7 secrets of Brilliant Cornering I grabbed the image from beginner bikes, I liked the way it is laid out. I'm pretty sure I've seen it before but I can't remember from where.

1---Relax

2---Read the Road

3---Practice

4---Trust your Tires

5---An Escape Route

6---Kneedown is Optional

7---Don't Crash

click the image for a readable view
  ¶ 1:37 PM 2 comments

  Femmoto 2005 I'm cheating with this one since it is something that I posted on the board and on myspace but I figured its a good entry anyway.

Femmoto was an amazing experience. This was an all female demo track day in Las Vegas.

Friday night was registration. We got five sessions on different bikes. So the first order of business was to pick bikes. Kawasaki, Buell, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi and Kymco were there. It reminded me a of registering for college classes, a lot of back and forth trying to make the schedule fit. Kawasaki was out in force, they even had the new Ninja 650 to drool over, no demo rides on that though. After registration I went to dinner with a bunch of girls from another forum which was cool. I will say that this was the earliest I've ever been to bed in Vegas.

Saturday morning---the main event. Also the earliest I've ever been up in Vegas

First session---Kawasaki Ninja ZX 6R 636


I look remarkably calm. Well thats misleading...


I don't need no coffee I'm on a 636 to start and trust me, that'll wake you up. It seems like I had the same idea as most of the other riders in Novice 1 and all of the milder bikes that I planned to start on were already taken. So I decide to start my day on the Ninja 636. This bike is not the worlds best fit for me and starting out was a bit of a challenge, who needs to touch the ground anyway? So I'm rolling though the pits and whoops, I can't find the pegs...Oh there they are...Who the hell put them up there?

Do you remember trying to do a handstand as a kid? Head down, hands and feet on the floor and butt in the air just about to kick off the floor with your feet. Well, that's kind of the same position the 636 put me in. On the track this bike is amazing; turn your head and the bike just falls in effortlessly. I did feel like the bike was snickering at all of us, this group was excruciatingly slow to start and it took a few circuits for riders to start passing. I'm just thrilled I wasn't the slowest, I actually passed other riders! I can see why people love this bike but it's not one that I would be able to live with on the streets.

Second session---Aprilia Tuono

This is one of my favorite bikes, it was the first one that I signed up for. Starting out was much better this time, I'm getting the hang of starting out on a bike that is way too tall for me. The bike sounds and feels amazing and is so much fun to ride. This track (there were 2) has much more of a straight so the pace of this session seemed to go much faster. Unfortunately, someone low-sided this session. She was fine and came back to the pits on the back of one of the staffer's bikes.


Yeah I know I need to look up.

Third Session---Buell Lightning XB12S


Buell names their demo bikes so meet Pat, my bike for this session

I really like the fit of this bike, its tiny and with the low seat it was the only bike that I could easily touch ground on. But...oh lord does it vibrate and I never could find the kickstand. I thought that was just me but I talked to a bunch of girls that had the same complaint. This session was kind of weird because it got red flagged. Someone went down on a Blast and they went to get her in the ambulance because she felt dizzy. Since they had the ambulance out they red flagged the session. It was hard to get back into the groove when they sent us back out so I never really got a good feel for the Buell. I think that my group was the only one with crashes.

Fourth session---Kawasaki Z1000
I loved this bike! it was my favorite. Smooth with power everywhere. I want one!
Everything was effortless with this bike. It was comfortable, I could basically touch ground and it had soooo much power. There is one available this year in flat candy plasma blue that I could happily live with


I was getting the hang of things by the time we got to this session.


I bailed on the final session, I was wiped out by the time I got off the Z1000 so I never got a chance to ride the scooter. I picked that as my last because I figured I would keep the simplest for last, but I just couldn't do it. Now I'm disapointed that I didn't get to go out on the scooter but it was for the best I can't wait to do a real track day.

Las Vegas was HOT especially in leathers.


Huge Kudos to Sportbike Track Time for an amazingly well run event.

Can't wait until this years event!
  ¶ 9:05 PM 1 comments

  My first bike
My fist bike was a 1988 Kawasaki EX500. It was a great starter bike. I spent a ton of time researching and looking for the perfect bike. I was looking for an EX 500/250 or a GS 500. I didn't really care which one, I was just looking for a cheap basic bike. It was summer so high quality, low price small bikes were hard to find. I finally found this bike on ebay.

It was one of those bikes that sat for years, it was 16 years old with only 2100 miles on it. The man that was selling it put alot of work into getting it road worthy again for his son. The son was going to use it to commute to school, then he got caught in the rain and that plan changed. So we were able to get a bike with minimal milage that had already been dealer serviced to fix the carbs and the wiring.

Not only was it a great starter bike, its a great city bike as well. Its narrow, peppy, and has great parts availability. After I got the Ducati, my husband commuted on it for awhile. I think we put a total of 10k mikes on it. They also hold killer resale value. It was sold, cash in hand within 24 hours of being listed on craigslist for $250 less than what we paid. A full year 10k miles, assorted drops all for the low low price of $250---what a bargin



Hopefully its still out there teaching another new rider how to ride...  ¶ 11:42 PM 0 comments