We were pretty lucky with weather this weekend - we went to Moab despite threatening weather forecasts and were amazed to have pretty sunny but cool and breezy days with rain only at night. I was also totally psyched to find out that riding my motorcycle in the wind is actually fun - as opposed to being sandblasted and drowned with sand when you're on a mountain bike. :)
Anyway, I did my first riding since my knee surgery a few weeks ago. (And prior to this weekend I'd only ridden 4 times ever.) My electric start decided to die somewhere in between picking it up from it's first service and unloading it in Moab - and kickstarting with a weak knee didn't seem like a great idea, so I spent most of my riding not only taking it easy, but keeping a death grip on the clutch every time we stopped and praying I wouldn't stall it. That was the only bad part of riding - it was bad enough having Craig kickstart it for me to get started on the trail - but I stalled it a few times and I hate being the one that needs help. But the trails we rode were fun (if you can even call them trails - like most rides in Moab they were wide enough for Jeeps to pass each other, but that was probably a good thing for my ability level right now. Just enough little rocky sections or stretches of sand to keep things interesting, but nothing too challenging. Well, except for one spot on Gemini Bridges where Craig came riding back up a ledgy section and told me to stop because he wasn't sure I'd be able to make it back up. I got the bike turned around okay but then I was sitting there with a 8" rock ledge about a foot away from the front tire and no room to back up to get started (more ledges behind me). Ugh. I made it up but my hand moved on the throttle when I hit the bump and I nearly dumped it - Meanwhile, Craig is standing there asking why I didn't just pull in the clutch... Um.... Good question! One of those things that wouldn't have even made me blink if I was already in motion, but from a dead stop, it sucked. Luckily that was the closest I came to falling all weekend. We did some mountain biking and hiking too - luckily I had two other girls with me who were happy to ride easier trails since I'm still getting my knee back in shape. (My doctor said I could ride my motorcycle on pavement as long as I didn't fall or stand up on the pegs - so I, um, mostly didn't stand up on the pegs and just rode easy trails....)
Anyways, I made it through a weekend of riding both my motorcycle and mountain bike and hiking without so much as a scratch. All my friends kept joking that they'd never seen me end a trip to Moab without a massive collection of bruises, scrapes and other injuries. Maybe there's something to this "taking it easy" stuff.... Nah!
Anyway, I did my first riding since my knee surgery a few weeks ago. (And prior to this weekend I'd only ridden 4 times ever.) My electric start decided to die somewhere in between picking it up from it's first service and unloading it in Moab - and kickstarting with a weak knee didn't seem like a great idea, so I spent most of my riding not only taking it easy, but keeping a death grip on the clutch every time we stopped and praying I wouldn't stall it. That was the only bad part of riding - it was bad enough having Craig kickstart it for me to get started on the trail - but I stalled it a few times and I hate being the one that needs help. But the trails we rode were fun (if you can even call them trails - like most rides in Moab they were wide enough for Jeeps to pass each other, but that was probably a good thing for my ability level right now. Just enough little rocky sections or stretches of sand to keep things interesting, but nothing too challenging. Well, except for one spot on Gemini Bridges where Craig came riding back up a ledgy section and told me to stop because he wasn't sure I'd be able to make it back up. I got the bike turned around okay but then I was sitting there with a 8" rock ledge about a foot away from the front tire and no room to back up to get started (more ledges behind me). Ugh. I made it up but my hand moved on the throttle when I hit the bump and I nearly dumped it - Meanwhile, Craig is standing there asking why I didn't just pull in the clutch... Um.... Good question! One of those things that wouldn't have even made me blink if I was already in motion, but from a dead stop, it sucked. Luckily that was the closest I came to falling all weekend. We did some mountain biking and hiking too - luckily I had two other girls with me who were happy to ride easier trails since I'm still getting my knee back in shape. (My doctor said I could ride my motorcycle on pavement as long as I didn't fall or stand up on the pegs - so I, um, mostly didn't stand up on the pegs and just rode easy trails....)
Anyways, I made it through a weekend of riding both my motorcycle and mountain bike and hiking without so much as a scratch. All my friends kept joking that they'd never seen me end a trip to Moab without a massive collection of bruises, scrapes and other injuries. Maybe there's something to this "taking it easy" stuff.... Nah!