11/19/2002 Archived Entry: "w0000000000t!"

Holy crap! I just rode a motorcycle for the first time, and it was like THE COOLEST THING EVER. I know how to drive a stick shift, so the clutch-gear interaction was okay, but it was absolutely freaky with all the controls being in different places. For those of you who've never ridden a motorcycle before, it's weird: throttle is a twist of the right hand, clutch is the grab-bar on the left hand, gearshift is on the left foot (tap up for upshift, tap down for downshift), front brake is the grab-bar on the right hand, and rear (main) brake is on the right foot.

It took a good fifteen minutes, five stalls, and one drop-the-bike-on-my-foot, but I got it going! After several more minutes of cruising very slowly up and down the street, I mustered enough courage to take the beast up to third gear and twenty miles an hour, which felt like about a hundred and ninety. w00t!

All this bike-riding joy comes courtesy of Peacefrog, my buddy from Austin. I've given him an author account on the blog and permission to scribe whatever takes his fancy, so you might see the occasional missive by his hand grace the front page.

Vroom!! Vroom!!!

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