Learning to Ride a Motorcycle - A Newbie’s Journal

by Dee Dee Baker (DoubleDee)

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Saturday, July 19th , (Also my son, Mike’s 33rd Birthday) Lesson #14:
 110 miles. Tacoma, via Hobart/Issaquah Rd, to Hwy 18, to Hwy 512, to I-5, back through Auburn, Benson Hwy, to Hwy 167 to 405.

This was my longest ride to date, and OH WHAT A CONFIDENCE BUILDER IT WAS. We rode to the BMC Field location in Tacoma to pick-up my jeans vest I left at the Lacey BRC location the previous weekend. This ride made me feel really good that I could rise above the failure of the BRC endorsement test, because I just did 40+ miles of twisties, traffic, high-speed interstate riding and made it there in one piece!! Hallelujah!!

We then rode to Eagle Leather in Tacoma so that I could purchase a leather vest. I needed that to put my club patches on it and my friend said I also needed the vest chains for formal wear so we got those too. Then it was off to Bent Bike in Auburn, where I purchased a pair of really cool riding boots. Shopping was another good way to pick up my spirits! From there we took Benson Highway back to Hwy 167 to connect to 405 and headed towards Bellevue to pick-up my luggage rack that finally came in at Eastside MotoSports. We headed back to my house where he installed the luggage rack…with some frustration and a lot of choice words !!@*#, due to a bolt that was practically welded onto the frame!! Oh my!

After all of that I was really, really pooped out and crashed at about 2230. It was a great feeling being so exhausted and I remembered once again what I love so much about riding. It’s exhilarating, challenging and you really have a sense of accomplishment when you hop off the bike!

Newbie Tip: The right boots, with reinforced toes and heels will help shift better…buy them early on. Also, remember that being a biker isn’t just about riding, its ALL ABOUT THE LOOK…get it right!!

Lesson #15, Wednesday, July 23rd:
 50 miles…I-90 to North Bend to dine at Jay Berry’s.

This was all freeway travel, no back roads and the fastest speed I’ve traveled so far…we reached 75 mph, pretty exciting stuff. I have really gotten use to the noise level on the freeway. Some riders say that it bothers them and they need to wear earplugs, but I do not find that the case. The hardest thing I find about lengthy interstate travel is that my throttle hand gets tired because you can never let it go. What I need is ‘cruise control’ or better named ‘throttle lock’ so that I can take my hand off of the throttle to rest it. My friend has one of thesinstalled on his bike and it appears to work very nicely for him.

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