| My first trip! |
| A dream come true |
| Friday, February 9h 2001 So, the great day has finally arrived, today I'll do my first (short) trip on my F4...! After the usual stuff everybody does in the morning I went to wake up Roxana, my '99 CBR600; take off the lock, take away some dust from it's gorgeous body, check fluids, lights, tire pressure, I know I have around 3 gallons of gas left in the tank. So, turn her on.. ahhh,, nice music for my heart! First stop: the office, I have to drop a couple of things before I take the road. Once arrived, check everything's fine, secure the laptop on the net on the rear seat, everything's ok, let's go again; put 1 gallon more in the tank, better a little more than a little less, right?! Finally! all set, gren light, go! The road awaits me. Now, it's Friday, 9:40 am, aren't you supposed to go to work??? I'm working! ;-) See, I'm a software developer for a small firm that deals with Human Resources Centes, and particulary with psychological evaluations; I have to show one of our software to a medium sized company, their offices are outside the city, about 50 miles away. So, it's the perfect oportunity to try a little Roxana.... Hufff! why there are so many street lights in the city...? Can't wait to enter the highway.... 20 minutes after I left the office I cross the city's limits... ah! roll a little on the throttle, shift gears, up, up, up... 6th...5k rpm, 6k .... ok, now I can feel more and more wind...whooo... this is the fastest I have rode in my life (my previous bike was a Honda XLR125, 4 stroke... another world)... 70 mph, 80 mph... hum, Roxana seems a lot happier now than inside the city... watch for traffic, apply 12 seconds clearance and 4 seconds warning area ahead of you... the wind is stronger, get low, hug Roxy, the road, the trees, the sound of the wind... what a wonderful feeling ;-) Yeah, some cagers on nice cars enjoy a lot passing me pretty close at high speed, but I'm not in a hurry and certainly I don't wanna race on my first trip, let them go away... far, far away... Ah, the highway, starts climbing a little, making some turns, yeezzzz! countersteering is pretty useful at this speeds! Just give her a little imput and some kind of obscure forces will take care of helping you leaning the bike. Somehow there was something that kept be from going above 90 mph, Survival instincts? I think that's enough being my first time at this speeds... Oh, so you are wondering about cops, uh? Well, I have to tell you the thruth, in this island speed limits isn't enforced very much, lot less to sportbikes... once a friend of mine told me about him passing an highway patrol at about 160 mph on his ZX-12... they were even clapping and yelling to him "go, go, go!" ... another culture... ;-) I watched the temp gauge going down and down as I proceeded along the highway... hum, never seen it so slow after riding for more than 30 minutes... it will not freeze, right??? Hum, nope, seems to stabilize in the lower 1/3 arc. And then it happened... I started crying.... You spent several years watching that highway, the perfect (almost) tarmac, the great scenery of trees on the side and you said to yourself so many times "Some day, not too far away in the future, I'll ride on this street on my own bike"... yeah, sure, you are just a kid, a young boy... keep dreaming... and here I am, 21 years old, almost 22, been working for the last 2 years, just started the university 4 days ago, and here I am! on *this* highway, with *my* F4... a dream come true... The odometer takes care of telling me how much way is left, and I saddly watch it mark 35 miles, 40, 45, 50 almost there.. exit the highway... "Excuse me sir, where's that company? That way? Thanks!".... little road, only two lanes, humm... it's heading toward the hills... ah! turns!... better! twisties! but 3rd gear and enjoy! Rember the MSF book... approach the turn, slow, look, lean....and roll.. don't brake hard, everything must be smooth.... Ah, the factory gates, park the baby, 53.5 miles since the gas station.. sorry, have to turn you off.. :-( What?! the HH.RR. Manager "forgot" my aapointment with her?.. will arrive in no les than 1 hour?! ... what the hell, let me turn on the laptop and write about this trip so far.... more to come later! Yumm, at least they are speaking about giving me a launch......! [...] The ride back was without any mayor problem besidesa good rain shower that made me think about getting some water proof gear in the near future.. The problem in the Caribbean is that a sunny day can become a good rain shower or thunderstorm in a matter of... 30 minutes.. :( Any way, I rode a *lot* slower, later I found dry air and still later dry road.. roll on throttle! :) BTW, do you know that just after the rain my temp gauge was pointed at the bottom line of the temp arc...??? I mean, do I need an anti-freezer??? Hopefully not.. Bahhh! street lights ahead again... and I'm again in the city, fun is almot over... Refill the tank and back to work.. hops, I mean, keep workin', it was a working day after all for me.. ;-) Burnt 2.5 galons, that makes for an average 40 mpg, not bad, uh?.. Ride Safe |