Whew big day for me!!! I've had some crazy-ass momentum since my "All Coming Together" post and wanted to take advantage of this newly found confidence. One night I returned to my old stomping grounds from where I practiced basics to work on u-turns and swerves. Guess how I got there? Taking the freeway! If you read a previous post of mine, I defined a freeway as a fast paced 5-lane road like 101 or 880 (if you're from the Bay Area). Sure I only drove it until the next exit, but it felt damn good! In the parking lot, I got a feel for how my bike leans and became less freaked out about it. Win!
A couple of days later, I had plans to visit my family in Union City (about 25 miles away) and I thought, why don't I just ride there?? Before that, the farthest I've ever ridden was probably like 10 miles. To get there I took two major freeways going 70mph. I've never felt my bike go that fast before. Holy wind resistance!!! I sat upright (I have a 250 Ninja) and all the wind was knocking against me making my muscles tense. I was already tense from the nervousness!! The whole time I stayed in a middle lane and noticed that people didn't want to drive behind me...which I thought was good! Turning my head to switch lanes was sorta hard with all that wind pushing. My palms started to ache because I was gripping on the throttle so tightly. I noticed my body getting tired...it felt like a long ride! Also, riding motorcycles isn't as fun by yourself.
I did have one mishap. Okay two. I exited the freeway and started to downshift (or so I thought) at an upcoming red light. The light turned green and I think my gear was too high for the speed I was going because I heard clicking and felt jerky and I wasn't going very fast. Once my gears caught up, I sped up to 40mph quickly and was like "oh crap, I was in the wrong gear." I could feel the trembles after that. My upcoming green light turned yellow, soon to be red, and I felt that I wasn't going to make it, but didn't want to stop hard. So I totally blew that red traffic light. Whoops! No cops thank god. The rest of the way was good.
I arrived to my family's house and showed off my bike. My adorable 4-year old nephew said that my "motorcycle was awesome!!!" My cousins took it for a joy ride and I felt proud that it was mine =)
Pretty much the whole time at the house I was like, "Oh my god I have to ride back at some point." I felt so exhausted already! After fun with the nephews, coffee, and food, I was ready to head home. Planned it so that it was before the sun began to set (crazy sunlight in my eyes!). Things went smoothly on the way home. At one point another motorcyclist was riding next to me on the freeway. Even though it was a complete stranger I felt like, "Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!"
What a fantastic (and damn tiring) day!
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