this morning at 7:30 am and went until just shy of 4pm. Of that, from the start of class until about 1:15pm, we were outside on the range.....in temperatures reaching the high 90's......in jeans, over the ankle boots, full finger leather gloves and in my case, a riding jacket. Holy schmokes! It was freaking HOT! After the class last night, I was more than tempted to just drop the class, sell the bike and just enjoy my new leathers. I felt quite overwhelmed and simply wasn't sure that I had made the right decision. Waking this morning, didn't change that feeling a whole lot, but I was bound and determined that I wasn't going to allow fear of failure to stop me from doing this. If after passing the class, I still felt like it may not be for me or it is still that overwhelming, I'll simply sell the bike and revel in the fact that I did do it. So, I thought I was going to vomit when they started talking about all of the things that we would be doing on the range today. Seriously? I was going to be weaving through cones without using my clutch or my brake? Seriously? The girl that wasn't even sure that she could ride the bike in a straight line over 5mph? With each practice at each excercise, I felt more and more comfortable. Then came the new material and I would feel little knots in my stomach. Not sure that I was going to get the next one like I did the last one. Then, before I knew it, I wasn't feeling too nervous about the next phase. Well, until the weaving thing came around that is! Wow, I was so impressed with myself. Yeah, I missed a couple of the cones, but knew in advance that I was going to due to my alignment and corrected myself with the next coming cone. Alright, I'm feeling pretty dang good about things now. I had almost even forgotten all about that guy that dumped his bike on top of himself earlier! Now, we're going in big ovals. I was pretty nervous when I heard that we weren't just going to shift into 2nd gear but into 3rd as well and then we were really going to have to downshift and forgetting to as such just wasn't an option anymore. I think it took me all of 20 seconds to get over that though. 1, 2, 3 laps around and things are going really well if you ask me. Then, I see one of the instructors give the hand signal to widen the space between bikes. I knew that my spacing was more than adequate and quickly realized that it was for the person behind me. Unfortunately for her, she reacted a little too aggressively and locked up her front wheel from hard braking. I heard the lock up, I heard the skidding, I remember saying "OH SHIT!", looking back very quickly then reminding myself to focus ahead of me and rolled on the throttle just a hair to give myself a tad bit more space. And BAM!!! I hear the crash. It all took about a 1/4 of a second, I swear. I couldn't get to the stopping point fast enough. Thankfully, she was okay. Oh, she was more than shaken and frankly I didn't think she was going to get back on a bike that day. I'm not sure that I could have! Her long sleeve t-shirt didn't offer her a lot of protection, so she busted up her elbow really bad and is going to be hurting like heck tomorrow, but I couldn't help but give her some seriously mad props for getting back on the bike after that drop! It was at that point that I changed my mind about not wearing my leather jacket tomorrow. Screw that. I'd rather sweat my butt off for 6 or so hours and know that I'm more protected than be slightly cooler just wearing a long sleeve shirt. I will wear my bandana though. Sweat in the eyes when you are trying to ride a bike really, really sucks! Tomorrow is our last day. Another day from 7:30am until 4pm. We will do more drills and then our driving evaluation, followed by the written exam. Wish me luck! I may need it! Tehehehehe. |
