gatorcast from paul smith

At 6:30am this morning I drove out to Hawthorne and took day 1 of the driving portion of the basic safety course for motorcycles.  

This was the first time ever starting and actually driving a motorcyle.  I’ve ridden a couple of mopeds, an ATV and a couple of scooters once or twice, but this… this was different.

After going through each of the steps, 1 by 1, building on one another it became easier.  Within 10 minutes I was circling the parking lot.  We did several exercises that introduced us to breaking, shifting, turning, weaving and stopping. (In 1st gear for a quick need to move out of the way real fast) This was the last and hardest for me. Being able to stop quickly and remain in control is very important.  I was told to practice always.   I think I ended up doing very good.  It was very fun switching to 2nd gear and just riding and turning. 

Tomorrow we do it again, but this time with some more complicated exercises. 

Here is the bike, a Suzuki GS 250.

Here are all of the bikes.  There were about 13 people and 3 instructors.