Hello,
So with work and the heat and other weather, not had much time for riding in June, but a few updates.
My center stand finally arrived at the dealer in the middle of the month. Took long enough!
So I had to ride the bike down to the dealership so they could install the stand. I was going to ride it to work one day since the dealer is near my office, but too many other things that prevented that option from happening.
So this past weekend I took time on Saturday to ride it down and have the work done.
So I live roughly 30 miles from the dealership. This required me to ride on the highway across the open reservation between my home area and the area of town where the dealer is located. Then I needed to take the freeway around the main bulk of the city to get close to where the dealer is.
This was the first time I had a chance to ride on higher speed roads like this. In general I was not too worried about the speed, and even the traffic was not going to be too bad on a weekend. However, the process of riding at higher speeds, among more cars with multiple lanes in both directions created some extra stress, but in the end I was able to deal with it all quite well.
I kept the bike around the speed limit and just let all the faster traffic move past on the highway and freeway both. The freeway exits were a little worrisome since few people watch for bikes (or cars even) when pulling onto the freeway, so had to time things right. I only had one vehicle that did anything kind of stupid, and I saw it was going to happen and was able to adjust around it.
The hardest part though was the wind! It was blowing very hard and with the hills and various structures along the freeway, was coming at different angles as well. While I have ridden in similar winds in town, it is not that hard going 40-45mph, but when you are going 65-70mph, things are much more difficult.
The wind was buffeting me fairly hard and made even slight moves of my head or body have impact on how the bike moved. The cross winds on a few occasions pushed me to the edge of the lane and it was a good amount of effort to keep from drifting into another lane. I can now see why riders are so tired after battling winds for even short distances.
This was also one of the longest rides time wise for me, and I was feeling it in the hands and arms having to keep control of the bike and throttle. Definitely need to work out my hands and wrists to develop some better strength there.
So have now ridden on highways, in winds, with cars passing often and even passing a few myself, and pushed the bike up to around 75mph at one point (though I cannot see the benefit of moving that fast, not comfortable at all), and went a total of 67 miles over the day.
But at least the center stand is on the bike now and helps with parking the bike for more stability and will assist in future if I need to work on the bike. It helps a little with parking the bike in the garage, but not as much as I hoped as I cannot get as close to the wall since I need to put the stand down on the side that faces the wall, and that process is not as easy as it looks. And the stand does not grip the painted floor of the garage very well, slides to easily, so will need to find a rubber mat to place under the stand to allow it to work easier.
As we are moving into the high heat season, and winds are higher and soon the summer storms will be coming more often, not sure how much riding I will get in over the next few months. I do need to go out in the wind more to get practice with it, and eventually will need to go ride during the rain to get some time with wet roads, but in no hurry to do that. :)
So updates might be a bit slow for a few months, but once it cools down, I hope to be out every weekend on it, and will probably be taking another riding class this fall season, and maybe do a few out of town day trips to start getting some travel time. Will need to start getting some better riding equipment as well, starting with the helmet (one I have is starting to show its age) and gloves (mine are pretty beat up).
Till next time.