Reading David Hough's excellent Proficient Motorcycling last night, and in a section about the tremendous dangers intersections pose to riders, there was a picture of a chunk of Aurora Avenue, fairly close to my house. Intimidating shots of Seattle metro busses are scattered throughout the book, as well. Kinda brings it all home.

In other news, this weekend's task: get some protective gear. Helmet and gloves, at least - the rest will probably have to wait until after the MSC course.

The purchasing of Far Too Much Gear has begun. After checking into a couple of places 'round Seattle and Woodinville, I ended up with a mostly-red HJC CL-14 Switch helmet, and a pair of light Teknic Freeway gloves. Fitting for this stuff seems to be more of a trial than I expected; the gloves, of course, are just fine, but getting that perfect fit out of a helmet seemed a bit tougher. I didn't bother to try one of the Arais (at about $450+) or Shoeis (at about $400) that I saw either place, but I tried a variety of HJCs, Z1Rs, and a few other lower-priced models. Long story short, none of them fit quite right.

I assumed that a bit too tight is better than a bit too loose, when fitting lids, and ended up erring on that side. I wore the CL-14 around the shop for about a half hour (earning some annoyed stares from the salesdroids; I think I'll head somewhere else in the future) and it's just a tiny bit tight at the forehead. A bit more than a tiny bit tight on the cheeks; I look kind of like a chipmunk with the thing on. Salesdroids assured me that the cheekpads will break in a little bit. HJC also appears to sell replacement cheek pads in slightly smaller and larger sizes; maybe a set of the next size down will solve this problem.

The folks I've talked to, and the infosites I've read about helmet fitting, all say "It should be tight, but not TOO tight," which is about the least useful advice I've ever encountered. How tight is too tight? Ah well. Suppose I'll wear it and see. Better I guess wrong on a starter helmet than on a $500 street ninja model.

Also tried a pair of boots; the only pair I saw that wasn't a bigtime cowboy style was the Alpinestars Roam, and though I really liked the looks of 'em, my feet are a little bit narrow, so no dice. Boots will have to wait.

Leaning toward the FirstGear Kilimanjaro jacket right now, though it's pretty pricy. May end up settling for the Magnum. With any luck I can snag something cheap off eBay...

The Tourmaster Solution looks like it might be a good one... Cheaper than most, too. Excellent.

Tried out some more gear and butt-tested my first bike today. On the way home from work I stopped at a Honda / Kawasaki dealership and the salesperson pointed me straight at the Ninja display. The EX500 ("Almost the Littlest Ninja") actually felt pretty damn good. Nice straight back, no crouch, no feet-way-out-in-front or tucked-in-way tight... Only problem was it felt about an inch too short to be just right, on me. My knees were a bit bent when standing it on the ground. Then again, my ass is as yet untrained in the ways of the cycle; maybe that's normal.

Salesperson told me he'd actually send me away on a shiny new ZZR-600 if he felt I could be trusted to "handle it responsibly and not crank on that throttle," which concerns me a little bit, but hey, what do I know. I'll content myself with its little brother. If I can ever find one used...the EX250s are a dime a dozen around here, but I've only seen two EX500s for sale, a couple of weeks apart, and one of 'em was an '89 - a bit old for my tastes.

Jackets. That Kilimanjaro is a bit on the amazingly heavy side. Maybe lighter is good...I can always add a rainjacket over it.

Jacket and pants are in the mail. A Joe Rocket Comet jacket and matching Alter Ego pants. I really wanted to order from NewEnough, but they had the Alter Egos backordered through October, and I just couldn't wait that long. Motorcyclecloseouts.com had pretty much the same prices and no backorder, so I went with them instead.

I ordered a pair of narrower cheekpads and a mirrored visor for my helmet from NewEnough last week, and they were very quick and courteous in their dealings with me; I'd recommend them highly and hope to use 'em more in the future, but I'd really like to have the gear before my BRC.

That just leaves boots. I think I'll likely pick up a pair of the Solution boots on the way home, from the local Honda/Kawasaki dealer, and that'll be the end of the expensive part. All I need now is 1) some education, and 2) a bike. Oh, and several years of experience...

Boots done. Nothing more in the gear department. Bring on the class.

Wrong size for the jacket. Have to return it. Guess that means paying shipping, both ways, again. The trials and tribulations of ordering online. At least MotorcycleCloseouts will let you return stuff, unlike some other sites...

This means no jacket to wear for the MSC course this weekend. Probably for the best, it's supposed to be 80 degrees or so anyway.

Last night was the (first) classroom session of my Basic Riders' Course, and I've learned a valuable lession:

When you spend several weeks obsessing over motorcycling, reading all the books you can get your hands on, and so forth, taking a beginner's course can be extremely boring.

The classroom portion consisted (mostly) of class members taking it in turns to read from the (very basic) book, and then discussing things such as "What is a clutch?" and the like. Not exactly intellectually stimulating. Important, I know, to make sure everyone understands the basics, but a bit slow after the research I've been doing:

Me: "The clutch controls the connection between the engine and the rear wheel. You can use it to modulate the power delivered to the wheel and to prevent the engine from stalling when the bike is starting from a stop, and also to shift gears. The area where the clutch is partially engaged is called the friction zone and it's very important for low-speed maneuvering."
Instructor: "Well, that's good, but I was looking for 'It takes you in and out of gear.'"

The reading-aloud-from-the-book school of learning doesn't do much for me, anyway. But the on-the-bike part of the MSF course ought to be a lot of good, useful information for me, and that's tomorrow, bright and early.

In other news, it looks like I've found my bike-to-be: a 2001 Suzuki Bandit, beautiful metallic blue, in great shape. About 5000 miles, and this is the first owner. I'm very excited. If all goes to plan I will be picking her up on Monday. For some reason, after looking at the pictures of the bike, I'm inclined to name her Zoë.

Well, though the classroom was a bit slow, the cyclin' portion of the basic riders course was awesome. Lots of good experience - it's amazing how much faster 20mph feels on a bike than on, well, anything else. I passed. The instructors (Kelsi and Lee) were awesome. Hopefully, when and if I get to the point of an advanced rider course, I can track one of them down. Tomorrow, a license and a look at my first bike, the Bandit 600 I mentioned. If all goes well, my buddy and ex-sailing-student Josh will give her a look over and a test ride, and bring her back from Bellevue to my house - since I don't want my first experience on a twitchy little 600 to be mid-day traffic on I-90.

From reading, I'd kinda thought that the "look where you want the bike to go" thing was some sort of cheesy mnemonic to help keep your mind in focus, but it turns out it's pretty much a literal truth. I'm amazed what a difference it made to simply keep your head up and looking through your turn (for example) toward your next objective. The only points I lost on the riding test were exactly from that; I was focused on the end of the 135° turn rather than on the stop-gate beyond it, and so I swung wide at the end of the turn. Definitely something to keep firmly in mind when on these things.

My ride was a black Suzuki GZ250 and even that little guy had a fair bit of pickup. It wasn't perfectly sized for me, but it was pretty close. I picked it pretty much at random. The others were mostly little Nighthawks and Rebels. I guess with a learner bike it's pretty much irrelevant what you end up on, but I was glad I managed not to pick a 125...

Very excited. I want to go riding now but I can't see the bike until tomorrow, so...ah well. After nearly 12 hours over two days, I guess I could use a break.

Gentlemen and ladies, I'm proud to introduce you to Zoë. She's a 2001 Suzuki GSF600S Bandit, with 6,179 miles on her, and I think she's a beauty. The seller, a bike mechanic himself, bought her and a dualsport at around the same time, and has since found himself spending all his time on the dirt - not her strong suit, I gather. So she's been looking for a new home.

For right now, I couldn't tell you how she rides. My buddy Josh, a long-time rider, took her for a quick spin while the seller and I chatted about her, and when he came back he had a sort of a far-away look in his eyes. "Nice bike" he said.

That's high praise. There was a little more discussion to be done, but I handed over the fat envelopes of cash shortly. Josh got the keys, grinning like a madman, and I got back in my trashy ol' 1990 Volvo and slowly drove back home. When I got there, Josh was sprawled on my front porch, Zoë cooling down in the driveway, and I understand he beat me home by fifteen minutes. He said he ran across a group of four other riders on the freeway, and he just had to push it a bit.

And now after all that buildup, I have to wait until tomorrow to fax some paperwork back to the insurance company. I guess I can spend this evening in the driveway, making vroom-vroom noises. Tomorrow after work, though, it's going to be on.

Amazing. Took a bit over an hour this evening and ran Zoë around the neighborhood, dodging the occasional commuter and generally getting a feel for the bike. She's got a lot of power - at least, compared to what I was used to from the starter bikes at this weekend's course. I think the big tasks ahead are to concentrate on shifting smoothly - I tend to overrev when shifting, and it's annoying - and to really trust the lean when it comes to turning. I know for a fact that I'm nowhere near the limit of what the Bandit can do, in turns, as I'm leaning maybe 15 or 20 degrees. But we'll start slow and work our way up.

Only got her to about 45 tonight, on the longer straight stretches, and it seems perfectly comfy. As long as the tach stays relatively low she's very relaxed; the acceleration is impressive but not terrifying. I reved up to near 7k once though, by mistake, and she really wanted to take off. I get the feeling there's a long way to go on this bike, and I'm in no real hurry to get there.

This is so cool. I don't know if I've ever had this much fun. Feels a bit like skydiving did, but you can do it for hours at a time. Excellent.

N00b-O-Meter: 35.1 miles

Tonight was my first time in traffic - not real, I-5-at-rush-hour traffic, but two lanes on a side, and a few other cars here and there. It's true what they say: everyone else on the road IS crazy, and out to kill us. Lots of other riders, though, which was cool. One squid, one tattoo'ed old-skooler on a big Harley, and a bunch of sportbikers.

Shifting is a lot smoother than it was yesterday - focusing on sloooowly working the clutch instead of grabbing it - but the leaning bit still takes some getting used to. I think it may be about time to find a longer path; I've gone around this little 2.8 mile stretch quite a few times, by this point.

Filling the tank is not as hard as I'd been led to believe - and it's a whole lot easier on my wallet than my giant old steel-plate Volvo.

N00b-O-Meter: 69.9 miles

Well, everyone said I'd dump her eventually. I dropped Zoë today. Less than a block from my house, too. My daily ride consisted today of a cruise out to Fred Meyer to try and make some copies of the bike key - she only came with one, and I know I'll lose it sooner or later. At the end of my block, the street turns a bit downhill and also slopes off to the right. I came to a nice smooth stop, aimed for a right turn, took my foot off the brake, stuck it down to meet the road, and - ooooooh - it kept going down. The road was only an inch or two lower than it would have been on a flat surface, but that was enough. Zoë's heavy enough that once she starts to go, all I can do is slow her descent. I held her as best I could, and when she finally went down she dinged the engine cover, scraped the exhaust, and broke the plastic on my forward right turn signal. The real damage was to my pride.

A couple of nice folks across the street started yelling "Oh my god! Are you okay?" and I grudgingly admitted that I was fine, that I'd been stopped when I dropped her, and that the whole thing was very depressing. They helped me get the bike back on her feet and admonished me to "obey the speed limit" which I found a little bit odd...but hey, I'm a surly twenty-something in a mirrored helmet, I guess I could be a danger to society...

Really felt like just heading home, but I knew I needed to ride through it, so off I went, bitching to myself all the way about making such a bonehead, newbie move - and then remembering, wait, I am a newbie. I guess it's understandable, but it's depressing all the same. Zoë's not perfect anymore. The repairs are pretty easy - the ding will remain, I can't afford a new case cover right now - but it was just such a dumb thing to do.

Extra ironic and depressing fact: somewhere over the midwest, right now, headed to my door, is a pair of SW-MOTECH Engine Guards, which would of course have prevented any damage from this. Second ironic and depressing fact: the keys I had made, the goals of tonight's ride, don't fit the ignition.

Ah well. You win some, you lose some.

On the plus side, got into some (light) traffic on Highway 99, at speed. Not as bad as I'd feared. I do find it a bit unnerving how closely you have to watch everyone else. Riding at dusk isn't great; my headlight is very limited without the brights on. It's very easy to over-ride it, even at pretty low speeds. Shifting is much smoother, though, and so is my turning. I think I'm getting somewhere with this.

N00b-O-Meter: 89.6 miles

Decided I'd had enough of circling the block, and took Zoë to work today. I found an awesome route, as well, down Locust Way - full of Twisties Lite. Surface streets, pretty well wooded, lightly travelled, and with just enough exciting turns to have a really good time. It took me a bit longer than my usual to get to work, but I'll gladly take an hour of fun riding over a half hour of being cramped up on I-5, stuck in traffic half the way.

Nowhere near as bad as I'd expected, even on Lake City Way - three lanes on each side, pretty heavy traffic, and a lot of intersections. I just wish I could figure out a path that kept me on streets like Locust. So much fun. I never took her above 45, but there's space on that road to really wind her out, if I get the mind to.

Awesome.

N00b-O-Meter: forgot to check after I parked.

Okay, so it's much, much harder to pay attention at work when I know that Zoë's sitting in the garage right outside my office, waiting for me to ride away...and it's a beautiful day. 80 and sunny.

Just four more hours... :)

So zipping along down the freeway doesn't seem to be particularly difficult, compared to going slower but adding some curves into the mix. I figured traffic would be light on a Sunday afternoon, so I headed north out of Seattle with no particular destination in mind. A beautiful day for it; gathering clouds with patches of blue, that great smell before the rain, and yet the rain never came. On the way north no traffic at all, and I was free to run Zoë up and see how far she went. Actually, I gave up long before she did; I sensed a bit of disappointment from her that I never picked it up above 80. Ah well. In time, my dear, in time.

Ran about 70 miles out of town before my body started to question this whole motorcycling thing. The windblast at freeway speeds isn't trivial, and I've got a nice upright sitting position on this bike, which is also lacking any real windscreen. Winds were gusting to about 15 knots out there, as well, and between all that it was a bit tiring to stay out there. Also, my knees don't love their position; I think after the engine guards come in I ought to look into some freeway pegs. This will probably all come with experience; I figured for a first freeway run, I'd gotten a good one.

I got off at a rest area for a couple of minutes of leg stretching, bought a donut from some scouts or something, before heading back. The trip back wasn't as nice - traffic heading into the city had started to stack up in one of those inexplicable traffic jams which just appear and then disappear, with no evident cause. Anyway, about 5 miles of stop-and-go, and the rest of the trip was limited to about 55. I suppose I could have kept it at 80 if I was willing to weave, but I'm still a bit of a wimp out there.

N00b-O-Meter: 306.4 miles