Thursday, December 4, 2008

Dreaming

BikerDude is talking about plans for a cross-country bike trip when he finishes seminary in 4-5 years. When he was younger and stupider and living in Southern California, he used to take off with his friends for a couple of weeks at a time and ride their bikes up the West Coast, through Canada, through most of the Western national parks, and all around. He hasn't done any long-distance biking since he's been here in the East, but he still goes out on weekends, sometimes with his daughter MonkeyChild, sometimes by himself, but so far not so much with me because we need to modify the bike before I can ride long distances.

Motorcycle passenger seats were clearly designed for women (and it is always women) who are not, shall we say, of my proportions. I am WAY too tall and WAY too heavy for what they have in mind! The way the pegs are positioned, I end up riding in a position that I rarely assume outside of an OB/GYN exam, which is not one that I intend to maintain for hours at a time. On top of that, I have a bone spur behind my left knee cap which makes bending my knee painful in any event. The problem is that in order to lower the passenger foot pegs (and preferably replace them with foot boards), we have to replace the exhaust pipes with ones that run lower along the frame.

One of the things I have learned in being married to a biker is that asking a biker to modify their bike is like asking 21 year old bride whether to serve the crab cakes at her reception with cocktail or remoulade sauce. Everything is drama! You can't just replace the exhaust pipes because the lower pipes now make the saddle bags look out of proportion, so now we must shop for saddle bags. And if we're going to get new saddle bags, there's no reason not to go whole hog (Hah! See what I did there?) and get a new seat. And really, wouldn't the whole thing look better with a ferring? Then we could install a stereo w/ CD/MP3 player, and how cool would that be??!!

So, anyway, three years later, still no footboards for me.

I did take a motorcycle safety course to see if I could learn to ride, too. Turns out that I can't. When you wreck-- twice-- in the safety class, they are reluctant to pass you. Go figure.

So I'm looking into the Piaggio MP3 scooter:


Note the two front wheels. This is a serious asset.

2 comments:

gary dalton said...

like the bike...has a kind of Mad Max look to it...does it come with optional shotgun mount?

SharonCville said...

Yee-haw! Shotgun mount and cow catcher!

It is kinda wicked looking, isn't it? There's a smaller, girly version, but this one can hang in at highway speeds. Which may or may not be a good thing.