Hey all! Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. Hotbrakes (
) keep insisting I join this site, so I finally did last night, and figured I should introduce myself. This seems like a great place to get lots of useful information, and a great new place to call home.
So, I got my motorcycle license about 3 years ago while on active duty, but it never worked out for me to get a bike. Over this past winter, I'd decided I'd had enough, and I was def getting a bike this year. Started dating Hotbrakes, and he steered me towards the Ninja 650R, which turned out to be an awesome bike. Unfortunately, it wasn't love at first site though, and after two days practicing in the parking lot, I headed out on the open road with him, and crashed a measly 6 miles later (22 Feb).
Ended up breaking my ankle and had to be in a cast, then a boot for 6 weeks. I also bent my forks AND my triple, not to mentioned banged up the front fairings pretty good. Bending the forks turned out to be a blessing though, because the stock suspension on the 650R is complete crap to put it nicely. Got sweet Traxxion springs (.90, stock is 1.20) and gold valve emulators to make for a sweet ride.
And by the beginning of April, I was back on the road with a sexy streetfighter. First day back out, 100 mile trip behind Hotbrakes, but he had to work on Sunday. So I took a 300 mile solo ride, and it was awesome.
My riding has been a work in progress. I've done four track days since April, and I have five more schedule in the next month. Great way to build my skills. I love the track, but my passion is sport touring. I'm still working on it, going the distance, and my longest trip has been a 1000mi weekend (Friday-Sunday). And that doesn't totally count, because I came home on Saturday night, and ended up doing a sweet Sunday ride with friends. I did do a fun spur of the moment trip one Saturday afternoon after work to WV, camped, then came back home Sunday. But that was short, probably only about 600mi over the two days. We were thinking of riding to Michigan to visit my family, just didn't have enough time to make the trip enjoyable AND have enough time with the family. Doing a fun trip in September though over Labor Day weekend, so I'm excited for that.
All in all though, I've put over 7000 miles on the bike since I got back on in April (just over 3 months). I think that's pretty good for a noob.
Looking forward to meeting people and going places.
