July/August

29 July

Called my Mam up to wish her a happy birthday. Dad told me that they were sharing a windfall they had with us. The first thing that sprang to my mind was "fix Max and Arnie so we could ride again". I even emailed Eclectic Gramma in Alaska to ask how much she wanted for her Moosetercycle.

Don looked thoughtful.

30 July

Don got to work on Arnie. He took the bike for a ride and finally diagnosed that the bigger problem was that fuel wasn't getting to one of the cylinders. He pulled the bike apart and cleaned the tiny little blockage. We got geared up and went for a ride. Unfortunately the bike wouldn't start. Frustrated, Don punched the bike. We put the battery on to charge. Don went to try the bike. It is fixed - but he's hurt his wrist and can't twist the throttle!

Duh!

31 July

Don says his wrist is better. I think he just wants to ride. ;-) This time we went for a ride together, to Walgreen's and then Kragen's. The goal was to get stuff to seal the pipe so the bike isn't as loud and doesn't backfire all the time. Arnie started right up. He put the sealing stuff (it's pink!) on the pipe. Now the bike sounds like it's supposed to, that lovely bubbling rumble I loved from Day One. But, as we discovered when Don gave me a lift to my friend's barbecue, it still backfires a good bit.

I enjoyed showing up at the party in my bike gear. I enjoyed being met and sitting on the front and riding home afterwards. The bug count in my teeth is high. I feel more alive already. :-)

01 August

Miles: 1 Total: 1

Don has decided to fix Max himself, even though he always said he didn't want to. I don't think he likes the idea of paying for the mechanic - so maybe we'll have a trip to Las Vegas sometime. :-) We set out to go to the Yamaha dealership to see if they sold the real part for the pipes instead of the kludge we made with pink bandage. Instead, we ended up riding around the area a bit and having fun. Our route took us to a very large parking lot with very few cars in it. Don said he was having a smoke. I said I was going to take a ride. And I did. It felt just like putting on a familiar piece of clothing. I had to concentrate quite hard but didn't fall off and started to get into the swing of things.

In short, today, after three years and three months, I became a rider again.

At home, I went surfing and looked around the Web for Women on Wheels stuff, and ordered the new members' package. (Incidentally, Barb's bike was too much for my budget, but I still felt it worth asking.) I joined my local chapter's email list and in doing so happened upon Carolyn, the cool blue-haired grrl I met at Redding last year. I also surfed round Dee Gagnon's site.

02 August

After another futile attempt to fix the gap between the muffler and the rear pipe with pink stuff, Don started calling around for the real part. He tracked it down to a supplier in San Jose, and we went there amid rush hour traffic.

It is funny how safe I feel on the bike compared to how on edge I would be crammed into the van. I think it's sort of fun to stick my arm out and get us across the lanes to the exit. I have a nice bike-ache from swinging my leg over the back and also knees and feet for obvious reasons.

I looked at V-Stars, but while they have pretty paint schemes I don't like the bikes as much as the Virago. I hope to get some polish and start cleaning and buffing up Arnie.

Oh yeah! I found my old motorcycle jacket, the one that I hid in my closet in sadness because I was too fat to wear it any more. I found the leather jeans the day we got the bike running. Well, I can now fasten the jacket up (did I say I've been on a diet? I wonder who else reinvents themselves every couple of years?) although it's a tad hard to breathe and move still. I will lose more weight, of course, and have another carrot to dangle in front of myself.

Couldn't bear to go to sleep without another ride, so we went to the supermarket and back after dark.

03 August

Miles: 0.4 Total: 1.4

After a suitable chunk of morning had gone by, I waved the part at Don and he agreed we could attach it. We spent some time doing the same, including expanding the width of the pipes to allow the bit to fit. I unscrewed bolts and got a sense of how to take off the pipe... The pink stuff, incidentally, had all blown out...

Then Don discovered that a bolt had fallen off sometime in riding, so we went out to an old-fashioned hardware store in Palo Alto to replace it. We used the method of navigation called "drive around until you find it" which meant I saw a lot of pretty houses and gardens. The bike sounds really lovely now, with that throaty burbling roar I always loved, and while it backfires a little it's nowhere near as bad as before.

At the store, I sat on the bike and it was funny the different reactions I got - some smiles, some people doing everything they could to not meet my eye. Don got the part and attached it, then we went home. Don lost his sunglasses (clip-ons) on the freeway...

We stopped in a car park again and I did some practising. It was harder this time and somehow uncomfortable. I think it was that the space felt too small and I wanted to practise turns and stopping. My emergency stop was very shaky but I kept the bike upright. Before I go on the road I would like to feel that the bike will go where I want it to go and not where it feels like it, and also that I can do things like look over my shoulder etc. without feeling wobbly. Also, from a psychological point of view, I was thinking too hard about what I was doing instead of just doing it, which seems to allow in room for self doubt.

So, I'm back here typing, but there'll be more practice runs in the future.

04 August

Miles: 2.5 Total: 3.9

This afternoon Don and I went and found another car park and I practised some more. It was in some respects easier, as I had lots of interesting bollards and things to maneouvre around, but the bike was cold and stuttering a bit. I just haven't got used to the speeds at which I should be changing gear, is all - but it turned out there was also a cylinder misfire which eventually got cleared out with a nice big backfire.

I am still having some trouble getting the bike to go where I want, and to be frank driving around a car park is rather dull. On the other hand, it's keeping me alive. Not much point going out on the road until I am sure I can get round the corners. ;-) It helped when I remembered and trusted the thing I was taught at the MSF class in December 1998: look where you're going and the bike will follow.

Afterwards, we went on what has become one of our favourite rides. We headed to Milpitas and went up and over Calaveras road. The road is twisty and narrow in places but there is a lot to see, and smell. I had forgotten about smelling things while riding, it seems like you are so much more out there among it all. We saw sand martins flitting in and out of the sandy banks, and had a laugh at a pigeon perched happily on top of the big statue of Santa Clara on the way home. We drove through San Jose city centre which was a bit of a carnival with some kind of market/bazaar, very colourful and lively. Most of all we saw views, right down the valley where we live, and had fun. It is not a road I would tackle as a newbie, but after a thousand or so miles I would like to. It has no hairpins which is a plus. We took a break in SJ because my knees had locked up and I wanted to stretch. My leg muscles are incredibly tight, and I hope I can get them loosened up soon...

Don took pictures of me riding, and I downloaded them from the camera and will pick a few out in due course to post here.

Whee!

Around eight we decided to take an impromptu ride out to get doughnuts. We ended up at Krispy Kreme in Mountain View - a first for us both. I'd never been in a doughnut shop before and it was fun seeing the little round things going round on a carrousel, and all the different kinds. I had a cinnamon apple one and Don had a devil's food one. It was a nice way to end a day, and a bit of Americana for me that appealed immensely. :-)

05 August

Miles: 3.1 Total: 7.0

We started a forkectomy today, to fix the bad handling of the bike. Didn't get much further than the adding of oil before I lost my temper and walked away, Don was being such a supercilious pratt. He might know what he's doing, but I resent deeply being made to feel as if I'm doing stupid things when my only sin is inexperience and not knowing what I'm doing - hence why I was there to learn. He apologised later, but it took all the fun out of it.

We went for an errands run later, and found a nice empty car park. One nice side effect of the dot com bust is that there are such luxuries. I spent a good half hour going in and out of nicely placed trees, practising loops and u-turns and figure eights. I was getting fairly good by the end, but it sure does place a strain on your wrists to do such manouvres at a speed between 5 and 15 mph. Nonetheless, I feel I am improving, and am consciously remembering most times to put my eyes where I want to go.

06 August

I found my rider coursebook and started reading it. Don fixed (we hope) the oil leak by turning over a gasket. I got to see the inner workings of the bike which was fun. We started working on the forks this afternoon, only to find that we needed a new tool. I was quite pleased with myself though as I was following the instructions in the book and it made sense, the pictures etc. are quite clear. It would take me all day to do the darn thing on my own though. ;-)

We rode to Sears to get the tool and on the way home picked up a cop who trailed us until Don pulled over sharpish and he went by. Sometimes it's good to have a passenger and an extra set of eyes. When we got home we found out that the tool was still the wrong size, let's face it, if you have an 8mm and a 10mm tool you will of course need the 9mm one...

The gas problem isn't fixed, the bike was being like a bucking bronco, Don has to keep forcing a backfire to make it go.

07 August

A very frustrating day. We went out in the mid afternoon to Sears to get our 9mm tool, only to find out that they didn't produce such a thing. 10mm, 8mm, yes... but 9mm? Nope. I had wandered off to look at other stuff and came back to the sales clerk being outraged that they didn't produce a 9mm and how silly that was, and making a suggestion that we tried OSH. Then we had a misunderstanding about where to go next which resulted in bad tempers and hurt feelings. And no further with the bike.

08 August

A very hot day today. Don and I went over to Sears again. We looked for a different tool. Don was going to leave as he couldn't find one, so I sat down and worked through each tool one item at a time, and I did find one. Don was pleased, I was pleased. Then we went to Kragen's and stocked up on metal polish, cloths, carb cleaner, some goo to fix oil leaks and an oil funnel more suited, I think, to the bike's oil arrangement.

It was a very hot ride home and we came back to a blazing hot house.

09 August

Don's gone into nocturnal mode again, so we didn't start work on the bike again until the late afternoon after another blazing, energy sapping day. We got as far as unscrewing something I now understand to be called the rear tappet bowl and coating it with red instant gasket goo to try and fix the oil leak. Then we sat around polishing the bike a bit. I said that when we were rich I'd have the chrome all redone and everything. Don said that when we were rich we might as well just get another bike. For some reason this triggered off a strong case of feeling blue.

10 August

More frustration. Don stayed up all night and therefore didn't get up until the afternoon. At least an hour before the bike shop would close I asked him if he'd come and get the oil we needed for the fork oil change and he said yes, then immediately began programming again. Showed up about five thirty to leave and we didn't get out the house until quarter to six. Net result was, after things like the road sensors failing in the heat and such, just as we pulled up to the shop they turned the sign round to closed, and now they won't be open until Tuesday again.

I was furious. 'Nuff said.

11 August

Another lonely day while Don slept, wasting sunlight. But it turned out okay. ;-)

About six, we decided on the spur of the moment to go for a ride to see the sunset at the coast. We took the freeway, as it was getting on in the evening, and Don's coat (actually my overcoat for riding in the UK) decided to unzip and turn him into a tent! We had to pull into a nearby industrial estate and zip him up.

By the time we were coming down highway 84 to the coast, it was already quite cool and I was remembering things like "should have put on a pullover". I just don't equate August in California with cold, but it's been a much cooler summer overall, with occasional blasts of heatwave. There was a strong haze over the coast which totally hid any sunset there might have been - oh well. But we rode up to Pacifica, which was fun, and saw pelicans wheeling here and there as we did. We had dinner at Denny's with a really nice waitress who made sure we were looked after and then rode home through patchy fog. It did cheer me up!

12 August

The WOW paperwork still isn't here, so Carolyn has offered to send me a form, upon which I gratefully took her up!

13 August

Miles: 3.0 Total: 10.0

While out shopping, we passed the bike shop and I bought oil for Arnie's forks. Later in the afternoon, we spent a couple of hours unravelling the forks, draining nasty black oil and putting nice clean blue(!) oil back in.

End result is that the bike handles better than before, although we have meanwhile discovered another oil leak - sigh! We don't know where this one is coming from, just yet, but we will track it down.

Don took me to a nearby car park which, since the commuters had mostly gone home, linked to another one. This meant that I got some practice in of changing gears and going faster and slowing down. I am feeling more confident now and the bike is more or less going where I tell it to. When the "more or less" goes away, we will be all set. :-)

14 August

A little past midnight on a sleepness night, Don asked if I wanted to go and find the Perseid shooting stars. I said yes, I did, and we ventured forth. However, as this is a bit more involved that just riding around a car park, I think I'll write it up as a separate adventure. It's worth it!

16 August

Miles: 3 Total: 13

We rode out to Border's in Milpitas today so I could get a book for Don's birthday. On the way I noticed some very large-looking and interesting car parks. On the way back, we went to our usual car park and I practised some more. I'm getting more and more confident and can do tighter and more accurate turns. I wish that Don would fix his bike so that we could ride together - it gives that much more security. I got the bike up to 35mph and third gear, which was fun. I could hear that wind-noise as I flew.

We have a really bad oil leak. The tyres tracked the yuk out of our car port... oops. I have put newspaper underneath to see if we can't track it down a bit further. It is probably the last thing to fix... for now, at least. (I'm realistic.)

19 August

We went riding errands, and Don almost dropped the bike. It went heavy on him all of a sudden. It seems that more work is required. There is a problem with the brake, too. Sigh...

21 August

We took the rear brake off today and looked at it. Don found that problem, though we still can't figure out where the oil leak is coming from. One of the brake shoe return springs had broken, hence why the brake was dragging. Called Yamaha in San Jose, and a little later went there to pick up the last of that particular part. I sat on a shiny new black V-Star 650 bike and thought it was lovely. The V-Star has replaced the Virago. One day, when Arnie is worn out, we put him into graceful retirement (hey, our guests will need to ride too, right?) and I shall have one of those beauties - though maybe the 1100 by that time. Don got me the 2003 brochure and I drooled.

23 August

Miles: 2 Total: 15

We went out looking for new car parks today. We weren't too successful. The one which had looked so big on a walk I took last week was busy, and not as big as I thought, and I didn't feel comfortable, like I was intruding on people's work space. Then we tried the one I found near highway 237, which was huge and had lots of interesting nooks, but again, there were security vans and I didn't feel safe there.

24 August

We went out to return some DVDs to a friend today, and also to see if we could track down the oil leak. We couldn't, so we've resolved to take the bike to the car wash and see if we can't track it down.

25 August

Miles: 3.5 Total: 18.5

We were going to wash the bike at the car wash today, but it seems that everyone does that on a warm Sunday afternoon. The idea was to get the crud off so we could actually see what was going on with the oil leak. We decided to postpone, and had a hamburger instead - a rare treat for me. I watched a brilliant inspiration programme last night on PBS, and one thing struck me: the woman said that if your eyes lit up when you did something, you loved it and it is what you should be doing with your life. Well, that is how I feel about riding, and when I am like that I find people responding to it, smiling back at me. It's very cool.

We put fuel and air in the bike, and it was like magic when we went to practise some more. The bike handled so much easier! It was startling. I practised stopping and turning from a halt, a manoeuvre which still feels a bit tricky, and looking over my shoulder, indicating - real-life riding skills. It was fun going in and out of the trees too, leaning much further over. I actually feel ready to go on the road now, but don't know that I want to go alone. I'm getting used to the adjusted brakes (they squeak).

27 August

We took the bike to the car wash. What fun! It looked quite magnificent afterwards despite all the chipped-off chrome. We managed to find out a point of leakage - the underneath engine case. Don tightened it up and we are hoping for the best.

I called around for some fork parts and managed to track them all down. Prices differ wildly so it's worth asking around. Some bike shops seem to have difficulty finding sheets for the Virago 1000. We rode around and got the parks, all barring one which isn't fundamentally important.

30 August

The guy from the bike shop called today so we went to pick up the little cap that goes on top of the fork. It's probably the shiniest thing on the bike. ;-)

1-14 September

I've been busy with other things so have not been updating daily. We've done many rides around local areas. There's still an oil leak, and we've tracked it down to the clutch casing somewhere. We're probably going to have to rip off the whole side and put in a gasket. Don's been in nocturnal cycle, so we haven't attempted to change the fork seals, given that this is very involved and will probably take several hours. The only opportunity I had to ride, was the day I came down with a strange 24-hour flu or allergy and was too weak to do so...

15 September

We went for another night ride, out past Stephen's Creek and such. It was great, and the starry night was much clearer than when we did the same route looking for meteorites. It would be nice to have a big telescope, but the 10" one we have our eye on wouldn't do so well on the bike - well, not unless we had two bikes and strapped it on as passenger, which somehow I don't think I'd want to do with such a pricey piece of equipment. (Hey - I can dream. Right?)

16 September

I cleaned and polished Don's bike. I went into a sort of "zen/meditative" mode and just got working. It was fun. I discovered that the polish also has the nice effect of just cutting through the grease. Now, the forks aren't black any more and the wheel rims shine. I wish Don would organise getting it fixed, or sell it against a different model. Oh, and the Women on Wheels stuff finally arrived - but in the meantime I'd found my original form, pinned to my notice board. Sometimes I'm just too... efficient. ;-)

18 September

We went on a night ride to a long-abandoned favourite destination - the little corner store near Sunol. It's sort of in the middle of nowhere and has always been a "special" place, closed or not. We had a chat about Things - we don't always get the chance because life and computers get in the way. There, there weren't any distractions.

The ride beyond was quite fun - I'd like to go there in daylight. We went alongside a canyon to Fremont and thus home.

19 September

We took a ride to the coast today. We got onto the freeway and went to highway one after a brief break at Half Moon Bay (we had lunch at Subway). There was bright sunshine but it was definitely cooler, so we went down to San Gregorio beach, took a couple of pictures, and added gloves and stuff. :: grin ::

They were digging up the highway, so there were considerable delays. Eventually, though, we were let through and after that the journey was steady. The ocean was pretty with all that sparkly stuff, and then we got to the edge of Santa Cruz and I caught a glimpse of a sign for Natural Bridges state beach. I'd seen that on TV sometime, so wanted to look. Apparently it's one of the places where thousands of monarch butterflies overwinter, in the trees.

We didn't see the butterflies, because you have to pay to get into the beach, but we stopped at the 20-minute viewpoint and looked at the many pelicans and cormorants in the area. The bridges have long since worn away and are pillars rather than arches, but the birds find them a good place to hang out nonetheless.

After we'd rested and Don had insisted on stalking a gull until he got a picture of it, we went into Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication and never stopped. :: sigh :: I was really disappointed, and in quite a bad mood by the time we got back.

29 September

We finally had a day when all the stars came together and both of us were out of bed at much the same time - in the morning. We decided to start work on my front forks, changing the fork and the dust seals to lose one of the last leaks, if not the last. (We'll see.)

It was more complicated than I thought! I felt like humming the bones song - you know, the foot bone is connected to the ankle bone... all the time... there were so many little parts tucked inside what had looked like a simple hollow tube. We had some trouble getting the fork nut off, as the threads had worn. I had to walk up to Home Depot and get a nut which we then gripped in a vise and used to leverage it open - it worked! And we had been talking about taking the bike to a shop and having them do the work... Heh. I got us a pretzel from the little food stand outside Home Depot and got chatting to someone who saw the BMW t-shirt (from last year's Women on Wheels rally) and the big black stains on my jeans (I had been polishing parts and not realising how mucky they were) and wanted to know what I was working on. He had a BMW.

Got back, and we did some more work. But we were running out of daylight and energy and had to run off and get some glue to seal one of the lower bolts. I forget what the stuff is called. By the time we gave up, one fork had been reassembled, but we needed to do the other. That can wait - we were tired!

We got chatting to one of our park-neighbours, Sharon, who turns out to be an ex-biker and have a very good sense of humour. She had found me waiting outside the house for Deann one time, and we'd got talking. Hopefully we'll bump into one another more often. :-)

01 October

We got the other fork done today. It took some time, and with the manual on hand I saved us the tricky fate of having to pull everything apart to put the strange bullet-shaped piece in. ;-)

The bike is fixed and, if the other oil leak is done with now, we have a perfectly functional Yamaha Virago 1000. Yay!

02 October

Took the bike for a test ride today. We bumped into Sharon on the way out of the park, and she was really pleased at our results. We chatted and then went out.

Didn't really have any kind of a destination in mind, so we headed up to El Camino Real and to the Jack in the Box at the edge of Palo Alto. Then we went further north, and found, at last, the British Food Shop in San Carlos - something I saw on my first midnight run up El Camino in 1996, and have never managed to reach while it's still open...

Such treasures! I came home with a bagload of stuff which only a Brit would understand - mushy peas, Bisto chicken gravy, Digestives, Smarties, a Yorkie bar... well, you know. It was like walking into a Spar shop in the middle of California.

Had fun. Whee!

13 October

Miles: 4 Total: 22.5

Did another car park session. I'm bored and about ready to get out onto the road. To liven things up, I took Don on back. Apart from feeling sort of unstable while stopping/going slow, something I got used to fairly quickly, it wasn't anywhere near as hard as I thought. Don said he wasn't scared, but gave me a couple of hints and a demonstration too. Basically I am not using enough throttle to go round curves.

We all know the logical conclusion of this. If he doesn't hurry up and fix his bike, he'll be riding behind me now. ;-)

13 October

Found Don examining, cleaning and looking over his bike. Aha. ;-)

14 October

We did a long ride today. Chilli Dog is a small toy dog who's touring the world on behalf of his owner, who can't. So, we drove out to Walnut Creek to meet The Meerkat who has been with him until now.

We would have actually got there on time had Don actually not got onto 101 south instead of 17 south. But it was a fast enough run, and we were only an hour late. The Meerkat fed us pizza and we had fun with her collection of ancient typewriters. She's autistic, so communication was via computer - she has a speech synthesizer, but in the end we just used text. All in all it was a cool visit and she pointed out that Chilli had already been introduced to motorcycles in the local park.

The way home was pretty cold. We stopped in Saratoga so that I could jump up and down and get some circulation in my legs. So now we have a Chilli in the house.

October

I can't attach dates to these, but I suspect they were both in October. Anyway, we had a really nice night ride out to San Jose; just took off one time and went for it. We stood at an amusingly named place near San Jose airport, watching the planes come in to land. (The place was called Smurfit Stone... I wonder if the stuff was blue?) Eventually we came back through the city centre, and so home.

The other thing to note is that we are once again having trouble with the carbs...

24 November

Miles: About 5 Total: 27.5

I got tired of driving around the car park. I made Don sit on the back, went round a few times, and then brought us both home.

It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it was truly weird having all that extra weight on the back. Of course, it really changes the balance, and it's hard enough when you're just learning without the additional handicap.

But I didn't crash and didn't make any bad mistakes. And Don said he was not afraid.

As it turned out, that was the last ride of the year for me; December weather was very bad, and I was deeply embroiled in my novel, Rhaeva. It wasn't a bad note to end upon, though.