Daily Maintenance Weigh-In Monday, May 19, 2014

183 - worked hard all weekend - 120 miles ridden... but I'm finding that after these longer weekend I drink a ton of fluids and end up high on Monday am... then it comes off during the week...  So no worries.

142.4  Last week of school, and I'm fully expecting the student count to skyrocket between now and Friday (teach in a maximum security juvenile detention center, and as the surrounding school districts close at the end of the year, a certain population is released out into society to work their shananagins and foment general mayhem and destruction.)   I say, bring it on!  I can do 5 days of it- easy-breezy.   Hang in there, fellow teachers..the end is near..... 

Holy crap! That made me laugh!

I know which students will be visiting our local detention center. 

I went to the neighborhood tennis courts yesterday with my kids and a group of 5 or so students from our high school were *hanging* out behind the tennis courts. I don't know if it was the happy smoke or the flowering bushes and trees that sent me into an asthma attack. And me without my inhaler. 

146.1#. It flashed 145.9#..."I can feel it coming!"  

I'm  having a leisurely morning and then going to a swim party with my students.  We have a reception tomr morning and student awards assembly.  I found the cutest reward certificates that correlate with candy...like Mars Award-your personality is out of is world.  What was I thinking!  I have to go buy candy!!! lol  My former fattire self is still on the throne at times.  The kids will love it, though!  Wednesday is graduation and Thursday is in-service ( who does that on the last day of school!!!)   I love summer break!!!!

Slim and Bonnie...we're almost done!!!

Tom- you are incredible.  If I do 10 miles, I think I've done something good...lol

Happy Monday!!!

148.0 - I'm a ******g rock star. 

I am very puffy, but I have to be careful with thinking this way. I tend to believe any excuse that I make. I'm upping protein and water. 

Proctoring again today and tomorrow, so I am bring sensible shoes along with a cute pair of wedge sandals for the non-walking part of the day (those two minutes that I'm not walking around - I shall look adorable in those wedge sandals). Ah yes, sensible I am not. 

More book returns and whatever else comes my way. 

102.4 lbs.  Chinese food tonight, ugh.

Linda, how was your ride this weekend?

f

Miss Fiona I hate to have to tell you that I did indeed drop my bike within 30 minutes of starting the refresher course. I did it making a slow right turn - hit the front brake when I got scared, which is my pattern. Broke the tip of my brake lever off but it is still useable. 

And it gets worse, I'm afraid. On Sunday I dropped it again when following my husband in an unexpected slow right turn into a gravel parking spot on a slope. Same behavior - panicked when I took a look and grabbed the front brake. 

So there was my beautiful bike on the ground. Again. Windscreen damaged, my bruised hip re injured. For a moment I wanted to walk away. But of course I couldn't so I got back on and rode through my tears. And yes there were plenty of tears. 

Now that's not to suggest that I didn't do a lot of things well this weekend. In the course, my emergency stops were pretty decent, despite having to correct a few bad habits I had picked up since last year. On the trip I rode pretty darn well through the twisties. My speed is much better. And I rode well (but understandably scared) through some very nasty cross wind conditions. 

And most importantly, even though my confidence has been badly shaken, I had fun!! A lot of fun!

So as much as I dread it, it's off to the parking lots for me to practice those slow speed turns and to discover more about myself and Violet. With my husband in tow to provide feedback  help pick Violet up. **** 

OMG!  That sounds like quite the adventure but I'm sorry to hear about the spills.  To be honest, I think they're par for the course tho - they always say it's not IF you go down, but WHEN.  I'm glad that on both occasions you had support and weren't alone on some busy intersection somewhere with a million cars whizzing by.  I'm also glad to hear you're relatively unscathed (except for the hip).  Just think of it as getting all that falling out of the way :-)  Eventually, the miles-well-ridden versus number-of-falls ratio will get bigger and bigger and your muscle memory will simply correct itself on the right hand turns.  Do you think you might experiment with just pulling in the clutch to coast and hitting the rear brake with your foot? That felt pretty secure in my class last weekend....

I'm so glad you had a good time despite all this.  I love twisties - they're the reason I want to ride a motorcycle.  And I think even the most experienced riders I know get spooked by cross-winds - I know I do.

Just out of curiosity - I think I might've known this info before but forgot - is Violet your 2nd bike?  If so, what was your first one?  I'm having trouble finding an affordable, suitable first bike so I thought I'd ask what you had.

Many thanks and I'm so glad you're safe and had a great time, to boot!  Get thee to a parking lot!

F 

Yes this is my second bike. My first was a Hyosung GV250. Very long cruiser. Beginner bikes are hard to get but you can resell them for almost all you paid for them. Before I make suggestions, are you looking for sport, cruiser or standard style bike?  Not that things line up with Canadian pricing, but to give me some idea, what price range are you looking for?

Definitely standard or sport.   I have two goals for this machine:  (1) make my clutch/brake skills second nature and (2) build my confidence on city roads.  So it has to be light, and I have to be able to flat-foot.  Oh, and it has to be fun!

I'd really love a Honda Nighthawk 250 but they're hard to find.  Budget for that would be $2.5-3K.  If I have to spend more than that, then I thought I'd get a Honda Grom (teeny-tiny motorcycle with all of 9 horses) which will be $4,500 OTD.  It's also hard to find and I think $4.5K is too much for a beginner bike, but it's short and light so I might just have to bite the bullet.

Thoughts?