Grab it, pull in slowly, push left foot down, slowly release hand, add some gas, pull in ever so slowly, lift foot up, slowly release....ahh, 3rd gear here I come!
These are the words, or more the feelings that course through my veins when I think about shifting. I'm not sure when it was that it finally sunk in to my gray matter, but I know that it did. "How does the clutch work?" I would ask my dad for the billionth time. Each time he explained the process my head would swim and I would inwardly say "Just breath, don't think, just let it sink in". Well I guess all those talks must have gotten through to me as I now can 'feel' and generally understand the concept of shifting. In one of my many tries at getting out of neutral and into1st I got the bike to go with out much of 'popping the clutch'. Pop meaning that my head would whip lash back and I would leave my dad laughing hard in a cloud of dust. Usually I never made it to 1st as I would kill the bike by my over zealous left hand [the clutch hand]. As I would drive, the road and shifting would get better. The wind in my face and the machine beneath me, what a life.
If I ever thought I was a pro at shifting my last rendezvous with the bike painfully reminded me that I was not. I told my dad that I wanted to ride and so he helped me get the bike all ready. I drove off and spent the next 30 minutes on an abandoned road. I practised stopping, shifting, and maneuvering the corners. My hand's soon informed me that it was time to go or they were going to go. So I headed back up to my house. Feeling confident, I decided to take a different way home. Drive on the 'real' blacktop and be illegal, as I do not have a permit for mortorcycle. Crossing my fingers and assuring myself that no cops ever roamed our neck of the woods I ventured out. All was going well until I came up to a slight hill and needed to make a left turn. It should have all gone smoothly but over the hill I saw an oncoming van. I slowed and practically stopped by the time I realized that it was a neighbor. His house was before the intersection, so there was no worry. So I pulled in the clutch, lifted the shifter to 2nd gear and released. Vurrrm, vrrrm, glup, glup. "Oh, no", my head swam, "don't die!". JERK, I looked down in horror, I had just killed the engine. The inevitable had happened! I felt like looking up to the sky and yelling "is this punishment for driving without a licenced driver in the front seat", but I refrained as Anne Hathaway had already said that and she even had rain. Well, my mind was going about a million miles a second as I tried to figure out how to extricate myself and bike from the middle of the intersection. Thankfully God spared me any more cars until I got a move on the bike. I finally got it started and ducked my head as I came up the street. My street, the one that I had lived on for 19 years. Well, I thought, maybe no one will know me. There are other long haired blonds on the street, right? In case your wondering, no. My description fits, well, only me! So after parking the bike I slunk into the house. Dad wanted to know how the ride was. Couldn't he tell? Aweful! Well I'm not much for keeping stories to myself so I quickly told him. He smiled and nodded. He didn't believe me when I said that hopefully no one saw. Oh well, how many other girls my age drive 125cc bikes???
3 comments:
Love It! and yes....it fits you to a tee.....but I know that you will get better every time...and who knows? Next time it could be me in the back seat yelling, "The Bus is too fast!!! We're not going to make it!!!"
Very awesome. I love this post. And quoting Anne Hathaway, wow, I'm shocked. I've always been a street bike sort of person.
Keep up the good writing.
@k-thank u! Surprised? By the quoting or the Anne Hathaway?? Me too, except when dirt bike's the only thing to learn on, it's ok.
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