Two days ago Karolyn's posse (sans Amanda) went to the Motorcycle Expo in San Mateo. I am looking for my future second bike - a track bike. This isn't a near-term purchase, I'm just planning (grin). It was great to butt-test all the bikes. The Honda CBR 600 F4i is the most likely candidate, it fits me very nicely. My fatansy bike is the Aprilia Mille - haven't studied up yet on the difference between the RSV Mille and the RSV Mille R - there's really no need - I would end up dead on a bike like that at my current skill level.

Bart and Karolyn are lusting after the Yamaha R6. Bart is also lusting after the Ducati 749. Peter is still partial to the BMW 1100S. We are going to be a bumble bee posse by Spring - black and yellow. The bees can chase Peter while he is on the red Ducati. I'll be the sky (my CS is blue).

I'm holding back my tirade about the Umbrella Girls.

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Did a bonafide "wet leather" ride with Karolyn today, finally completed the elusive part II of Hicks road, the "sweepers" section. It is just fine that I never got to the sweepers until now, the tight twisties are much better training for me. It will be interesting to go back in Spring and try the package of parts I and II again to gauge my progress once again. I remember serveral turns because when I first met them, I felt as if I was caught up in an garbage disposal, swirling and going down. This time I saw the turns through more educated, confident eyes; the bike and I were riding the road, the road wasn't riding me.

It was good to be back on the road. I had lost a two-week battle with a head cold, I had been too ditzy to ride. I took it slow (70 mph) on the freeway to get settled on the bike and adjusted myself to the light rain. What exactly was I adjusting? I think I was consciously riding more relaxed than I normally do, the bike needed more room to glide on the wet. Hmm, my riding in general would improve if I were more relaxed. Anyway, once on Hicks, I felt Karolyn drop back - she knows that I get performance-anxiety when she is watching - she gave me the space so I just rode the way I wanted to ride.

First thing I noticed was that the plant material surrounding the tire tracks created contraints on my choices for lane position. Plus mud slides. Plus PG&E workers. This wasn't a day for pushing limits, more of a day for practicing efficiency. I do not like going down hill even on dry roads. Going down hill on wet is worse. After the Hicks Part I and Part II, we had lunch - Karolyn was up for riding home the same way we had come, but I had time limitations so we hopped on 101. A few months ago I would have been too uncomfortable to ride at freeway speeds (80+ mph) on wet roads but today the bike and I felt good. I was happy to have the opportunity to ride in these conditions with Karolyn because we're at the start of the rainy season, and I plan to ride through the winter.

Second point of interest is that on the highway when it was raining hard I couldn't make out the lane markers very well. I suspect that I will be able to perceive them better with practice.

Third and most cool discovery of the day was noticing that if I turned my head (but not my eyes) to one side, all the rain drops would run off that side of my visor leaving half of my vision unobscured. Repeating the head turn on the other side gave me reasonable visibility for a few seconds. After a while I noticed Karolyn's head turning, so she was doing the same thing. I guess everyone figures this trick out eventually. I wonder if RainX works on plastics? There's got to be some silicon stuff I can put on the visor so that rain drops won't stick to it.

Last point was the realization that if the freeway traffic had come to a grinding halt (which it did) and stayed that way for a while (which it didn't) I was ready to lane-split. Karolyn and I have agreed on a hand-signal. My mirrors do not extend beyond my grips so there won't be any dramatic "folding in" of the mirrors, there will just be a deep breath while the "My Favorite Martian" antenna rise out of my helmet and begin to revolve.

When I got home, I wiped down the bike. This is a very intimate time with my bike - as pleasurable as a good scratching session with my cats. Last weekend I must have spent a little more than two hours cleaning the bike, half of that was devoted to polishing the exhaust pipe with metal polish to remove the black tar bits from newly paved roads. I'm going to have to clean off another shelf in the garage for various bike cleaning formulations.

Next track day is Dec 20th - I'll be pit crew for Dennis and Karolyn at Laguna Seca. Meanwhile I'll be riding on 237 a few times a week, rain or shine - that should boost my rain riding skill up plenty.