Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Riding

I'd really like to start posting updates about rides, gear reviews, maintenance details, and so on and so forth. So, I think this will be the last of the retrospective entries and the rest will be devoted to more current riding experiences. Maybe I will throw in a flashback or two later on, but we'll see.

After getting my Rebel I soon discovered that learning to ride in a closed-off parking lot is nothing like being on the real road.Needless to say, my first time out on the little roads in our community filled me with apprehension and anxiety. It had been a few weeks since the class, and you tend to lose new skills if you don't use them again right away.

Finding My Own Ride

During the weeks that followed my successful completion of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation class, I started my motorcycle hunting adventure. Now, a few months before my beloved boyfriend and I took the class we attended a motorcycle show in Washington DC. I sat on quite a few motorcycles, some of which were too heavy for me to even pull up from the kickstand position. Realizing the physical limitations of being a tiny redhead, I focused my attention on the smaller rides. 

How It All Started

Many months ago, my boyfriend told me that he wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle and get his license. I was okay with that, so I did a lot of research to find out what was involved in getting a Virginia Class M endorsement and what classes were available. I planned to get him a class as a Christmas gift, but it soon became a matter of budgeting so it did not happen at that time. Weeks later at the local motorcycle show someone mentioned that they also offer classes at the community college, which proved to be much more affordable. When I told him what I had learned about that class, he said that it was cheap enough for both of us to take it, and he would like it very much if we did it together.