A Tale of Two Rides

It was the best of rides, it was the worst of rides.

We purchased our two bikes on Friday, June 18th: a white 2009 Yamaha V-Star Classic 650 and a black 2007 Honda Shadow Spirit 750. After delivery, we took a few pics and headed out for a small bit of riding in the neighborhood, just to get acclimated. The time was short: just a few trips up and down a pretty slow street. After feeling comfortable with that, we did what anyone would do: we headed down to Jack Quinn's Irish Pub! Great fun was had by all!



Saturday morning was a perfect morning to ride. Sunny and cool with light traffic...the perfect time to start entering the area streets. We took a couple laps in the Allegheny-Rockrimmon-Vindicator-Centennial circuit, stopping at lights and getting up to 35 MPH. After a few of those, we took a left on Centennial and made our way down to 30th, then taking a right on Flying W Ranch and returning to Centennial. There's a wonderful point on Flying W Ranch where you reach the top of the hill, and a good part of Colorado Springs opens up in front of you. If we were hooked on the idea of riding before, we were now fully addicted to the actuality of riding.

After making our third Flying W Ranch trip, we reversed course and headed south, then took a right on 30th...and kept on going to Old Colorado City. The route took us right by Garden of the Gods; the addiction just kept getting stronger.

As luck would have it, there was a farmers' market in Old Colorado City, giving us great opportunity to maneuver through some busy areas and really make use of our helmet-to-helmet comms. As we continued down Colorado, we decided to just keep going into downtown Colorado Springs for a stop at Apex Sports (our bike dealer). Before we could even get off our bikes, our salesman Lance was out the door, excited to see us riding around already. They did some free-of-charge adjustments to Shannon's bike (which had earned the name Black Pearl during our ride), and we putzed around in the store.

Then it was up Weber as far as we could go, then on to Nevada. We were cruising along at 45 MPH, fitting in with traffic, and coordinating an off-the-line pass of a slow green van (nice to know that, when necessary, our bikes can really open up!)

SHU was on cloud 9. We were feeling more comfortable than we had expected, and some of our dream trips felt a step or two closer to reality.

Then came The Turn.

As Nevada passes under I-25, we had to make a left turn onto a frontage road before turning back on to Rockrimmon. The turn seemed pretty straight-forward, but it was just a bit sharper than a standard 90 degrees. It caught me a little by surprise, so I was checking my mirrors for Shannon.

Not ready for the extra angle, and momentarily distracted by an on-coming car, Shannon fixated on the curb. Rule #1 in motorcycle turning: you will go where your nose points. Shannon's nose was now pointed at the curb, and that's exactly where The Black Pearl went.

On my list of things I've ever wanted to experience, these next two were very near the bottom. First was watching Shannon hit the curb and be thrown into the air. The second was to have a helmet-to-helmet comm system that let me hear everything Shannon said, which were some yells of panic then moaning in agony with a broken ankle. In the panic of trying to get to my wife, I ended up laying my bike down (which messed with my heel/toe shifter a bit...need to get it back into shape.)

By all forms of grace in the world, Shannon "only" has a broken angle and we both have an even greater appreciation of really utilizing the techniques from our MSF BasicRider Course. We weren't unsafe: we both had full gear, we took it slow getting going, and neither of us was reckless in speed. But there are fundamentals to riding that need to be followed, from emergency maneuvers to basic neighborhood cruises. We both plan to make many practice rides once Shannon is out of the cast.

In the meantime, Sleipnir (that would be my bike, named after Odin's 8-legged horse) and The Black Pearl await in the garage. I have a couple small tasks for both, then I'll most likely give them each the occasional trip in the neighborhood; gotta keep my skills up, and they both need gas after that first 24 hours.

And Shannon? Being the super-bad rockstar she is, she road the last couple miles back home post-accident (adrenaline helps), and is impatiently awaiting the removal of the cast and her first trip back out on the Pearl.