A Few Updates...

I have to acknowledge my failing to update my blog recently. I started the Yavapai County Sheriff's Department Detention Officer's Academy on July 2nd and they are steadily attempting to facilitate my imminent demise. On a daily basis. And I thought Marine Corp boot camp was tough!! Of course, I was 19 years old then, not 52 like I am today...may have something to do with it.

Anyway, I have done a bit of riding. Went over Mingus Mountain to Prescott last Friday evening. I just LOVE night rides!! So I got about halfway up the mountain, just putting along at a happy, brisk pace, when I got passed by some squid on a Yamaha R6. Now, I grew up in the day of Mike "The Bike" Hailwood and his contemporaries and later the likes of King Kenny Roberts, so I know what a good rider looks right. I did a little roadracing back in 1975-1976 in southern California on an RD250 and crashed all over, so don't think I was one of their contemporaries. So, this kid blows by me and we both got stuck behind somebody in a car who was (of all things!) doing the speed limit! If the suggested speed limit for a corner was 20 mph, the car WENT 20 mph. Boring! Well, this kid in front of me on the R6 is making a grand show of slinging his butt from one side to the other in ANY corner at ANY speed. A 15 mph hairpin found his ass-cheek sliding off the side of the seat. Tickled me, it did! I then began to watch the rest of his body. It stayed right where it was to begin with. He didn't hang the inside knee out, he didn't move his upper body to the inside...just his butt! Now the purpose of sliding to the inside is to alter the centerline of your machine to the outside, allowing it to remain more upright while making the curve, since you have moved a lot of the dead weight (you) to the inside. Just one ass cheek just don't cut it.

The other thing I noticed was he would stay on one side of the lane through the entire corner. While dancing around on top of the bike. He had NO ability to determine a proper line to get him through a corner in the most expeditious manner, thereby making his dance routine totally superfluous!

One of the great things about Mike The Bike was his ability to find and hold a line through a corner. He never slid around on his motorcycle, he stayed centered on it as he flew though a race, utilizing instead a superior ability to find the proper line through any curve. King Kenny, then is the man who popularized the "hang off the inside" style of riding...WHILE utilizing the best line through the curve.

As I followed the squid on the R6, it occured to me that ultimately, it is more important to know how to find, hold and follow a line through a corner than it is to alter the center of gravity. If you learn how to find that line, and hold that line, you will probably outcorner 99% of the sport riders out there. THEN, and only then, learn the proper way to shift the center of gravity on your bike by playing monkey, because sliding around looks pretty silly when you don't even attempt to find a proper line through and you are just dancing on top of the bike.

Enough of that, now. My beloved Ski has been practically terrified to ride in any wind at all on her Helix since we bought it. Didn't make much sense to me since I enjoy a good breeze, myself...unless it's a headwind, of course. Now the Helix comes with a windshield created around the original design of a barn door. I suspected for some time that the wind would catch that big ol' thing and it would then function as a sail and throw the scooter around. I was right! I happened to ride both her Helix and my Buddy (with no windshield at all) on the same stretch of road on the same breezy afternoon. I scooted right through on the Buddy, just happy as can be to be riding. On the Helix, a couple gusts had me clamping on the binders wondering just what hit me!! This was a job for..."Handyman"!!

I went to WalMart, where I got a couple of 24 tooth per inch jigsaw blades...they are usually designed for metal cutting...a roll of 2 inch wide masking tape and a sharpie. I measured up from where the windshield connected to the body, and finding a point about 3 1/2 inches lower than the highest point on the windshield, applied masking tape on both sides of the plexiglass about 6 inches wide. I then took the sharpie and drew an outline of how I wanted the windshield to look on the tape. Firing up the old Black & Decker jigsaw, I then slowly (DON'T push it!!) chased my line around the windshield. Voila!! Instant shorter windshield!! I removed the tape, and using one of those sanding sponges, put a finished edge on the new upper edge.

The next day, Ski's Firebird ended up in the shop and she has had to ride the Helix the 20-some miles to work in Sedona every day. She is amazed that that little 3 1/2 inch cut made SO much difference! She rides through cross-winds now and never feels a thing! A happy little rider is she! You might think of a similar cut on yours if you are experiencing uncomfortable wind buffeting.

C-ya...ride on!
--Keys