03-01-2018, 08:20 PM
I had to laugh when I read this line: Who gives a cuss about that punctured tube?
I'm thinking to myself "well in my case, the guy whose bike I rode off with might care since I don't own an EX", lol.
Joking aside, this article was actually pretty informative for me as I pretty much tend to ride exclusively by myself. The first time I ever went for a ride with someone else on the street I was actually a bit nervous about it. I don't know that it had yet been more than a year since I had returned to riding motorcycles at that point in time. I wanted to be a "good riding buddy" and not get separated. But I found that focusing on more than just my own ride was a bit of a challenge at times. What I learned that day was that basically I needed to do a better job of figuring out what situations were appropriate to check the mirrors for hints of my buddy's presence and what situations weren't.
At one point I was leading and he was following as we were headed back into the city. We were on a very heavily-travelled, winding, 40 mph street. We were both on our Hawk GTs (that commonality was how we came to meet one another). As I quickly discovered, this was definitely NOT an appropriate time to check my mirror. As I returned my attention to that which was in front of me I was greeted by the vision of the back end of a car coming to a stop in order to turn left onto a little hidden drive tucked away in the trees. I was coming up on this car way too quickly and it was an alarmingly short distance away. I'm guessing that they had never travelled to wherever they were going and hadn't seen the drive coming up until it was almost too late.
Many Hawk enthusiasts will note that the front brakes (a single disk setup) could really do with an upgrade and for track riding I'm sure that's true. But I learned that day that the stock setup was at least capable enough of lifting the rear wheel and bringing the bike to a stop far quicker than I ever imagined possible. Thankfully the Hawk and I both survived unscathed. My buddy later noted that he thought for sure I was a goner as he had a front row seat to the whole ordeal. I was grateful that I had lucked out of a really bad situation that I had put myself in. But I can't begin to tell anyone how embarrassed I was that day. Even though I realized what I had done wrong, after pouring over all of the mistakes I had made I didn't ride with anyone again after that for a long time. That was, and I hope that it will remain, the single most frightening moment I've ever experienced on a motorcycle.
Well, if you actually get along with the guy then you've got nothing to lose by asking. If nothing else he might just have some free time and enjoy going on the trip for the sake of the trip.
I'm thinking to myself "well in my case, the guy whose bike I rode off with might care since I don't own an EX", lol.
Joking aside, this article was actually pretty informative for me as I pretty much tend to ride exclusively by myself. The first time I ever went for a ride with someone else on the street I was actually a bit nervous about it. I don't know that it had yet been more than a year since I had returned to riding motorcycles at that point in time. I wanted to be a "good riding buddy" and not get separated. But I found that focusing on more than just my own ride was a bit of a challenge at times. What I learned that day was that basically I needed to do a better job of figuring out what situations were appropriate to check the mirrors for hints of my buddy's presence and what situations weren't.
At one point I was leading and he was following as we were headed back into the city. We were on a very heavily-travelled, winding, 40 mph street. We were both on our Hawk GTs (that commonality was how we came to meet one another). As I quickly discovered, this was definitely NOT an appropriate time to check my mirror. As I returned my attention to that which was in front of me I was greeted by the vision of the back end of a car coming to a stop in order to turn left onto a little hidden drive tucked away in the trees. I was coming up on this car way too quickly and it was an alarmingly short distance away. I'm guessing that they had never travelled to wherever they were going and hadn't seen the drive coming up until it was almost too late.
Many Hawk enthusiasts will note that the front brakes (a single disk setup) could really do with an upgrade and for track riding I'm sure that's true. But I learned that day that the stock setup was at least capable enough of lifting the rear wheel and bringing the bike to a stop far quicker than I ever imagined possible. Thankfully the Hawk and I both survived unscathed. My buddy later noted that he thought for sure I was a goner as he had a front row seat to the whole ordeal. I was grateful that I had lucked out of a really bad situation that I had put myself in. But I can't begin to tell anyone how embarrassed I was that day. Even though I realized what I had done wrong, after pouring over all of the mistakes I had made I didn't ride with anyone again after that for a long time. That was, and I hope that it will remain, the single most frightening moment I've ever experienced on a motorcycle.
(03-01-2018, 12:25 PM)EmptySea_imp Wrote: Nice article. The "goober" mentioned in one of the captions lives near me and I've talked to him a few times. He likes the CB1100...maybe I should see if he wants to cover the Berea rally for CycleWorld!! LOL
Well, if you actually get along with the guy then you've got nothing to lose by asking. If nothing else he might just have some free time and enjoy going on the trip for the sake of the trip.