![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
And that is so I wouldn't cry when I scratched it up. Well, I didn't cry but my lip trembled a bit.
Last night, the Boy and I took said toy over to the local tech center's parking lot* to play around. We had some ups and downs.
Up side, I got up to third gear in the parking lot and did multiple turns, including a bunch of tight ones in a narrow lane at the end of the lot. Two of those tight turns were in 2nd gear and pretty smooth. I also worked on 3 point turns, starting on a slight hill and downshifting to a stop and just swerving back and forth across a straight line and not hitting parked cars.
On the down side, I messed up one of those really tight turns, almost went up over the curb, tried to hip check my bike back into the road** and ended up laying the bike down. Luckily, I was going 0.25 mph at the time and the bike just sort of settled on the left passenger peg and the handle bar. I ended up scratching one of the blinker casings and flooding the engine but otherwise it came out of it fine. I also ended up breaking a nail when I hopped off.
My bike didn’t want to start up again, so the Boy called Simon for advice. The conversation went something like:
Boy - "Hi Simon. Do you think it is likely that when you lay a bike down to 90 degrees that the engine will get flooded?"
Simon - "Is this question of a practical nature?"
Boy - " You could say that ..."
Apparently you just need to let it sit a few minutes and NOT use the choke when you try to restart it. Ten minutes later, it started right up and I did another lap in first and second gear. It was dark by then, so I didn’t get to try that tight turn again. Hopefully I’ll get another chance on Thursday.
Oh, and I also stalled it twice in a row but that was while I was still getting used to the clutch. I need to have the clutch adjusted since it doesn’t catch until it is just short of completely out … which is right at the end of my finger extension where my grip is the weakest. I’ll be a lot happier if it catches in the middle of the lever’s range instead of at the end.
Lessons Learned:
1) You don’t hip check a bike that outweighs you almost 4 to 1,
2) You don’t try to brake with the front wheel turned (which I knew but I panicked when the hip check failed)
3) Despite its size, I can pick this bike up off of the ground.
4) You always wear gloves because it sucks to have a mosquito biting your throttle hand while you are driving.
I so want to go play again but its raining and we have DnD tonight. I lose.
-------------------------------------------
* - DUDE, Raytheon has an office park within walking distance of my house. How did I miss that?
** - This doesn’t work on a cruiser like it does a dirt bike, oh no it does not!
Last night, the Boy and I took said toy over to the local tech center's parking lot* to play around. We had some ups and downs.
Up side, I got up to third gear in the parking lot and did multiple turns, including a bunch of tight ones in a narrow lane at the end of the lot. Two of those tight turns were in 2nd gear and pretty smooth. I also worked on 3 point turns, starting on a slight hill and downshifting to a stop and just swerving back and forth across a straight line and not hitting parked cars.
On the down side, I messed up one of those really tight turns, almost went up over the curb, tried to hip check my bike back into the road** and ended up laying the bike down. Luckily, I was going 0.25 mph at the time and the bike just sort of settled on the left passenger peg and the handle bar. I ended up scratching one of the blinker casings and flooding the engine but otherwise it came out of it fine. I also ended up breaking a nail when I hopped off.
My bike didn’t want to start up again, so the Boy called Simon for advice. The conversation went something like:
Boy - "Hi Simon. Do you think it is likely that when you lay a bike down to 90 degrees that the engine will get flooded?"
Simon - "Is this question of a practical nature?"
Boy - " You could say that ..."
Apparently you just need to let it sit a few minutes and NOT use the choke when you try to restart it. Ten minutes later, it started right up and I did another lap in first and second gear. It was dark by then, so I didn’t get to try that tight turn again. Hopefully I’ll get another chance on Thursday.
Oh, and I also stalled it twice in a row but that was while I was still getting used to the clutch. I need to have the clutch adjusted since it doesn’t catch until it is just short of completely out … which is right at the end of my finger extension where my grip is the weakest. I’ll be a lot happier if it catches in the middle of the lever’s range instead of at the end.
Lessons Learned:
1) You don’t hip check a bike that outweighs you almost 4 to 1,
2) You don’t try to brake with the front wheel turned (which I knew but I panicked when the hip check failed)
3) Despite its size, I can pick this bike up off of the ground.
4) You always wear gloves because it sucks to have a mosquito biting your throttle hand while you are driving.
I so want to go play again but its raining and we have DnD tonight. I lose.
-------------------------------------------
* - DUDE, Raytheon has an office park within walking distance of my house. How did I miss that?
** - This doesn’t work on a cruiser like it does a dirt bike, oh no it does not!
