Familiarization Ride

Took a slow and gentle ride out to see my parents today. It's nice to be able to go and see them - they live too far away to get to by transit, and it didn't seem fair to always make them come in. Couldn't stay long because after dark is still cold, but it was nice to drop in. My stepdad showed me his latest paintings and I think I've put dibs on a couple.

And I'm working on getting over my lingering nervousness in curves - sometimes I can still hear the sound of plastic and metal scraping along the ground as I'm riding and it still scares me. Tomorrow I start commuting on the bike, but luckily traffic has never freaked me out. Hopefully the good weather will hold.

I rode my favourite little road for part of it - River Road in Richmond. It's not a really twisty road, but it's pleasantly winding, and I love the views - it's a working river and filled with floats of logs and tugs and various boats and shipyards. I used to drive along it when I commuted from New West to Richmond one winter, simply because I loved the vistas of the mist making the river all fuzzy. And every light brings out a different side of it. And there's this view, with Mt. Baker in the distance - hard to see in the picture, but hard to miss in reality.

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On the Road Again!

Well, I'm back on two wheels and it's a bike this time! It's a BMW F650CS.

I fell in love with how this bike looked when I saw one in Paris. I'd seen a used one sitting on the dealer's website for months and wanted it. I even sat on one for at least 30 minutes at the bike show and knew that I liked how it felt. But my life was too uncertain to make that kind of purchase.


So, I just got a real job doing real stuff for at least the next year, and I need transport to get there - it's an hour on the bus or a 20 minute drive/ride. I thought about getting a car, but in the end just couldn't do it. I decided I'd rather spend more money getting a bike and then decide in the fall if I still want a car. So I went in last week to visit this bike, to make sure it was actually there.

I just test rode it today and determined that my love was justified - my god, how pleasurable! So, I bought it.

I'm in the first blushes of love, where I get a silly smile on my face just thinking of her.

And heated handgrips rock! Not to mention ABS brakes and a built in powerpoint - sooooo cool. And it feels great to ride - nice and nimble and light - very maneuverable. But the low centre of gravity also makes it feel very stable. And the riding position is more standard than sportbike which should make it comfortable for long distances.

I love the colour too [airhead]and it matches my hair *giggles*[/airhead].

And I'm such a girl - I've named her Penny ("Purty Penny" if I'm feeling especially loving).

So, here it is:




And me on it (photo by photogirl):

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