sprocket i/o

Our Trip Map (as far as I remember it)

Yesterday morning me, and two of my other new rider friends, Young, his passenger Jamie, and Christine, decided to head out to North Georgia Premium Outlets. NGPO is a large collection of outlet malls off of Highway 400 near Dawsonville, GA, about 35 miles Northwest of where I live. It was to be Christine and I’s first experience on the highway, and our first experience going over 55mph. We’re a bit of a motley crue of motorcyclists: Young has a Kawasaki YZF-600R (Sport bike), Christine has a Honda Shadow VLX 600 (Cruiser), and I have a BMW F650GS Dakar (Dual Sport). I know Young through Chris who I worked with at Alltel, and know Christine through Dallas. Anyways..

I first met up with Christine at her house to check out her busted taillight, the result of an Unintentional Dismount(TM). I felt a bit silly as I could not even figure out how to get her seat off, which it appeared was a requirement (!?!) to remove her taillight assembly. I fiddled around for a bit and found some levers and a place to unlock it, but I had to put it all together so that me could meet up with Young at the Blockbuster on Holcomb Bridge at 9am. Christine’s driveway is very very steep, and very very fun. She duckwalked it down, and I rode my brakes down. Coming out of her neighborhood and into downtown Roswell, I was doing an absolutely horrible job on my shifts and turns, and must have looked very bad in front of her husband who happened to be driving behind us for an unrelated errand. We got to the Blockbuster without any drama, which was a good sign, and met up with Young and Jamie. It was an interesting culture clash in the making between the different styles of motorcycles. Young and Jamie were squidding it, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, Christine was wearing a half helmet with goggles and a jacket, and I was ATGATT. It was very strange to see the stereotypes played out for each type of bike so soon in our motorcycling journey.

Being a group ride, there is a certain etiquitte and protocol, mostly to maximize safety. You ride in a staggered position, and elect a leader who knows the roads and a sweeper, who has the most experience and stays in the very back to deal with any unexpected situations. The less experienced riders stay in the middle. Young by far had the most experience (3400 miles), so he was automatically the sweeper. I had 150 miles and knew the roads to an extent, so I got to lead, and Christine got stuck in the middle. We forgot all the proper hand signs, so we just decided to do the best we can and hit the road.

Getting up to the Outlet Malls was an uneventful breeze. Since Christine and myself had no experience at high speeds yet, we stayed in the slow lane and hovered within 5mph of the speed limit. Evidently, it’s safest to stay in the fast lane on a motorcycle, but I thought it would be a bad idea to push ourselves so fast on our first real ride. It was a real pleasure cruising down the open road. I was pretty stiff at first: my back wasn’t comfortable and my knees were gripping onto the tank as hard as they could. After about 20 miles though, I learned to relax, put my back up, and just enjoy the ride. The bike was pretty stable at 70mph, but a bit more shake and vibration than I expected at those speeds. I had a harder time hearing my engine through the rev noise to figure out when to shift gears, but it just meant I had to listen harder to how my bike was actually feeling, rather than just the engine noise. The wind noise wasn’t overwhelming, but I do now know why people where earplugs on long trips to avoid fatigue.

Once we got to the Outlet stores, we hung out for a while to rehydrate ourselves, and let Jamie do a little bit of shopping. We talked a lot about motorcycles (duh) and motorcycle safety. After a while though, we got tired of sitting inside and hit the road again. i opted to take a leisurely loop around where 400 enters Dawsonville, mostly on 2-lane roads that criss-crossed fields, homes, and hills. There were quite a few nice and easy curves to navigate, and they were perhaps the most pleasurable part of the trip for me. Countersteering felt very natural on these curves, and it really boosted my confidence in my ability to handle the bike. Sadly, all good things must pass, and after about 45 minutes we headed back onto Highway 400 to head home.

Going back was not quite as great of a ride as going there. It felt a little depressing, honestly, but at least I was on my bike. It was fun waving to all the motorcyclists passing us going north, but after a while it got ridiculous with how many bikers were passing us. The only drama on the way back was me getting a case of target fixation in a construction zone where the lanes shifted. I was following the pavement line with my eyes rather than the painted line, and ended up about a foot into the left lane for a few seconds. When we got to Old Milton, I saw Young coming up behind me fast, and could not see Christine. I was a bit worried that Christine ran into a problem, so I pulled over onto the side of the road. It ended up that Young was just going to split early from here, since it was a faster route to his house, and he was directly in front of my view of Christine. Christine and I decided to get off here and head toward her deale, Atlanta Motor World to see if we could find out any information about her taillight assembly. Their service department was busy, so we just looked around and decided to get some lunch at Taco Mac before heading home. When we ate lunch, we still felt as if we were vibrating — similar to the ‘wave’ effect you get after you go sailing on the ocean.

Overall, the trip was awesome, and I’m really glad that I got a chance to go take my bike on the ride it deserves. It was a good size trip for a beginner ride, and I’m really glad that Young was there to help instill confidence in Christine and I. I’m also very happy that my new jacket worked out great in the heat. I think I would have fainted in the leather jacket yesterday, but the mesh actually kept me pretty cool, so long as we were not just standing around and baking in it. I hope to make a slightly larger trip here soon, maybe on my day off tomorrow. I’m playing with the idea of heading out to Franklin, NC and get lunch with my friend Mark. I do have to find a good solution for taking photos on my bike. I was considering strapping one of the Disposable Digital Camera‘s on my handlebars for fun. Hopefully it won’t distract me too much.