I Have Saddlebags!!

Well it's been a long time coming .. feels like it to me anyway being the impulse buyer extraordinaire that I am and wanting everything yesterday. I got my bike back today with saddlebags firmly attached to her. Yay!!

They look good ... see. It was a drama, had to get those spacers made up and they couldn't do the bolts for some reason that was explained to me but, cause I didn't really understand what was being said, I immediately forgot. So I still have to somehow get the bolts prettied up, I'll work on that when I can.

I rode her home today paying particular attention to the fact I now have a bit of extra weight on the back even with empty bags, and I'm not sure what I was expecting but it wasn't what I thought it would be. When I first got her off the stand I could feel the difference immediately and I was a bit nervous when I took off from the bike shop, but once I got moving it felt good. I actually think the extra weight is great, I don't seem to bounce with every little bump like I normally do. Awesome, here's hoping when I get her fully packed for the trip north it will still be good. There's more practising to be done before then anyway.

The bags sit a ways out from the bike and I was wondering what, if anything that would do to the balance of the bike ... hmm no noticeable effect, moving slowly and turning seems to be the same. I thought I might have felt more unbalanced, I'm glad it doesn't cause I seem to have trouble with that as it is. It is getting better tho, disregarding the drop last weekend, I feel pretty good on her lately. I've done a few tightish turns and maybe they aren't U-turns, they are still tight enough that I used to feel nervous before doing them and would sometimes completely furber them. I have a tight turn when I take off from work and I usually wobble like crazy when I do it and one of the girls at work even commented on my wobbles a few weeks ago .. cheeky bugger she's not getting a ride when I am game enough to pillion people! So this week I got to ride to work Monday and didn't have even the slightest wobble when I did that turn .. I think I may have said woohoo!!! It's like I've always known and keep saying ... practice.

I'm loving my bike and riding is become less of a chore, more fun. I knew it would cause it's something I enjoyed even when I was screwing up things and nearly doing myself permanent damage on the tank every time I stopped. I have worried at times that I'm biting off more than I can chew with the plan to ride to Queensland, that it's just all too much for my noobness. Today I am just excited about it, we've got plenty of time so I don't feel like I'm under pressure to get to there, I can just do my own thing. Looks like we will get to meet a few of the Northerners from SRA and that's something I'm excited about too. Get to meet people who have given me advice and I feel like I have come to know in a short time just by reading bout their own adventures, experiences and passions for their bikes, what could be better. We are going to the Buderim Ginger Factory too ... wheeee!!! Riding with a group will be interesting I hope there's not too many ...O.O But I'm pretty confident they'll be great to ride with and will excuse my noobness.

Don't think we will be riding this weekend, though Terry did point out to me that he hasn't had a ride all week. He wanted to go to Newcastle for a day or so but I'm not really keen because the holiday traffic scares me, why are there so many road casualties during long weekends? So we might go for a bit of a local trip just to get the need to ride out of our systems.

And yep you guessed it ... I love my Shadow