MarkB
Well-known member
Sorry for the lack of posting the last couple days, I've been more than a little overwhelmed with stuff and I kind of felt the need to decompress a little this weekend. With that in mind, I got on the calendar last night to see what the local GWRRA chapter was doing and I found the title to be a little cryptic, so I called the ride leader. Turns out, it was more about safety training and co-rider training today and that was right up my alley what I was looking for!!
I got up about my usual time and decided to put a little spit and polish on my Wing. She's my daily driver to work and back, so she was needing a little cleaning. Besides cleaning, I topped off my tires, adjusted the suspension a little and gave her a good once over. We loaded up, fueled up and headed for the meeting location. We hooked up with another group rider on the way, so I willingly let him show me the way! As we rolled into the driveway of the meeting place, one member came up to take a gander at my oldwing. He was very complimentary and said it was good because we needed more older bikes in the chapter.
We were once again warmly greeted, fed some goodies, coffeed up and then sat down for the training. I found it all very informational and the setting was informal enough you could ask questions without being made to feel stupid. It was all very basic information with a power point presentation and visual aids to help demonstrate lane changing techniques. It was explained that some chapters may do things slightly different than others, but all chapters follow the same basic riding guidelines.
The co-rider training was equally interesting and I came away amazed at what is actually expected of the co-riders. Here I thought all they did was sleep! After the co-rider training, we went out to the bikes for some hands on touchy feely stuff. One of the last things covered in the co-rider meeting was what to do if the rider becomes incapacitated. They took us out to the bikes to make sure the co-riders knew what controls did what in case they had to take control of the bike for an emergency landing. They started out with my bike, since it had different controls than most, then moved over to the 1800. The only comment made about my oldwing was the instructor had my daughter demonstrate how to do the emergency takeover on the 1800 so she would know what to do when her dad got around to upgrading. :roll: They also demonstrated how to properly pick up an downed wing and anybody that wished to got to take a turn at picking it up.
After the hands on, we loaded up and headed out for a group ride to practice the skills we had learned. I'm pretty darned comfortable doing whatever on my bike on a routine basis, but in the group, I'm still a little sketchy. I know it will come with practice, but I have a hard time holding my line at times and doing what I'm supposed to do. Once again, we followed a lot of the same roads I've ridden on bicycles, so I pretty well knew where we were going most of the time.
We stopped for lunch and got to socialize a little more. That was fun. Afterwards, we headed back for home! It was the better part of the day, but a great way to spend the day.
I'm having a great time with the chapter and have decided I'm going to join. They've made both of us feel more than welcome and have not pressured us in the least to join. I'm sold!
Mark
I got up about my usual time and decided to put a little spit and polish on my Wing. She's my daily driver to work and back, so she was needing a little cleaning. Besides cleaning, I topped off my tires, adjusted the suspension a little and gave her a good once over. We loaded up, fueled up and headed for the meeting location. We hooked up with another group rider on the way, so I willingly let him show me the way! As we rolled into the driveway of the meeting place, one member came up to take a gander at my oldwing. He was very complimentary and said it was good because we needed more older bikes in the chapter.
We were once again warmly greeted, fed some goodies, coffeed up and then sat down for the training. I found it all very informational and the setting was informal enough you could ask questions without being made to feel stupid. It was all very basic information with a power point presentation and visual aids to help demonstrate lane changing techniques. It was explained that some chapters may do things slightly different than others, but all chapters follow the same basic riding guidelines.
The co-rider training was equally interesting and I came away amazed at what is actually expected of the co-riders. Here I thought all they did was sleep! After the co-rider training, we went out to the bikes for some hands on touchy feely stuff. One of the last things covered in the co-rider meeting was what to do if the rider becomes incapacitated. They took us out to the bikes to make sure the co-riders knew what controls did what in case they had to take control of the bike for an emergency landing. They started out with my bike, since it had different controls than most, then moved over to the 1800. The only comment made about my oldwing was the instructor had my daughter demonstrate how to do the emergency takeover on the 1800 so she would know what to do when her dad got around to upgrading. :roll: They also demonstrated how to properly pick up an downed wing and anybody that wished to got to take a turn at picking it up.
After the hands on, we loaded up and headed out for a group ride to practice the skills we had learned. I'm pretty darned comfortable doing whatever on my bike on a routine basis, but in the group, I'm still a little sketchy. I know it will come with practice, but I have a hard time holding my line at times and doing what I'm supposed to do. Once again, we followed a lot of the same roads I've ridden on bicycles, so I pretty well knew where we were going most of the time.
We stopped for lunch and got to socialize a little more. That was fun. Afterwards, we headed back for home! It was the better part of the day, but a great way to spend the day.
I'm having a great time with the chapter and have decided I'm going to join. They've made both of us feel more than welcome and have not pressured us in the least to join. I'm sold!
Mark
