125cc bikes rock!

The April issue of the AMA’s American Motorcyclist was one of my favorites as it had a whole feature on motorcycling related things to do that you’ve never done before. I added quite a few of those to my todo list for this year, which I won’t share quite yet, but I checked off the first one today after my first ever experience with riding a dirt bike at the Puget Sound Safety Dirt Bike School. And it was a BLAST. :D

Worth the 1 1/2 hour drive to Roy, WA and back through a rainstorm. Not to mention the fact that after a week of sunshine, this was the one day that it had to pour down continuously throughout the class. It didn’t rain enough to dampen my spirit though.

My street bike habits kept taking over, and it took me a while to get the dirt bike riding posture, and a much longer while to be able to stand on the footpegs for longer intervals. But it was *incredible* to be able to ride such a light, maneuverable bike! I couldn’t believe how easy it was to ride figure eights and tight circles on it. My street bike’s going to feel mighty big and clunky after this. :)

Speaking of Roy, WA, a conversation I had with my trainer last week:

Me: I’ve got a dirt bike class coming up soon at Roy, WA
Her: Where’s that?
Me: Next to Yelm, WA
Her: Where’s that?
Me: Next to Lacey, WA
Her: Where’s that?
Me: Next to Olympia, WA
Her: Oh. Yeah, it really is in close proximity to Nowhere, WA.

Doing turns…



I’m especially proud of this one, because the thought of going over that obstacle had me mentally screaming “IcantdoitIcantdoitIcantdoit… oh, I did it… OW”. This last being the outcome of not standing high on the footpegs so that
the bike smacked me in the butt after it bounced off of the log.

Now I’m hankering for a dirtbike of my very own, inspite of the fact that there are hardly any roads close to where I live, where I could ride it. The BMW F650GS I have my eyes on could meet part of this craving, but I highly doubt that it would be anywhere near as manueverable as the Yamaha I rode today.