My Ride Chicago Experience: Part III - Range Day One

Saturday’s Class 9/18/2004: Riding Day One
Location: 185 S Damen (Damen & Monroe)

Friday during the day I had sore throat, stuffy nose and a fever. If I didn't go to the range.... I wouldn't get my money back so it was important that I felt better.... so Friday at work I took Dayquil, cough drops, drank lots of orange juice and had chicken soup from Panera Bread for lunch. By early afternoon, my fever was gone but the sore throat remained.

After work, I skipped dinner and went to bed at like 6pm. I slept 12 hours to 6am... like I said… I did NOT feel good!

I woke up feeling better than Friday but still a super bad sore throat.

I got ready and headed downtown.

The drive there was pretty simple. I took the Tri-State Tollway to the Kennedy and got off on Madison Street heading West. From there Damen was about a mile and a half up. At Damen, I turned left and the lot is on the right side just past the United Center.

I got there like an hour early (first one there)... they said when we took the classroom part to.... BE ON TIME.... NO EXCEPTIONS! So I listened to some shit on my iPod and waited for people to get there.

I don’t know who this is but the pic shows the sheds the bikes are kept in and note the Porta-Potty on the right, It’ll come into play later.

The class started with 13 people.... 10 of them were older than me (I'm 32) and the other 2 were right around my age. The class included 2 women (one in her 40's and one probably 35)

When Chris & Brad (the 2 guys that run the school) got there they pulled out a bike for everyone. It looked like they had a total of 14 bikes.



There were 2 Dirt Bikes... this is a pic of an actual one... (both looked pretty much identical)



There were about 5 Honda Rebels...



…and about 6 Modified Kawasaki Eliminators....


The 14th bike was a Honda Nighthawk but it wasn't used because the key is missing.

Everyone geared up. I noticed that all the helmets that they provide are now full-face, that's another reason I was glad I brought my own. The majority of the class used RC's helmets and gloves.

When it came time to assign everyone a bike, Brad assigned them…. You... take that one... you take this one. Before I knew it, all of the Honda Rebels (the one I planned on using) WERE GONE! When it came to me, he pointed me to a Dirt Bike. I said... "Is this the bike I'm gonna have to ride?" He replied, "Yes." So I asked... "Can I ride this one (Kawasaki cruiser) instead? This is just like the kind of bike I'm going to buy." He said "No problem." and I got to use the Kawasaki Eliminator.... just like this guy here....



Finally we were down to business!

At the beginning, it was easy....

• Proper way to mount a bike
• Proper way to dismount a bike
• The pre-ride inspection
• Start up procedure

Finally.... we got to turn them on!

After that it was straddle walking the bike to get a feel for its weight.

Then we could play with first gear and the clutch.... These are called Friction Zone exercises. Release the clutch slowly till it just starts to move then squeeze the clutch back in. That taught us where the clutch starts to engage the engine.

After a while we learned the basic skills of balancing and braking.

Then we brought up our feet so we could begin riding on the pegs.

Once we all were okay with riding on the pegs we learned about acceleration and deceleration and we got to ride in first gear for a bit until they said stop then straddle walk the bike around the curve and do it again....

Within 2 hours, one guy who was having a difficult time.... left and went home! Now there were 12 people....

At noon it was time for lunch... as I mentioned in Part II, they ordered all of us pizza (Domino's) because we agreed to allow them to merge the classes to 9am-2pm. Because I felt like crap and I didn't want to risk any lactose issues due to the cheese... not to mention the fact that I fucking hate Domino's pizza anyway... I didn't eat. I drank TONS of water. My throat still hurt a lot and the cold water helped it.

Then we began an exercise that I dreaded. It's the Counter-Steering exercise. After it was demonstrated to us, this guy Lou and I looked at each other and said.... "This isn't going to be good!"

The concept of Counter Steering is really scary because it's not natural…. to me anyway.

Let me try to explain a second.... When you're riding your bicycle and you want to turn LEFT you steer your bike to the LEFT... You basically push the RIGHT handle bar away (and pull the LEFT handle bar towards you) to force the tire to turn left. Ya with me so far?

Well in Counter Steering on a motorcycle, it's just the opposite. If I want to turn RIGHT, I need to push the RIGHT side away from me! That forces the motorcycle into a lean to the RIGHT and away you turn. The phenomenon is called Gyroscopic Precession. This is what happens when a lateral force is applied to the axis of a spinning gyroscope. Fucking hard to understand.

Okay.... so we all get back on our bikes... the demo is over... it's our turn.... he asks me if I want to go first.... I said NO!!.... he picked someone else. (Thank god) So I get all ready... I make sure that my helmet is on extra tight, I make sure my gloves are on tight... I button up my long sleeve shirt all the way..... basically I'm preparing myself for hitting the ground.... I'm positive that I'm gonna fall while attempting this exercise.

I felt a bit better after watching the first few people do the exercise with out wiping out. Before I knew it, it was my turn. I got the “go” from Chris and raced down the range. As soon as I got to the cones I pressed on the left handlebar… sure as shit, the bike leaned (and turned) to the left. Well... fuckin-a, I guess counter-steering DOES work!

The rest of the day soon became a blur with proper way to slow before corners, cone swerves, gear shifting, downshifting and the like.

When the class ended I was tired, sweaty, achy and thirsty. But ya know what? I had also ridden a motorcycle for my first time ever!

I said my goodbyes to the Chris & Brad and headed home. I still felt like shit so I ended up going to bed early…. I kept wondering what Sunday had in store!

On to Part IV