Well. Today was my ERC, up at the Everett range, in a parking lot at the Boeing production facility. 12 students. Of those 12, 10 were on V-twin cruisers, about two-thirds Harley and one-third metric. Then there was a nice older fellow on a Honda ST1300, and Zoë and I. The short version: today's course was very good for my self-esteem, and a reassuring reminder that I have in fact been learning quite a lot since I started riding.

The majority of the exercises were very simple, and similar to the BRC tasks: quick stops, cornering, swerving, the U-Turn Box, and slaloming through cones. There was one exercise that we didn't see before; the Kidney Bean, a set of linked curves that formed the general shape of a kidney, and I suppose would be challenging to a freeway-only rider. However, since I've made a point of looking for curvy roads, it was a particularly easy one. With the exception of one turn in the U-Turn Box, I felt very comfortable all day long, very relaxed, and very secure in my riding.

After the class, one of the instructors came up to me and mentioned "Thanks so much for coming; you are AWESOME on that bike." I was very surprised to hear that; I don't know whether it's a comment on my riding skill, or on the fact that it's got to be much easier to throw my light, agile little Bandit around than the half-ton Harleys. Whatever the reason, though, I'm glad for the compliment. I was also asked to consider signing up as a RiderCoach; those classes are fun, and I'm certainly interested in learning more. We'll see.

There were a couple of colors-wearing Badass Harley Riders(tm) in the class; I don't rightly know why 1%ers would be taking an ERC, so I assume their colors were just a normal motorcycle club, despite the skulls, chains, and "FUCK OFF" patches. One of them weighed about 350 pounds, absolutely looked the part of the huge scary 1%er, and had a bunch of stickers on his lid; most were generally offensive and not very funny, but right at the back center, he had a big sticker that said "I BEAT ANOREXIA." That, right there, is some seriously funny shit, my friends.

In other news, the helmet cam is operational. I will write more tomorrow if I get a chance to get some pics of the install, but I wired it all up and took it for a quick ride-test tonight. The quality of night-time video is very low, but that's to be expected; I didn't buy a camera that is intended for low light. I'll take it out for a real ride-test tomorrow and see whether it works better in the daylight. The last issue remaining with the camera is the mounting strategy; it looks like the best approach would be to pick up a few more R.A.M. Mount pieces and affix it around the frame. Right now, I only have a single RAM that I'd intended to be for my GPS; I've modified it to mount the cam on my handlebars, looking past the tach and speedo and through the windscreen. Until I can get better mounting hardware (maybe a RAM ball sized for my front fork?) this will have to do.