First Track Day on Our Triumphs

After my accident in June, a track day is exactly what I needed. We signed up for a track day with Team Promotion at New Jersey Motorsports Park. 

I've been so terrible about posting these past few weeks.  Learned some new things, gained more of my confidence back and learned a lot about my bike. Team Pro Motion was great, and my husband and I had a blast!

For this track day I didn't buy a 1 piece suit, because I knew that I wouldn't use one again anytime soon but I would be able to use a pair of track leather pants again on the street. So I opted for the Revit Xena Leather Pants to zip to my jacket. 

Bikes In the Pit

The Pit is where you get your bike set up and ready until it's your turn to go out to the track

Trying to keep the boys off my tail

Trying to figure out where everything goes

Our first trackday together!

Revit Xena Leather Pants

Check out my review!

So is a trackday right for you? I think it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. There are many of us who are really all about street riding and touring. And we simply want to increase our skills. What's the best way to do this?  

A Lovely Ride into Western PA today

We finally had a great ride together today after someone had knee surgery last November (the man). The weather was perfect, and traffic was light. We managed to get in 200 miles to Deer Lake, PA... nothing fancy :)

Ride Report - Northern PA to NY

I still need to replace my rear tire, and the man is out of town til Thursday. So what's a wife to do? Take the Triumph out for a spin in a new direction that I hadn't explored before, North! I decided to try and shoot for RT 97, Hawk's Nest, a popular destination for local motorcyclists.  I decided to send Benny to his awesome dogsitter, and try a solo overnight so I could try to ride as far north as I could. Since I have Sunday and Monday off, I tried to start Sunday morning. I had a rather late start and ended up not leaving until 11am. As a result I only got about 150-180 miles (my goal was closer to 300) in but still had a fabulous time!

As always, I used one of the Kriega packs, the 20-Liter since I wanted to have enough supplies for the night. Remember to fully pack your Kriega so it cinches down easier. I scribbled down my ride route and off I went.

Oh and for the record, I'm NOT keeping my husband's bike. Just borrowing until I swap that damn tire. I have decided however, that I will be selling the SV and buying a gently used Street Triple next spring :D. An R model if I can find one I can afford, fingers crossed.

I had a really late start Sunday (~11am) so I didn't quite hit the roads I wanted to. Here's the route I wanted to do but once I got to 15 I had to keep going and take the obvious route to get there before deer o'clock. Did you know that Pennsylvania has one of the highest deer collision rates in the country? Eek!

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zWtuq3HMVCRs.k_T9H2q9bEQg

Before I got to Chester, PA I did have a nice detour through Black River Park because of tremendous traffic heading into Chester. It was at least a mile of bumper to bumper. And the last thing I wanted was to sit there clutching on this tall, heavy beast. So I made a right turn and followed another guy on an R6 who was obviously hoping to do the same. I got to this funky intersection (after riding some goaty, unpaved roads to get there!):

After awhile I stopped for lunch at Hilltop Deli & Catering in High Bridge, NJ at 513 and Cregar Road. I had a tasty BLT and a nice view of my ride. Sandwiches were inexpensive and delicious. A lovely family ran the place, dad making sandwiches and mom running the place with their teenage kids working the counter. Love it!

The rest of my ride to the border was rather uneventful. I found a room for the night at the Red Carpet Inn, nothing fancy but clean and inexpensive ($78/night+tax). I picked this location so I could ride further up north in the morning.

The next morning, I headed West on 6 and then went north on 97. I underestimated how cool it was going to be, given that it was 8am. I also wanted to get back home before rush hour, since traffic can be heinous heading into Philly. Being a California girl, I certainly had high expectations. I would say that 97 is definitely a lovely road and worth the trip if you've never ridden that way before and are looking for scenic routes. The road is certainly twisty but nothing highly technical (think switchback and hairpins with changing elevation). I did manage to get a few pretty pictures on this cute little bridge:

At the end of the bridge was a very goaty, gravel filled road with a sign that basically said Go Away. Something about needing permits if you go beyond this point. So like a good girl, I hopped off the bike and did a 3 point turn to get back on the bridge back to 97.

I had a crazy ride planned but with the chillier weather I decided to get back home sooner than later. I turned around at 41/Barryville and took a rather direct route home that Google suggested, avoiding the Interstate.

Riding without winter gloves and no heated anything definitely pushed my limits as far as what I could bear. I'm a weather wimp and was definitely missing my heated accessories. Of course I was wearing head to toe Schampa underneath, a windstopper vest and my awesome Rev'it suit. It was just barely enough to keep me fairly warm but I really could've used some heat! The temps were mid 40s to low 50s, definitely colder than I'm used to without my creature comforts.

I MUST redo this ride once I install my heated liner. There appear to be some amazing roads further north which definitely require a much earlier start to accomplish more than 400 miles in 2 days.

Learning to Ride All Over Again, Almost

There's nothing like riding a taller, heavier bike to help you remember what it was like to learn to ride a motorcycle for the first time...  A few months ago, my husband bought this beautiful bike; a 2007 Triumph Speed Triple. It's completely stock, as far as the suspension and it's totally set up for his height and weight (5'10", 210lbs). Definitely not designed for someone of my size!

When I set out for a long day ride on Sunday, I had to forego riding my trusty steed, because it wasn't holding any air in the rear tire. I found a couple of cuts on the surface of the tire so I was worried that it wouldn't be very safe for an 8 hour ride. I was a little worried about taking his bike out since it was only my 3rd time riding this Speed Triple. The first time I took it I only rode to work which was a 15 minute ride to and from home. The second time was a few miles further to the Suzuki dealer for an oil filter. Piece of cake compared to an 8 hour, 270 mile day ride.

This bike is 1/2" taller than my SV (31.5" v. 32.1") that I have to wear my Daytonas, which give me maximum vertical height. It also weighs another ~30lbs so it's more top heavy as well. I definitely wanted to have as much stability as possible since I hadn't ridden his bike this much before. Due to the way the bike's engine is situated, I find myself sitting up much higher too. It reminded me of driving my dad's '82 Suburban back in college when I was used to driving my little '90 Honda Accord.

It definitely reminded me of the first time I rode our first motorcycle, a 2004 Kawasaki Ninja 250. It felt heavy, awkward, and tall. Ha! If only I could travel back in time and tell the woman in this picture what she was was in for:

I found myself doing things a little differently so that I could maintain control of the bike at all times. (I was terrified of dropping it, I just knew that my husband would be *very* sad if that happened) So I tried to be extremely strategic and conscious at all times of how I was riding, stopping and parking. Since I can only flat foot with my left ( I can barely get two toes down), that meant extremely smooth braking and making sure that I didn't stop on any weird slopes that my left foot couldn't reach. I also found myself using curbs to my advantage, especially at the gas station for filling up. Left foot on the curb, right foot on the rear brake. For some reason, I kept forgetting to kick back my sidestand before shifting into 1st gear. Rookie move!

I also had to jump off the bike every time to park it since it was a little harder to back up with one foot due to the extra height. Fine by me, since I do it all the time with my SV unless the pavement is perfectly flat. There were also a couple times where I couldn't just follow my friend Brian into the parking lot. The first pic above, for example, I parked the bike there after he rode into the parking lot to the right which was *all* gravel. Although, later in the day we met a brief gravel road and I miraculously made my way through it.

So my natural inseam is 28.5". This bike is 32.1" inches; almost 4 full inches of additional height than my own inseam. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone was SO worth it, I had a blast and CAN'T WAIT to go riding again with it. (although my husband may disagree.... heheh).

After awhile, I felt far more confident, and more importantly I was having SO MUCH FUN. Damn, this bike is evil. Because all you can do the whole time is scream in your helmet; "Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!" I can't be trusted on a liter bike, so I'll definitely be getting new tires on the SV soon to make sure I keep my driving record as clean as possible :D.

If you're looking for a fun, semi twisty route outside of Philly, take a look at the route my friend and I took to Shamokin, about 275 miles round trip.