August 22, 2000
yay kim!
I just wanted to say that I'm sooooo happy that Kim, my currently-bikeless
fellow biker babe, is on the road towards buying a bike. She looked at a
Kawasaki EX500 but decided against it because of its mechanical issues; next
she's going to go see a Suzuki GS500E. Frankly, because I'm a Honda babe
through and through, I don't know much about either of these bikes. I know
they both have a 500cc displacement and a low seat height; I think they both
weigh around the same as my bike (~400lbs, give or take a few). The Suzuki
looks a lot more like a sporty bike though, whereas my Nighthawk and the
Kawa EX500 look more like traditional standards. So anyways, that's the
Big Happy News in my neck of the woods.
today's commuting news.
Let's see. I took the weekend off from the bike, as Peter and I were back
in the homeland (more on that later). So it was nice to get back on the
Nighthawk to go to work this morning. Aside from one scare when I thought
an oncoming car didn't see me when he was turning left (he did, and really,
gave no indication that he didn't. I was just paranoid), it was pretty
uneventful. I drove way too slow in way too much traffic, but, really, nothing
new there. I can tell I'm getting more and more comfortable driving amongst
the masses, as I'm now speeding up to switch lanes, getting out from behind
slowpokes (as opposed to just staying put in one lane), and just generally
driving more aggressively. I haven't mustered the courage to lane-split at
red lights yet, but I'm at the point where I sit at the red light, muttering
"dammit, I should just lane-split" to myself. So we'll see.
This is another really boring entry. My bad.
motorcyclin' in the land of beer 'n' cheese.
So Peter and I spent the weekend in Wisconsin. There were three
motorcycle-related things that really surprised me (which, in and of itself
is sort of surprising, since I lived in WI for 22 years, and liked bikes
way back then, too).
- There's no helmet law in WI. For some reason, I thought there was.
Or at least, I never remembered there *not* being one. California has a
helmet law, so it was really weird to see all these lidless bikers driving
around. It sort of gave me the creeps, thinking about what those people
would look like after a crash.
- There are *lots* of motorcyclists in southern WI. Maybe it was
because it was nice weather last weekend, but there were a *ton* of bikers
out. I saw probably twice as many riders as I do on any given weekend here
in the Bay Area. Almost all of them were ManlyMen (tm) driving with Their
Woman (tm) -- also helmetless and protective clothing-less -- riding pillion.
- There are two kinds of bikes in southern Wisconsin. Harleys and
GoldWings. We saw exactly three bikes all weekend that weren't Harleys or
GoldWings, and two of them were in Madison. Damn, these people love their
cruisers. I mentioned to Peter that it might be fun to ride to WI for
Harley's 100th anniversary next year, but I'm afraid that we might be run
out of town for my standard and his sportbike. :0
And no, Peter hasn't fixed his rear tire yet.
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