Shifting into fifth for the first time
Since I’ve talked about it enough during the past three or four weeks, most of my loyal readers know that I recently purchased a motorcycle. That was almost two weeks ago. Well, this weekend, I finally started learning how to ride it. And it is fun. It’s more fun than I could have imagined, and it’s more fun than I’ve had in my car in a long time.
I’m gonna be honest and let you guys in on a little secret: I never learned how to drive a manual transmission car. Now, before you start throwing things at me, let me explain. When I started driving in about 2000, nobody I knew had a stick-shift car, so I learned on an auto. That was all well and good for about eight years, until I wanted to drive something with a clutch and a manual gearbox. In case you didn’t know, 99% of motorcycles have manual transmissions.
I had no idea how sensitive the friction zone of the clutch would be, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. I’m becoming more intuitive about feeling when it starts to grab and then slipping it some more and applying the appropriate amount of throttle to get going. And let me tell you, this thing gets going. With the Protege, I hit the gas and the car is like, “Yes, sir. I’ll make a note that you’d like to accelerate. How about we take another second to enjoy the scenery, though?” With the bike, it’s like, “I hear ya, buddy. Hold on to the grips, just in case this turns out to be a bad idea.”
With my geek buddy Jim from TFUG (Tucson Free Unix Group, i.e., Linux), we logged about 5-6 hours in a parking lot between yesterday and today. After I felt comfortable this afternoon, we hit the road on our respective bikes and I got my first taste of navigating through traffic. Thankfully, Sunday afternoon traffic is pretty light, and it made for a nice, easy ride. After twisting around the Foothills a bit (literally, roads at the base of the mountain), we went to La Encantada and came back when it turned out to be packed.
Oh yeah, at some point along the way, I made it up into fifth gear, and it was a blast. I’m really enjoying the whole “motorcycle” thing, and I’m happy I got a bike when I did. If I’m feeling up to it, I might try riding to work tomorrow. It’s a straight 4 miles through 3 traffic lights and a left turn, and traffic is pretty sparse when I get into the office before 8:30 or so.
Vroom!
Tags: clutching, fast, gears, motorcycle, shifting