Hit the Ground Revving

I experienced my first motorcycle ride this past weekend. Or, I guess I should say, my first motorcycle trip.

We started with a practice run, about a 10-minute ride to a local diner for breakfast on Saturday. Then left straight from there for a 2 + hour journey to the North shore, countered by a longer, wetter, journey back on Sunday morning.

Some Background
Growing up my grandfather had three motorcycles (all BMWs) but I never saw him ride any of them. When I was about 5-years-old we came home from yard-sale-ing one day to find fire trucks outside of our house because one of the bikes had caught fire while my grandfather was working on it. The only thing I know about the other two bikes is that one of them would start to shake if it got over a certain speed. Knowing first hand this happening with my first car I can imagine this makes riding said motorcycle pretty impossible, as in a car it's pretty noticeable, but with the extra two tires, not necessarily debilitating.

I remember my grandfather telling my brother (the only boy) that he would get to have one of the bikes when he was old enough, which always made me jealous, as I wanted one, too. By the time any of us were old enough to even drive (I am the oldest) the tune had changed to 'motorcycles are dangerous, no riding them!' but at least this was applied to all three of us, and not just the girls.

My dad had one when my parents were first together, but, growing up, would deny any connection to ever having ridden one. He finally blew his cover when we were playing a video game at the arcade. After kicking my brother's butt in some game that involved motorcycling he pulled out his wallet to show off the "M" stamp he had on his license. Needless to say he had totally forgotten his previous denial. Busted.

Present Day
Fast forward. I am 24 and I still had never ridden a motorcycle, not even as a passenger. I had had a few offers, some years ago, from a friend who's father owned one, but, being the parent-shy person I was at the time, I declined.

Now, my boy had bought a bike about 4 or 5 years ago (it's only been about 9-10 months for us now, keep in mind) but he had never had a passenger. My initial excitement at dating someone with a motorcycle was put on hold. He had abstained from having passengers for safety reasons, not wanting it to throw off his balance, etc, which is understandable. His old bike also did not have a sissy-bar/back-rest, so, while a few months ago we had discussed the possibility, I wasn't that motivated. We also had the worst luck with the weather and the few opportunities that came up were rained out, anyway.

About a week ago he went and traded in his old bike for his first Harley-Davidson, which is a bigger bike, length-wise as well as having a bigger engine. Also, it has a back-rest. :)

There was rain in the forecast for this past Sunday, so I was afraid it would nix yet another chance for my first ride, but, seeing as the bike was so new, he wasn't going to give up the shot for a nice long ride, and the opportunity to show it off to our friends.

What I Knew Before
Don't let your legs touch the tail-pipes when you hop off, they are wicked hot. *
... the end.

What I Know Now, About...

Balance & Stability
Though I had done some research, prior to Saturday, there were mixed messages. Some things claimed that passengers should stay as straight as possible, while others suggested leaning into the turns with the driver. Really, it depends on what the driver wants. I also think it depends on if the passenger knows how to ride a motorcycle on their own or not. Obviously, I don't.

It worked out well that I would just hold onto the sissy-bar when we came around a significant turn and do my best to become one with the bike. (i.e. not leaning into turns with him)

Holding onto the sissy-bar was also my chosen tactic for the first 10 or 15 miles because I felt wrapping my arms around his chest would be too distracting/throw him off balance, and also my helmet would get in the way of doing this comfortably. I also wasn't sure how secure I would feel just having my hands placed on his waist, since it wasn't really holding onto him as much as just a place to put my hands.
Once we hit the highway, though, that is where my hands went because the sissy-bar was on it's way to erasing my fingerprints.

I have to say the back-rest was a life-saver. I don't think holding him around the chest would have just been an option as much as a necessity if there had been no backrest. After I got over the initial anxiety I felt pretty comfortable.

In particular, I had some issues with my left knee cramping up after awhile. I finally decided it had to do with the fact I drive a standard car and use my left leg a lot more, for pushing in the clutch. I don't know why or how this would make bending my knee for an extended period of time painful, but that's my running theory at the moment...
...I digress.

Due to this comfort issue I spent decent amount of time trying to readjust my legs to alleviate the strain on my knee. When I first got on the bike I had placed just the toes of my boots on the foot-pegs so I was basically on my tip-toes. Initially my knee felt better when I shifted so that the foot-peg was under the arch of my boot and my foot was resting flat. I felt, though, that my feet being in this position was getting in the way when we were coming to a stop and he had to touch the ground, as every other time his leg would bump my foot.

There was a stretch of time we were in traffic and it was a lot of stop and go. I figured this was a better time to try and shift to find a more comfortable angle for my legs. It wasn't until we made a pit-stop that he told me it has been throwing off his balance a little because when I would readjust one foot I was pushing down on the foot-peg on the other side. He suggested that if I wanted to adjust my legs maybe I could focus my weight on my butt and use that as my center of gravity. I also would hold onto the sissy-bar and push my self up with my arms and back. It was later confirmed that both of these tactics worked much better and didn't affect the balance.

Communication
Before leaving we decided that if I needed him to stop for anything to tap on his right shoulder. I think vaguely we also decided that if I tapped him on the left shoulder it meant to turn his head so he could hear me.
Depending on where we were, and how fast we were going, talking on the bike was pretty tricky, if not impossible. #1 I was behind him, so his words often got lost in the wind. #2 my helmet was a full-head so my ears were covered, and I had the face-shield down most of the time, so I was in a bubble. This also blocked a lot of what I was saying to him.
We also never discussed what he should do to communicate things to me. For the most part we only spoke if we were at a stop, and only if it was important.

Attire
I do own two leather jackets, but I ended up wearing a denim one. This being the case because one of the leather jackets is old and falling apart and too big, and I've been trying to get rid of it for awhile. The other one is my mom's old biker jacket, but it's very 80's, with large shoulders (due to shoulder pads). I'm afraid it might look too ridiculous, though I haven't tried it on in a while. It was also buried in a box somewhere.

The jean jacket worked out pretty well. On the way up, which was a nice ride, dry, with the sun out, it protected from the wind and I was comfortable. The only time I got a bit warm was when we would slow down or came to a stop. That's when the sun would lay on the heat, and I mostly felt it on the tops of my legs.

I wore a pair of skinny-jeans, figuring they would fit in my boots better, which they did. I think next time I would opt for jeans that are a bit looser. I'm curious about whether or not the tightness of the jeans may have added to the strain on my left knee, and may have been pressing the cuff of my (knee-high) socks into my knee cap. (At the moment, sitting at my desk, my knee feels fine and it is bent at a similar angle, but these are looser-fitting jeans, and there is a giant hole in the left knee as well...)

We both brought an extra layer for the ride back, preparing for the rain. This was a supah-smaht move (his idea, cause he's a pro) because oh, did it rain. Of course it only rained up until we were almost an half hour from home, then everything was dry and the sun was out. I was soaked to the skin and debating whether or not I was loving the slight warmth from the sun, or hating it for reminding me I was soaked.
I wasn't miserable though, I mean, I prefer to be dry, but whatcha gonna do? Though, I am pretty low maintenance so, to each their own.

Also, I have to say, being soaked while on the bike was easier to deal with than when we stopped and had to be soaked off the bike, then each movement was uncomfortable.

Baggage
Since we were going for a long trip, and it was for a birthday celebration, we had stuff we needed to bring. His old bike had saddle-bags and a plastic trunk on the back. The new bike doesn't have anything for carry-on, so a back-pack is the only option, and, as I was the passenger, the back-pack was my deal.

I'm glad for two things on the way up, for starters, it wasn't raining, and also, we didn't take the highway the whole way, we took a lot of back-roads and slower routes.
The bag wasn't terribly heavy on the way up, but it was a lot more comfortable on the way back since it was almost empty, most of the stuff I brought being for the birthday girl. Also, an almost empty back-pack is much easier to deal with when it's been soaked through, or at least, I assume.

Unfortunately, this means that I always had the bag on. I am eager to see what it's like to ride without the extra weight. Carrying the bag meant I had to sit a certain way so it was either just resting on top of the back-rest or that it hung over the back-rest. Though, having it hang over the back-rest made me a bit nervous. I was afraid it could lead to balance problems if I leaned forward and forgot it was over the back-rest, and then it might get caught and lead me to jerk forward or pull-up short.


Miscellaneous
We only had one snafu during the trip and it was on the way back. About 25 minutes into it we pulled off randomly in the break-down lane.
Turns out he had started to get electrical shocks in his hands through the handle-bars, that were shocking in the rhythm of the engine.
He turned it off and we took a breather, got back on and it had stopped. We pulled off to get food anyway, but while we were looking for a place to stop I got a couple of shocks from the sissy-bar. Pretty sure it is fixed, for now. There was a cable for the battery that was exposed so he figured it might be what was sending shocks through the metal of the bike. He wrapped it in plastic and after that we had no more issues.

Reflection
Would I do it again?
Totally.

What would I do differently?
Wear looser jeans and lower socks, maybe in a real leather riding jacket.
Not have a back-pack, or any type of bag if I can help it.
Maybe do some leg-stretches before hand.

*This is true.