Well I was to pooped out to go into the events of yesterday:roflblack:. So here we are...:thumbup:
First, I must say how well mannered everyone was. It is clear that the 20 something crowd is not a fan of the three wheels, for at least this class. That just leaves the rest of us
hyea: Everyone there was a joy to learn with. A pleasant group to say the least .
Bill who owns and drives the Black RS sold me on getting myself one. Now I need to convince the wife :roflblack:. She knows exactly what may happen to it.
I learned that there are aftermarket kits available to take our engines to 1060cc's and a harness removal kit to allow total control of the ride. No ABS and no VSS in other-words. (See wife comment above:spyder
We had a fourth Spyder added to our group on Saturday afternoon. He took the two wheel course, and was offered the trike course from the half way point. His name is Terry, and his ride is a black RT-S.. Yet another nice guy! Below is the only photo I could squeeze out during the training... Very hard to see, but the four Spyders can be seen at the far end...
It rained a pretty good amount through the morning. We learned all of our water proof rain gear has week spots that allow rain in. For me, it was my crotch, neck and gloves... I was a soaked puppy.
As we drove to the training, we went through a serious downpour. It rained so hard, and so much, that the rain was hitting the dash @ 60 miles per hour!!! A few minutes into this... I had a weird cold feeling between my legs... Looked down... And saw a puddle of water had developed. Mind you the amount of water coming down was fast enough that the weight of me, pressing the seat against the tank area does not "Seal" it, but wow.. It allowed a collection of water!!
Anyway... I stood up to get rid of the puddle... That only made it worse... The windshield was protecting me, and as soon as I got in the air... Soaked my neck!!! sigh... :roflblack:
Oh well!
One thing we learned, is how well these unit hydroplane when going down the hwy. I am not sure why, but it seemed most of our HOV lanes are where all the water ends up. So we stopped using the HOV lanes and used the slow lane. Far less standing water there... We also loose traction at an angle, while accelerating onto the hwy a lot. I normal amount of feathering works just fine to keep that in check....
Also can't wait for the third brake light to ship this month. Waaaaaaaaaaaay to many folks are going around us on the hwy, and the person behind them (That of course was following to close) is all of the sudden seeing this little bike in front of them! I think with the third brake light folks will be able to see more of the bike from behind in bad weather.
Not to mention the excessively raised trucks and Tractor Trailer rigs that do not see my brake lights as they hug our back end... There height, long hoods and closeness cuts the brake lights out of their view... and they start following us and judging our movement. Or as my wife says... Ogling at our rig forgetting we are traveling at hwy speeds. Not to mention, as soon as we start to slow down for something we see down the road, the bike slows faster than most cars, so they come up on us really quick... gets kind of scary at times... I started to accelerate a bit, with my brake petal on. This way they see the brake lights and start slowing down... makes for a safer situation it seems.
Back to the class...
Oh my... Did I just realize if I do not mention this I may get in to trouble :roflblack:.
Everyone passed with flying colors... A few folks came up and teased me about how the instructor asked my wife... "How happy is your husband going to be when you beat him at the knowledge test?"... I said :yikes:... Lets just say I took on that challenge and the only chance she had was to tie with me :thumbup: 50 questions later... we aced it...
So then it is time for all of what we learned to be tested in one long test. If we went to slow, loss of points.. hit any lines... lost points... Slow down before we are told to... loss of points... Stay within 4' of every mark, or loose points... Zig when we should of Zagged, you guessed it... Loss of points.
Basically, you can fail the entire weekend event if you do two things wrong. One of the items that cost you the most is lack of speed. If you went through the slalom, you lost 15 of the 20 points allowed to pass. :yikes:. So the lead foot was needed.
And would you not know... My wife was up first... She said she was so nervous she thought she was going to throw up before she started!!
Well I will have to tell you... we had been a very talkative bunch up to this moment. And then the gave her the green light. BAM... revs go up and she shot out like I had never seen this entire weekend nojoke
The easiest way to say it.... Everyone's eyes said it all. The silence was loud and clear. One of the instructors at the starting line said, wow, that lady just set the bar pretty high! :gaah::helpsmilie:
As the results came in... It was clear as I looked at my sheet. We both did not loose any points, 100% scores... But she flat out beat every single one of my times!!! :lecturef_smilie::dontknow:. I think they cheated :roflblack:
The main instructor came up and told me that out of the top 30 participants that take this course, maybe one gets in the 10 seconds range (I scored 10.17) most instructors end up in the 11's, and then he looked at my wife and said, that is the first time I have seen a student hit the 9's (She hit 9.66) nojoke:yikes:
And the other three areas that are timed she beat me out as well!
hyea::roflblack::firstplace::clap:
For a way funner than what we did, but gives you an idea of the test check out this [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEftQ4l2N00"](link)[/ame] Most of the course did not allow for more than 30mph. So basically we stayed in 1st gear on our bikes... Others started in second...
Keep in mind this was not an expedition of speed, but rather a show of skill without loosing traction, keeping all tires on the ground, looking ahead while using peripheral vision, keeping the trike inside an 8' path while utilizing our new found tools and so on...
And to be honest. I do have more to learn. I lost some time because I did not use enough body English at one point and the VSS kicked in, causing me to shift my weight the wrong way.
What a blast! Congrats to all those that came and succeeded. I love the fact that my wife toasted me. You cannot imagine how proud of her I am. I raced semi pro for a spell, and know quite a bit. She developed her skill from this training and offroad fun. Man what a woman!! :yes::clap:
What does all these mean in the end? the search is on for the right RS to add to the family
hyea::shemademe_smilie:
And we are thinking about taking the advanced course. Time will tell. We hope you enjoy our little story! :thumbup::spyder2::doorag::2thumbs:
Bill owns the Black RS in the photo below (I love the look of this Spyder :thumbup
M.
:2thumbs:
