requisite kim's cb-1 babble.
Here's Kim on her new CB-1 400!
Tonight, we went to dinner, and then I went back to her place with her. I loaned her my helmet and gloves, and she hopped on her bike and rode around her block. She kicked so much ass, oh yes she did. It was 10pm and dark and cold and had rained this afternoon, and she just took to that bike like she'd last ridden yesterday, instead of over a year ago. Damn. She and Ann are putting me to shame! ;) Unfortunately, Kim's having a tonsilectomy tomorrow, and the subsequent painkillers will be keeping her off the bike for at least a week or two. But I'm glad that she got on it once beforehand, since now she'll be more likely to really look forward to getting back on!
Kim also gave me one of her old scarves tonight, which really kicks ass, since it's been damn cold riding lately. Brrr.
requisite bike show babble.
Remember how yesterday, I said that I was done writing about the
individual bikes we sat on? I lied. Here are the pictures; there were
sadly less than I thought. I remember thinking, "I won't take too many
pictures, it'll be really boring to just look at pictures of Peter and I
on different bikes." I wonder what crack I was smoking? Yeesh.
Peter on an Aprilia RST Futura
Me on a Ducati Monster 600
Me on a Ducati Monster S4
Peter on a coveted [by him] Honda VFR800FI Interceptor
Me on the coveted [by me] Suzuki SV650S
Peter on a BMW police bike
An unfortunately blurry Peter and I on the *really* coveted [by me] Suzuki SV650S
So there are the pictures. I really had thought we'd taken one of me on the pink Speed Triple; I guess not. Ah well. There's always the next bike show. ;)
One thing that really impressed me about this show (and Peter noticed it too, and actually brought it up to me first) was how many people talked to *me*. Most places we go, if it's not painfully obvious that I ride too, people who strike up bike conversations will just automatically initiate conversation with Peter. Since I'm a big bratty-bratty conversation hog, I'll often interject [Note: polite term for "interrupt"] with my own bike opinions, but sometimes I just let the conversation go on around me and silently pout and get angry. I had sort of assumed that the bike show would be the same way, especially since Peter was wearing his leather jacket and I was wearing just a big sweatshirt (due to it being Butt Cold [tm] out, we drove instead of riding, so the clothing wasn't an indication of whether we rode or not, but an observer wouldn't know that, and a leather jacket looks more "biker" than does a fluffy grey pullover).
That turned out to not be the case at all though, in fact, quite the opposite! Since I was climbing on just as many bikes as Peter was, and I knew how to throw them to the right to balance them, it must have been pretty obvious to fellow bikers that I rode too, and many of them struck up conversations with me. It almost always started with "wow, your hair really matches/clashes nicely with that bike!" (depending, of course, if the bike I was on at the time was red or another color), and I'd smile and thank them, and usually a bike-related conversation would follow. I talked to a guy who commented on my hair, and then asked what I rode; turns out that he buys/sells older Japanese sportsbikes and standards for a hobby, so he gave me his card in case I ever want to sell the Nighthawk. I talked to the Mota people about my complete inability to find pants that fit me. I talked to the AMA guy about their website and the Motorcycle Museum in Ohio and whether or not I wanted to be an AMA member. I talked with a Ducati rep and a Mota employee about the Duc Monster 600 and whether or not people "outgrow" it fast enough that they should just buy the 750 in the first place. I talked to the Suzuki rep about how I really need a red SV650S. I talked to some weird guy who wanted a picture of me on the pink Speed Triple about my Nighthawk and his Valkyrie [Note: conversation initiated by me to attempt to convince myself that he wasn't going to do anything terribly creepy with that picture he took]. I talked with the Triumph rep about the Speed Triple and how it compares with the Sprint 900, and about the MI:2 bike that they had on show. I talked with a woman also in the Triumph area about the Speed Triple that she owned, and the Sprint 900 that she'd ridden once a few years ago. I talked to a middle-aged woman at the BMW area who rolled her eyes when her husband indicated the teeny-tiny pillion seat on one bike and said jokingly, "that's where you'll sit, honey!" [the wife and I concluded that that's just why women need to ride our *own* bikes -- to make our men sit balanced precariously on those tiny pillion seats!] I think I even talked with Peter once or twice. ;)
I got brochures from all the dealerships, but I gave the Honda and Aprilia ones to my co-worker Chris, since I can get the info online if I want, and he's looking at buying a Shadow for himself and maybe a scooter for his girlfriend someday. Peter surprised me by buying me a copy of Blood, Sweat, and Gears: Ramblings on Motorcycles and Medicine, which had been on my book wish list for a while. I also bought a 3-year subscription to Rider Magazine, which I'd been meaning to do for a while. They gave me three back issues of the magazine and a nice duffel bag for free, huzzah! Peter also spent some time looking at the headsets for attaching to his hands-free walkie-talkies so that we can communicate while riding [Note: I've already warned him that the vast majority of things he'll hear from me will be swearing at other cars and really poor singing. He claims to still want to ride with me.]. I've also decided that sometime within the next year, I want to buy a new helmet, so that (a) I can get a neat colored one, and (b) I can still keep my current one as a spare or for use by similarly tiny passengers (the only kind I could carry!). Speaking of passengers, when we took that picture of Peter and I on the SV650S, I realized that my dream of riding with him on pillion will probably never come to pass. When he put his feet up on the passenger footpegs, if I were bent over in a normal riding position, his knees were higher than my head. If I turned my head quickly, I'd get a face full of Sweetie Knee. I love Peter's knees, but not in my eye, thankyouverymuch.
So, that was the bike show. :)