My Solo Motorbike Ride!

I got on a motorbike today and drove it down the street and back. Whoohoo!

I first approached the bike and said, "Where did the seat go?" and looked at the wires sticking up through a metal grate.

I realized that was why the other guy had been standing up and doing wheelies. There was no seat.

The seat was a really cool beat-up detachable type, lying on the sidewalk like the wind had just blown it off.

So they picked it up and set it on the grate. I said, "So what do I do first?" and all I knew was where to put my hands, on the handles. This, I said, right after telling them, oh yeah, I'd driven a bike before, when I was 14 on a friend's farm. So they said I had to push the kick stick up. It was SO heavy. I asked if all bikes were that heavy. So I righted it and tried to push it forward and said, "Wow. I don't know how you guys do this..." and they said I needed to push the clutch in, on the handle to the left.

I did, and then it was rolling better. So I got on and asked what the other handle was for and they said "the brakes". I asked where the "go" thing was...you know, so it goes fast or slow...And they said that was on the handles. They said to turn it forward and then back.

Oh! but first i had to get the motor running and the stick was awful so I kept trying over and over, and it was spinning around and turning and then not working at all. But finally it started. Then I asked where the go thing was and they showed me but said to be careful because it was really jumpy because it was old.

I'll say.

It was running and they said to let the clutch out as I revved the motor and I did, and it jerked forward and I screamed. I had my feet straight out to the side, not on the pedals. Then I kept it going and gave it another twist and it JUMPED forward and I screamed again. I sounded like such a girl. "AH!" "AHHHhhh!" "AAAAH!" Screaming with every jerk and I at least got my feet on the pedals. Then I made my first turn and everyone was laughing behind me and I guess they thought I was going to run into a van. I was trying to remember to lean into the turn but as I was leaning, I was sticking my leg out at the knee like a stork. I made my turn and rolled back.

Not bad! But I wanted to do it again.

I looked at the bike. It was half metal, half rust, and the seat was off again and the parts were all swively and I stared and said, seriously, "Do you think it would make it to Seattle and back?"

"Oh yeah! No problem!"

I was thinking...No problem as long as the seat stays on. I am not riding for 2 1/2 hours standing up on a bike. That would be humiliating.

I want to learn how to ride a motorbike and twirl a lasso overhead at the same time.