So I'm on what I've been told is a "Staycation" (variously conjugated on and off facebook as Gaycation, Jaycation, and Vacasian. Apparently asian and gay jokes are going to stick with me for life). Basically, in order to accommodate a three-day motorcycle safety course (more to follow), I took an entire week off from work and decided to just completely relax. Thus, all of the spring cleaning, reshuffling, shopping, laundry, and sunning in NYC are all being summarily handled with great aplomb.
So the motorcycle lessons are, well, totally sweet-ass. I hate the NYC DMV with a purple passion, and if you take the motorcycle course, they will teach you all the basics of riding, and once you pass their course, you no longer have to take a NY road test - that is, you get a waiver and a license.
So I dragged my ass out of bed at 5:15 am and arrived in the Bronx at 7:15 am and we promptly got our riding lessons starting with the fundamentals and moving into more complex formations and techniques. The sun was a blazing 82 degrees, the bikes were easy starter bikes, and I have to say that if I wasn't already completely sold on riding from all my previous experiences...finally getting onto a geared machine and feeling the workings of the clutch, throttle and gears was shudderingly good. I've always ridden non-geared scooters in the past, which just let you pull the throttle and then use two hands to brake...but really didn't involve any deeper interaction with the machine. Oh: Here's the bike they provided.
It's not super powerful, which I will grant, but at 250 ccs, it was substantially more powerful than anything I've ever ridden, including a beast of a Honda scooter I rode in India this summer with an Asian in tow and not even the slightest bit of drag on acceleration (while dodging hideous auto drivers and poo-covered cows). I would actually buy one of these, but given that they are only 250 ccs and I'm 6'2", it's just slightly slightly cramped.
I was actually surprised by how involved a process it is to drive anything manual. I must have stalled out at least 20 times over the course of the day (tip: do not let go of the clutch if you are in first gear, lest you be shuddered and silenced while a line of angry latinos and white dudes waits for you to get the fuck out of the way). It's almost like drumming in a weird way. You have four completely separate functions being performed by four completely separate limbs, while astride a steel contraption hurtling towards a chain-link fence in front of an audience of 12 very macho men wearing bandanas and timberlands. Apparently, if something darts out in front of you, your automatic emergency reaction is supposed to be:
1) Roll off the throttle.
2) Right hand: Hand brake.
3) Right foot: Foot Brake.
4) Left hand: Clutch.
5) Left Foot: Downshift after the engine has been disengaged.
6) Left hand: Not let go of the clutch.
7) Left hand: Why? Because you'll stall out.
8) Left hand: I let go of the clutch.
But my instructor did clap and say "Good job!" So, yeah.
In any case, here's is what I'm looking at now: It's from a friend of a friend, so he seems totally reliable. It's a Kawasaki KZ440...but it's from 1982. Which means this bike is older than me...but apparently still runs like a top. The clincher? $500 dollars. So excited.
I myself am pretty shocked that a 27 year old bike looks this modern and this clean, but I am not complaining. At 440 ccs, it's about twice as powerful as the bikes I've been taught on, but it's still small enough that I'm not going to lose control...unlike those fucking 1200 cc Harley's that take a fucking drum line to your ear drums whenever they ride by.
Other relevant updates? I've now been hooked and reeled in by Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad, both of which are excellent excellent shows...and I'm 800+ pages into Infinite Jest, which means that I will be done soon, after which I will read a newly procured copy of the Brothers Karamazov...which sadly I have only recently decided to explore after reading an essay DFW wrote about the biographer of Doestoevsky. That guy has got some crazy influence on me...
Ok, peace out you two.
Anyway, that's all.
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