I have to say this isn't one of the things I was looking forward too, I was a wee bit terrified about taking "K" on the streets. He own experience was to take out an inocent bird house in a quiet development. Here we've got to get on to Kernan RD, and goodness knows that will be a feat in its self. She has no idea how worried and responsible I feel. if some thing happens to her oh boy! I pulled up to "K's" house and man she was there bike out, and looking up the street waiting for me, your late its 5:00pm, come on now ya I'm coming from PonteVedra and I had to finish work first but naw she wan'ted no parts of that, cause today we were hitting the road freedom or as much freedom as a 250 rebel can get ya. We headed out to Kernan I dedided to do rights that way we don't have to cross any traffic. We will be in Traffic this is Jacksonville after all three lanes of city traffic going now where fast in a city no one works..........LOL!
What I decided to do it let "K" lead out of the turns, that way she isn't sitting at the corner and well I'm down the road a few miles before she can pull out. So, I told her go turn when your ready, I will follow, if I am not directly behind you just keep going, I will catch up very shortly. I knew she was going to may very wide slow turns and take a little bit to get going and moreover do under the speed limit pissing them city slickers off. So from behind I was like the buffer, I was the one they came racing up behind and beeping at and yelling things better left unmentioned at me. We got to the corner of Kernan and Wonderwood and made a right, then Kernana and Girving, then Girving and Atlantic, then Atlantic to 3rd Ave. All of these road wasy had heavy traffic on them so this is where she lived and she'd be the one to have to ride it so she might as well get used to it from the get go. From 3rd ave we hit JTB. JTB is a great choice its like a mini highway throught the city filled with all the city fools and highway nut jobs. I kept riding up on her cause I wanted her to atleast keep up to speed for if nothing else my sake, it kind of sucks when semis ride right up your butt.....
I do know and realize that this might have been a harder push then neccessary however she lives in the heart of a busy southside and needs to learn how to deal with it now or spend years riding in circles around the development which means she won't be going anywhere. WE were doing about 65 so it was good, from JTB we went on to St. John's Bluff, slowed it down a bit, from St. John's Bluff to Monument, from Monnument to I forget the mane of that pice of road, but from there back to Kernan. Here on Kernan we made a left into the development. Now my thoughts were this, we talk about what was good and what was bad on that ride, like what I saw she needed to work on. Beging correcting it and then she had all week to profect it. To me the whole of what I saw was head down when turning. Bad habit to get into, look down go down, look through turn make it through turn, look where ya want to be you will be where ya want to go. Yeah, sure that's easy in class but it's not that easy in the streets the first few times. Her turns are wide, but if she practices turnng both right and lefts and looking where she wants to go she will reduce the size of her turning arches.
She did practice both right and left turns and was ready for the following weeks experience. Today we were going to make lefts, yeap cross traffic, then I'll also mix a right here and there in it for her. Off we went down Kernan, I left her lead for the most part, put then took over when I wanted her to go a cerian road along the river, ya see Florida is full of straight flat roads and theya re easy to ride, however not every state has straight flat roads so she's going to have to learn to get into the leaning, several of the roads that run along the rivers and creeks here in Jacksonville have little twisty curves nothing for mountanin pass riders to dig on but good ones for those looking to increase their personal experiences in motorcycling. Of course riding along the river has other challenges, the view staying focused when ya really just want to look at the river or the big houses located against the rivers edge. Combine the river focus, with twisties and lefts with a few rights we had ourselves a good day of road experiences.
Once again we arrived in the driveway safe and sound. Now, I get to tell her what needs work and what doesn't, of course turning and staying focused while surrounded by some of the prettier sections of the city, decreasing the radius of the turns and leaning. "K" herself couln't believe how uncomfortable she was with the idea. I told it will come with fimiliarity of riding and learning to trust self and trust in machine. I took her to then end of the street and had her do figure eights slowly first left then right. I told her to practice those along with stopping and turning. I expected that next week we will go out on Sunday, and we will go some where, I think we will cross the Dam's Point Bridge but we will do it before 8am if that was good for her. I also told her to start increasing her speeds in the figure eights both left and right starts, as well as increasing speeds for fast stops and for making rights and lefts. By she has no idea what is coming next, I going to work on road surfaces this up coming week. All the different road surfaces we can encounter, as we me make lefts, rights, and tighter but faster figure eights. Hey, if she doesn't do this with a experienced rider to tell her how it feels, that it will be ok, who will she learn to ride them surfaces with? /So, practice up for next week "K" your going to need it.............
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