I’m not sure what’s with the orange peel? Maybe making fresh squeezed?

 

Well Mick…..not so great. I'll back up a bit and say that I've worked with her around the neighborhood and got her to the point where she could comfortably ride around the subdivision on my 64 Honda. Like any beginner, she was a little rough on take offs, but once rolling, not bad. My one critique was that she took corners a little fast (dramatic music indicating a foretelling plays). The class was a three day affair - 1st day classroom, and then 2 days on the bike with a test at the end. I stopped in to watch her midway through the second day and I was very impressed with her progress. She looked very good and clearly, whatever it is they were doing worked. But Cheryl is one of those people who over thinks things. That night she was second guessing everything she had done that day. And she was worried about the test. I knew that between the second guessing and test anxiety that she might not pass. Turns out my suspicions were correct. She aced all of the exercises, and most of the test. But on the last skill test she took the curve way too fast, grabbed a handful of front brake, and laid the bike down hard. She scraped the every lovin **** out of her right knee. I mean really scraped up the right knee. Like kid off a bicycle size scrape. Like 4x6 gauze pad scraped knee. But other than that, she's okay other than a severely damaged ego. It could have been much worse.

So what I did not anticipate is that she would fail in such spectacular fashion. Apparently she got up from the fall immediately and started kicking the crap out of the bike and swearing like a sailor. Fortunately the instructors were very good and calmed her down. They said she could come in and practice and retest any time she wants.

Like one might expect, at first she went to "I was stupid to even think I could ride. I'll never ride and it was a waste of time." to "I know what I did wrong and I think the experience was valuable." or words to that effect. I will agree that a person can learn more from one fall than 1000 miles of riding. Until you know where the edge is, and then go over it, you really don't have the full picture. The other thing she learned was to take my advice on gear. I wanted to get her some Kevlar jeans. Nope. She wasn't having it. So she ended up destroying a $200 pair of jeans and her knee. Now she wants the Kevlar jeans. And maybe even a full face helmet. So there's that.

 

Sounds amazingly like Sherri's experience last fall. The good news is she got it out of her system.

 

Did she wipe out too?

 

I was not at any of the sessions but she described them as 'drops'.

 

I received some very sage advice once, “never try and teach your wife to play golf. Let someone else do it.” It appears you follow this advice.

On the surface, this seems fairly flippant but under scrutiny, it holds merit in preservation of your relationship. Sorry to hear of Cheryl’s fall And I know how asphalt rash feels.

 

Thanks Russ. Overall she is back to her usual cheerful self. I think this event at least served as a vehicle to manage her expectations. She was thinking she would want a Sportster and I kept telling her that's a lot of bike, contrary to what people say. Now, after riding the XG 500 she gets that.

 

Morning hooligans and miscreants. Started the day with an hour of jits. Is it too early to take a nap?

 

This dude Steve Cole at GMR Performance is yacking my ear off! lol

 

Much respect for Steve, sadly, he and his wife are a Gold Star family as well.