Kari decided she was ready to hit the road last Sunday morning. We got all set, boots, gloves, jackets cell phones and half helmets. The full face helmets are safer with more protection but we needed to be able to hear each other.
We were just going to stay in the neighborhood, but we needed to go down to Eastport Shell to get some gas. We started easy. I had Kari shift up to second gear, initially she forgot to shift down into first at the stop signs. The one little hang up we had was the tight dog leg turn down on Washington/Boucher. After the curve I pulled to the side because we had a truck following us. Kari pulled behind me and the truck pulled in behind her.
The driver got out and started giving Kari an obvious new rider some pointers. The one thing she did was put her foot down going around the turn. He also suggested boots, which Kari hasn't found yet, and full face helmets; I explained the half helmet training situation. I had talked to Kari about the turn before we got there. I told her to enter slowly and take it at a comfortable speed. It's tough to explain to someone how to do something before they have the experience of doing it.
We took the bikes down to Annapolis City Marina, our marina, I stopped on fourth street and parked my bike, Kari did the same. I told her that I'd forgotten that the gas station is up on a pad and that she'd have to negotiate the bump up and that the tire would be hitting at oblique angle. I had her practice on the marina pad where there was no traffic. She did fine.
We went on to the gas station and filled up the little wing. I'd wanted her to go into the station from the North side of Severn so that she wouldn't have to cross traffic. We would then get back on Severn at the light and cross though the light into Eastport. Kari had mentioned that she was having a problem swinging wide on her right turns. I tried to councel her on how to approach the turn slowly and at an angle that wouldn't cause her to swing as wide. We tried a few more right turns and wound our way up towards Louis' house. We then took a right on President Street and another right on Hoover St. which is a loop that crosses across President and we'd be on our way home. We both stopped at the stop sign at President, we waited for traffic to clear I crossed President and Kari waited for the next car to pass. I was about a block away looking in the rear view mirror, I turned and paused to wait for Kari. A car was in front of her, when it moved past I saw her standing there but the bike was on it's side in the road. I rode back up circled around her and parked my bike. She was OK, a dinged ankle and shook up but OK. A passerby offered to help us pickup the bike. I mentioned the youtube video I saw on how to pick up a Goldwing, he and I bent and got the bike up. It was actually easier than I expected, but he was a fairly big guy. The bike had leaked some gas and radiator fluid, there was a rub on the edge of the fairing near the left mirror, otherwise the bike was fine.
I had Kari take her helmet off and told her to sit relax and shake it off. I hugged her and told her the bike was fine. I think she was more shaken and embarrassed than anything. We got set and brought the bikes home.
All in all it turned out OK. It's why I got the Silverwing, an older less expensive bike that she can learn on.
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