A good friend is heading to serve in Iraq for a year and a half and he asked me to watch his bike for him while he's gone. The insurance and registration will be current till he gets back, all he asks is if I choose to ride it to keep up on the maintenance which I'd be more than happy to do.
Up to this point I was just taking small rides around parking lots and up and down dead end streets on anyone's bike that would offer just so I can curb that angst I'd get every once in a while, I swear I'm addicted to riding. But now that my new health insurance coverage is 100% I took my first real ride on Rt.521 recently, which happens to be a few minutes away from where the bike's being stored.
Riding on the road was a whole new experience to riding at 25 mph in a parking lot or back street. Being he and I are about the same weight his suspension was dialed in good for me and the bike was just a blast to ride. I had no fear at all, after getting warmed up I opened it up in 2nd on a straightaway and when the front started to get a bit light on the tach's way up to the red I decided to take it easy in 3rd and 4th and just enjoy the ride the rest of the way. I know those D&D's sound like ass when you're behind them but it sounded pretty damn good while I was on it, made the hair stand up on the back of my neck, that was by far the best therapy I could've ever gotten.
This pic was shot when he took the bike out of storage for the beginning of the '06 season, it's a '02 with only 8,000 miles on it.