Sunday 8 July 2012

Road Presence

One of the reasons I wanted the highway bar was to help protect myself and my baby in the case of a fall. I haven't dropped her in ages now but I still feel there's the possibility it will happen and I also am aware that I'm at the mercy of the cagers around me. I'm feeling impressed with myself lately in that I think I'm pretty aware of whats going on around me and I know when there's a car that has the potential to do something to put me in danger. I also have taken on board a lot of the things I've read about making life safer for myself by putting myself in a safe position on the road, and generally trying to make myself visible. So this is, I hope, just an extra bonus, just-in-case measure.

The other reason I like the look of the highway bar is that I thought it might make my profile on the road larger. Besides it being wider than my bike, making it bigger looking, there was also the fact that there's just a little bit more shiny stuff there now to attract attention.

We went for a quick ride round town today, went for lunch at my favourite cafe, then a quick ride round the outskirts of town. Yep you can ride round the whole town in bout 15 minutes! Terry didn't take his bike, his reason ... he wanted to get some pics of me on the bike. Again with the excuse that he doesn't have many pics of me on Roxy. Well he's certainly starting to get a collection now.

Can you see me?















Getting closer and I start to have presence.

Terry took a ton of pics, this is my favourite.


















It was nice day for a ride today, so even though I didn't go anywhere I still enjoyed myself. I'm finding myself amazed at the things I find easy to do now, like U-turns, yes I feel a lot better with those finally, I don't avoid them anymore but actually like to challenge myself to do them. Don't get me wrong I'm still not graceful at them, but I am doing them and I think I'm getting better each time I succeed. I've also nearly mastered keeping a foot up while stopped, that actually hasn't been as hard a habit to break as I thought it would be, I do it automatically now. Wow!!

There was one other thing that happened today that I just have to tell. It's got nothing to do with bikes so if you are only here for the bike talk you don't need to scroll down :) Yesterday I bought the amazing Staffy, Gizmo, a new toy. She gets bored so I get her something new as often as I think of it, the other thing she's been doing since we got home from the holiday is standing in the kitchen when ever we are there begging for snacks. We probably encourage that a bit cause the snacks are in the kitchen. Well I thought I'd kill two birds by getting her a toy that makes her work for a snack. The Kong Wobbler is just the thing. You put snacks in this thing and she has to knock it a certain way to get them out a hole in the side of it. I didn't think at first that she would get it, we showed her how it worked then she just sat in front of it waiting for one of us to tip it up to dispense a snack for her. Then only bout an hour after giving it to her I told her to go get her toy, and she bounded at it knocking a snack out. You could almost hear things click in her head as she worked out how to do it. Today she had the time of her life knocking this thing around the lounge room and had it emptied in bout 10 minutes flat! So I took a video. It's the first video I've done so will be interesting to see how it turns out.




The way she kept looking at me to get approval was just too cute. That tail didnt stop wagging!!

8 comments:

  1. Great pictures of you riding by surrounded by a lovely landscape. I have to admit that I added the bars to my Harley just because I know, that I will knock it over eventually. It is not a question of if but of when... q.e.d. yesterday I knocked over my hubby's scooter (and there was no protective bars hence, battlescars).

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    1. Oh no, I know bout those battlescars, they make me sad. Maybe bars for the scooter :)

      I cant take credit for those pics, they are all Terry's doing, he did good eh. I find it interesting you call the landscape lovely, it just looks red and dead to me, I guess different people have different perspectives, because I live with that every day it's just kinda bleh.

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  2. I like the pics, they are great! I think I want some bars too, first I need a new back tire. The kong toy is cool, that is one smart doggis! My wee doggis is getting too old to make her work for snacks now. Is Staffy obsessed with the kong now?

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    1. The puppy is well and truely obsessed with the new toy but after bout 2 minutes and not getting a snack (when I havent loaded it) she gets bored with it again. She cant chew it cause it's hard slippery plastic and I think that frustrates her. She has also been seen to be sticking her tongue in the hole in the side, I told her she'll get stuck but she doesnt seem to care :)

      I think the bars are a good investment, mind you a tire is better!

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  3. Great pics Terry, must be that you are so photogenic. I like the header picture too.

    Mastered the one foot down - good for you. They teach that now in the classes, but 10 years ago when I took my course it was both feet down and I still have a hard time figuring out why they want one foot down when to me it is less stable. Needless to say I haven't been able to train myself to do the one foot thing, it feels awkward for some reason.

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    1. Dunno bout me being photogenic, but Roxy look great in any photo :)

      Yeah I know what you mean bout feeling awkward, I had to force myself to do it and I still get the wobbles sometimes and put them both down. Agree it seems more stable to have both feet planted when stopped I'm not sure why they are training us to do that, but I got into trouble for it a lot when I did my training day.

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  4. Great pics. And the satisfaction of getting better at our riding is so pleasurable. I've enjoyed every step of my improvement. Like you, I went from fearing U-turns to facing them as challenges. The next step is trying to accomplish them with grace and poise. Riding better is the best feeling in the world.

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    1. It is pleasurable isnt it :) One of the other things I've really noticed I'm getting better at and am truely enjoying is my cornering ... wheee !!!!

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