Lake Placid New York

Lake Placid New York
Fall Ride 2010-Keene Valley, NY

Sunday, October 31, 2010

My Rides and all the Crap I Added

I've been piloting my own bike since 1998. Before attending a Motorcycle Safety Foundation 3-day licensing course I had been riding two up on my husband Blaise's 1982 Honda V45 Sabre. I finally got the nerve up and signed up for the MSF course. After 3 brutally warm days in September on the hot pavement of Hudson Valley Community College, I passed the road test portion of the course and walked out with my motorcycle license.

Blaise had purchased  a 1982 Yamaha Maxim as my first ride. It's a nice upright ride that came with a windshield and not much else. I rode that bike on and off for about 10 years. Blaise rode it a lot when his Sabre was down for repairs. It's small but it never failed to start on the first try when coming out of winter storage. The Maxim weighed no more 380 lbs but it felt heavy to me, even heavier when it went out from under me while I was stopped at a red light and my foot did a slow slide on sand. I eventually bought a set of Tour Master throw overs for it. Tanks bags were an experiment and I received a nice Cortech magnetic bag for Christmas one year.

This spring I decided I wanted to ride more. Blaise had purchased a Kawasaki Concours and I always felt I was trying to catch up to him when he had the Sabre. Now he's riding a 1000cc touring bike so the 400 Maxim wasn't going to cut it. Unfortunately I was still not displacement savvy so I purchased a mint condition '94 Yamaha Virago xv535s. I threw the windshield and bags on it and quickly put 1,000 miles on it. Of course it still wasn't enough bike, so I started shopping.

My next bike was purchased in August 2010. A 2005 Suzuki Boulevard s50 with 3,000 miles on it. When purchased it had a Memphis Shades windshield on it, some fork wind deflectors, and a sissybar/luggage rack. The Tour Master bags got moved again and as of today I have put another 2050 miles on the bike.

Over my next several posts I'll talk about and review some of the farkles and accessories I've obtained just this riding season including communications and riding gear. Check back- there may be something that interests you!

Writing Backwards

It's October 31, 2010 and I've decided to start a blog because I was thinking about it while out for a motorcycle ride today. That doesn't sound out of the ordinary except for the fact that I live in Upstate New York and it was about 40 degrees when the ride started. It's also not unheard of for people up here to ride year 'round, but I'm not one of them. Riding in snow and riding in early spring when there's lots of sand on the roads from the winter are two conditions I don't ride in.

The cold doesn't bother me. I'm fairly well equipped for cold weather riding- textile riding jacket and pants, sturdy motorcycle boots. Gloves are the one thing that I find difficult to decide on. The insulated winter ones tend to be bulky. So I'm experimenting.

I kind of feel like I should be writing this blog in the spring. And with my last ride more than likely coming up in a few weeks it seems like I'm doing this backwards. Oh well, that's just who I am.

As a 46 year old female rider I hope to give some insights on riding and the things I take along with me, the stuff I learn along the way and the people I meet. It's been a very interesting riding year for me and I figured I'd put that info out there for anyone that may trip over it or actually be interested. So read, comment- what ever you like.