Night Rider

I got out yesterday after the rain stop, but it was pretty late in the day. I road down Uvas to Watsonville and back again. I would have stay out later, but I didn't have my liner on and it was getting pretty damn cold.

I practice hanging off my bike, though I was going pretty slow. I was holding on with my outside leg and trying to look over the inside mirror. I was setting myself a second or so before the actual turn in. Since I was going to slow, I found that sometimes I had to counter-counter steer to keep the bike from turning too early or too much. (Note: Try to move half my butt over and keep my body parallel to the bike. Test this out in the garage to get a feel first.)

I'm sure my technique was bad, but I got comfortable moving my weight around the bike and learn it at a slow pace with pretty of room for error. Though I look pretty silly shifting my weight so much at a slow speed, I read from Sportbiker that this technique will help in the rain and slippy surfaces because it reduces the body lean of the bike which should help it stay up if one of the tires slip a little bit. Gary claims that he can go much faster in the rain because of this technique, but I don't have any plans to test that out.

It got dark on the way back and I got some practice switching between high and low beam. I found that my visibility with high beams allow me to rider about 50mph comfortably and low beam at about 35mphs.

I got on a circular freeway on ramp and found that I wouldn't see too well to the sides. I just slow down to about 25mph until the ramp straighten up. I knew the ramp so I knew where the road was going. Still, the ramp was going up and turning at the same time and the straight comes right after the crest, so it feels like the world is dropping out and you just had to have a bit of faith that the road is still there, even at 25mph. I guess better street lighting would help.

Once on the freeway, I stay in the right lane. I caught up to a van and stay behind him until he got off. That increased my sight range quite a bit plus I could see by the van's movement if there was a dip or bump coming up. I'm not sure if I should use high beams or low beams on the freeway. I'll go find out soon.

I need to practice my starts on a hill, especially when I need to make a sharp turn right away. I think the parking structure at my work would be good for this. The top floor is always empty.