frelancr
New member
So the Spyder is my first & only bike...I call it my 'mid-life-tryke'....ok...maybe my PRE-mid-life-tryke....but you get the idea....
anyway, I've had it a year now & have just over 2k on the odometer...so add my motorcycle class to that and you get my experience level (puttering around as a kid don't count)
picked up the Spyder about 100 miles away & rode it home on the back roads as there was no way I was taking my new toy on the thruway first day out....and 287 scares me in my Sprinter van....
Since then, I ride any chance I get...my shop is only a 5 minute ride, but on nice days I go the LONG way on the Spyder....but when I have work out of my shop (usually in NYC or Brooklyn) I still take the SUV or the VAN....now it's one thing if I have to carry gear, but the other reason is that the highway still scares the :cus: outta me! So...I practice.....on the aforementioned long way to my office, I go well out of my way to get a chunk of highway in there...and not just any highway...I take route 46 through Fairfield & Wayne...its a 4-lane 55mph road with a spaghetti-bowl in the middle & stripmalls and whatnot on the sides, so driveways leading right onto the road!
In trying to overcome my fears I read any discussions I could find here and found some really good advice....the one about the death grip and imagining holding an egg between your hand and the throttle was GREAT! also the thread with the Ryder in ST Louis with all the people talking about how the idea of driving thru town scared them, but the highway DIDN'T...well, as someone who regularly has to navigate a long & tall Sprinter thru one of the Hudson River crossings, thru Manhattan and then across the East River into Brooklyn or Queens, well, THAT part don't scare me, but doing 65 on rt 3 getting TO the Tunnel, well, that's another story....
So again I practice...I figure if I can get 46 under my belt and stay way from my fellow NNJ drivers, I'm doing OK....I ran up the length of 23 today (which for those who don't know, switches between a 35mph 2 lane road to a 8-lane 55MPH pseudo highway....and back again...while crossing over 2 interstates as well) on the return trip confidence was high...I avoided all the cages that were trying to kill me, I stayed out of blind spots (even goosing it to get past someone) and even passed a bus! (yay me!:yikes::clap
as many have said, just time in the seat do it....comfortable & relaxed while still aware of everyone out there trying to kill you....
my silly season is starting up (yay fall TV!) and there will be meetings about meetings aplenty...hopefully before the cold sets in I'll make good on my plan to be able to take the Spyder to Greenpoint or Long Island City or Astoria or the Navy Yard for one of them....
So thus endith my catharsis for the day....my thanks to those that contribute to these boards :bowdown: ..as they are an INVALUABLE recourse to a n00b like me....the "do's and do not's" thread really should just be linked to on page one of the manual and added to the silly pull out card on the dash....
Mike
frelancr
anyway, I've had it a year now & have just over 2k on the odometer...so add my motorcycle class to that and you get my experience level (puttering around as a kid don't count)
picked up the Spyder about 100 miles away & rode it home on the back roads as there was no way I was taking my new toy on the thruway first day out....and 287 scares me in my Sprinter van....
Since then, I ride any chance I get...my shop is only a 5 minute ride, but on nice days I go the LONG way on the Spyder....but when I have work out of my shop (usually in NYC or Brooklyn) I still take the SUV or the VAN....now it's one thing if I have to carry gear, but the other reason is that the highway still scares the :cus: outta me! So...I practice.....on the aforementioned long way to my office, I go well out of my way to get a chunk of highway in there...and not just any highway...I take route 46 through Fairfield & Wayne...its a 4-lane 55mph road with a spaghetti-bowl in the middle & stripmalls and whatnot on the sides, so driveways leading right onto the road!
In trying to overcome my fears I read any discussions I could find here and found some really good advice....the one about the death grip and imagining holding an egg between your hand and the throttle was GREAT! also the thread with the Ryder in ST Louis with all the people talking about how the idea of driving thru town scared them, but the highway DIDN'T...well, as someone who regularly has to navigate a long & tall Sprinter thru one of the Hudson River crossings, thru Manhattan and then across the East River into Brooklyn or Queens, well, THAT part don't scare me, but doing 65 on rt 3 getting TO the Tunnel, well, that's another story....
So again I practice...I figure if I can get 46 under my belt and stay way from my fellow NNJ drivers, I'm doing OK....I ran up the length of 23 today (which for those who don't know, switches between a 35mph 2 lane road to a 8-lane 55MPH pseudo highway....and back again...while crossing over 2 interstates as well) on the return trip confidence was high...I avoided all the cages that were trying to kill me, I stayed out of blind spots (even goosing it to get past someone) and even passed a bus! (yay me!:yikes::clap
as many have said, just time in the seat do it....comfortable & relaxed while still aware of everyone out there trying to kill you....my silly season is starting up (yay fall TV!) and there will be meetings about meetings aplenty...hopefully before the cold sets in I'll make good on my plan to be able to take the Spyder to Greenpoint or Long Island City or Astoria or the Navy Yard for one of them....
So thus endith my catharsis for the day....my thanks to those that contribute to these boards :bowdown: ..as they are an INVALUABLE recourse to a n00b like me....the "do's and do not's" thread really should just be linked to on page one of the manual and added to the silly pull out card on the dash....
Mike
frelancr
