Hunting for leathers…

Woke up later than I expected, considering that I’ve been waking up at 6 everyday during the weekday as it’s getting light out earlier and earlier. Made a list of all the dealerships with the gear they carry and their addresses. See it would be wonderful if there was one store which stocks every known brand of women’s gear, but noooo… the way it works is – RideWest BMW carries Vansons and RevIt, Ducati Seattle carries Dainese, Seattle Cycle carries Tecnic, University Honda carries Joe Rocket, Icon, Firstgear et al, Renton Motorcycles carries Alpinestars, Eastside Motosports carries MotoGP and so on…

Since folks had highly recommended the Vansons, I headed to RideWest BMW first thing. The thought of seeing all the lovely, lovely Beemers had absolutely nothing to do with it. :P Turns out that might as well have been the only stop I had made that day. I tried on some men’s pants and they fit okay except they were looser at the waist and longer. I thought I might as well buy them and get them altered, but the guy helping me said that they could order the women’s fit for me instead. Apparently they run in the same sizing as jeans sizes, so he could order me pants in my jeans size or we could take measurements and he could fax them over to Vanson’s and let them decide which ones would fit best. I decided on the latter, little realizing what lay ahead.

The measurements took the better part of 45 minutes. He (Josh) had a form, on which he had to fill out the minutest details. While he was kneeling down and looking up at me, he asked me if I was totally okay with having the measurements done (aww… what a gentleman!). I shrugged and said that it wasn’t a problem at all (I’ve only ever had male tailors so it wasn’t really a big deal), and he said that they didn’t get too many women in there (meaning none. :P). I tried to remain stoic throughout the measurement, but it was hard to not burst into giggles when he read things from the form like – “Measure around the fullest part of the hips” without a change in expression. There were various other assorted measurements of an even more awkward nature like butt, inseam (literally measured from crotch to ankle – fear not, I had to hold the crotch end of it :P), crotch to beltline on both front and backside, and two different bust measurements (oh and the one priceless moment where he asked me to kneel down, and when I did, he hastily knelt down himself). In hindsight, I wonder, wouldn’t it be a *lot* more embarassing to measure a guy’s hips and crotch? :P

When it was finally done, we both exclaimed – “Finally!!” and J. started to say – “You were a good little…” I think he was going to say “girl” but then changed his mind quickly and said “lab rat”. :P Hehe… it didn’t hurt that he was a bit of a cutie in a way that I don’t really fall for, but was rather appealing. I remember there was some other guy who walked close past me in the middle of our measurements when J. was writing down something and when he came around me to measure my shoulders from the back, he quietly asked – “Did that guy run into you?” which I thought was rather decent of him. It’s strange – I can’t stand guys who come across as overly protective and obnoxious, but it did feel nice to have him be concerned in a – “If that guy was messing with you, I’m going to go kick his ass.” sort of way. And yet, it just cracks me up so much at how self-conscious he was throughout the measurement thing and how concerned he was at not wanting me to feel uncomfortable. I almost told him that he now knew my body better than any of my boyfriends had ever done, but thought better of it. :P

He went to send off the fax, while I wandered into the bike display room and sat on some of them and I found a used F650GS that FIT ME PERFECTLY! It was factory lowered and fit my well in every possible way! I could have ridden it out of there and never have had to alter it in any way, unlike with the SV which is still far from optimum. *sigh* If not for my wanting to do trackdays, the 650GS would have been THE bike for me. :|

I wandered back to the front desk and asked J. if they had any gloves in my size (without much hope really). He showed me a pair of Held gloves in size 6 which were a perfect fit and were made entirely of kangaroo leather. Only hitch – $185. Worse hitch – cute guy selling them to me. I bought them.

I left the dealership after almost an hour and a half of being there, went to my car and laughed till I cried for a good five minutes at the measurement fiasco. Two days later and I’m still giggling. If that suit ever gets made, it’s going to be one nice fitting suit! ;) He said he’d call me in a couple of days and let me know what Vanson said so I can decide if I want to order or not.

Next I went to Ducati Seattle and tried on some Dainese pants which fit me okay but were a bit too long and $500. :P The customer service was really awful (typical motorcycle dealership if you happen to be female). I left sooner than I expected and headed to University Honda Yamaha to meet and . We hung out a bit, tried on a couple of things and chatted with the salespeople who are the absolute nicest out of all the motorcycling places I’ve been to. I’ve bought a major part of my gear from them just for this reason. I found a nice white Tecnic women’s jacket that fit very well, had good back armor and a full circumference zipper. They said the thickness was 1.2 mm and that many women wore the Tecnic suit on the track, but I think I was spoiled after looking at the Vansons which were almost 1.5 mm thick and looked much less flimsy. I’ll have to think about this one.

It looks like I will have to decide between getting Vansons or a Teknic suit. My instincts tell me that the former would be the better option, although much more expensive, and only in black. Let’s see what they say…
Later in the weekend, I also rode the SV around a good bit. Took it to a parking lot (same one I took the Virago to last year. :) and practised slow speed manuevers and got to know it better. I’m still lusting after the BMW I didn’t buy though and it still feels very weird to ride such a shiny bike that sticks out. I’m going to buy a dirty, grungy used tank bra to cover up some of the shinyness in the vain hope that it will look used and gritty. :P

Misc shopping…

This Saturday is going to be devoted to doing the rounds of all the motorcycling stores withing driving distance of Bellevue in my quest for racing leathers. I’ve already tried Renton Motorcycles which reportedly has the largest selection of gear, and yes it had a HUGE variety of 1 brand in women’s leathers ( the Alpinestars which were a lousy fit). I’m planning on hitting University Honda, Ducati Seattle, RideWest BMW, Aurora Suzuki, I-90 Motorsports, Cycle Barn and Seattle Cycle (correct me if I’ve left anything out. :P). Of course, I’ll call them and check that they stock what I’m looking for to avoid an unnecessary trip.

I also need to shop for new gloves – my current HD ones are falling apart. The velcro has come off and I’m not sure if I should just have it stitched back on or get new ones. Not surprisingly I have a hell of a time finding gloves that fit my tiny hands *and* look decent and offer good protection.

Look out for bikers…

Please take a moment to watch this video: http://ruiner.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/howclose.mpg. And make others watch it.

It might make you flinch but it’s important. Motorcyclists die because people driving cars ‘didn’t see them’.

Musings…

Today has been the most splendid weather we’ve had for a long time. It was bright and sunny, and even a little bit warm if you were wearing three layers. I took off early from work to ride over to main campus for a brownbag on Windows Vista globalization, which was suprisingly good (compared to the last dismal seminar I attended on Software Design Patterns). I got to see sneak peaks of Vista, plus heard a little about their globalization strategy, and got links to some good resources, all of which I am going to need seeing as I am responsible for i18n quality for a brand new product for Windows Live.

Incidentally, I had one of the hairiest moments of my riding life trying to find Building 26, when I turned into what looked like a freshly tarred driveway, but was a gravelly death-trap instead. I skidded and wobbled before my brain worked out the details, and it was a miracle that I didn’t crash. I suppose it’s a good sign that my sub-conscious instincts kicked in and I resisted the panic-stricken urge to stick my foot out and balance, rather just kept my eyes straight ahead and braked gently. I managed to back out slowly and get back on the street and rode all the way round the building to find the parking lot.

The brownbag ended at 5 and I went on home rather than going back to work. It’s the first time in months that I have ridden back home under a sunny sky. Speaking of which, how crazy is it to see motorcyclists back on the street and waving to them and then pulling into the motorcyclists’ area in the parking lot and finding it *full* of bikes, rather than just the forlorn one or two faithful regulars? :) I don’t even wave these days – more like punch the air with my fist. I think the sentiment is echoed by my fellow riders as well. ;)

The Harley Riders at Microsoft are having a ride meet tomorrow and they have kindly invited all other bikers as well. ;) I’d go, only we’re celebrating another team mates’ birthday and am already booked. I’m thinking it’s going to be pretty amusing to ride with the Harley guys sometime on my naked Suzuki. :)

When I got home, I tried starting up the Suzuki again, this time leaning on the start button like my life depended on it, and it responded and started up! :D I let it warm up for a bit and then took it out for a first ginger trail run. It’s a good thing nobody was out watching, because they would have busted a gut at the sight of the bike and I fighting each other, with the bike clearly winning. :P It seemed surprisingly lighter than I had expected, but clearly looked like it would throw me off and kick me in the shins if I took it for granted even for a fleeting moment. By the time I rolled it back into the carport (5 minutes later *ahem*), my fingers hurt from clamping down onto the clutch for dear life, and my legs were cramped from the unnatural position and scrapping around desperately to find the damn rear brake! :P So – not a very pleasant first experience, but even so, my heart beats just a little faster at the thought of riding it again.

Later on in the evening, as I was driving to Starbucks to catch up on reading some specs, I pondered on the irony in the fact that I never wanted to own a cruiser again as I did not like shiny chrome, but my new bike is a big, flashy, mid-life-crisis-red machine. *sigh* I mean, the Virago looks exactly like what a bike should look like – used, dirty, mud-splattered, old and dependable. I suppose that given time the Suzuki will take on that appearance, but right now it looks exactly like the bikes I see in the Microsoft parking lots and cringe at – expensive toys owned by rich yuppies with too much money to spend. Guess their ranks are going to be inflated by one more when I ride it to work. Some sort of poetic justice? :P

Motorcycle movie reviews

The Great Escape: All I can wonder is why did I wait so long to see it?? It’s WW2 related plus it’s got motorcycles!! The movie is set in a WW2 prison camp where the prisoners (Allies – American + British) are treatly exceedingly well by the Commandant and German soldiers in the camp – a fact that just did not make sense to me throughout the movie. In hindsight I suppose it does make some sort of a twisted sense – the prisoners were POWs and not Jews. (It’s also a little sad to think of times of war when Americans were the good guys and looked up to by everyone as true heroes.) The Germans just want to sit the war out in the camp where it’s safe, while the Allied soldiers try their damndest to upset this idea by devising new and desperate ways to break out.

It’s a longer than average movie and inspite of the theme, it failed to hold my attention until Steve McQueen comes into the picture. Now here’s a man who personifies every Alistair MacLean hero I ever read about. He radiates charisma and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scenes in which he appears. As for his motorcycling scenes where he did practically every stunt (he even played the German soldiers chasing himself on motorcycles :P) except for that timeless scene of him jumping the 12 foot tall fence toward the end of the movie, all I could do was go omg omg omg OMG. I believe this is where the last traces of my fascination with cruisers fell away – no away could I do any of the things he did on a cruiser!! (I am now obsessed with dirt bikes and enduros).

If you’re a motorcycle enthusiast, there is no excuse to not watch this classic. And Steve McQueen… now there’s a man I would drag back to my cave. :P

Faster: While On Any Sunday, a very similar movie, didn’t really do anything for me, this one had me watching from start to finish with a mixture of awe and envy as I saw the limits to which a human can push a motorcycle. I really need to start watching MotoGP one of these days. Out of all the racers shown, I must admit I am more of a Valentino Rossi fan – everybody likes a winner, right? And here’s where I consciously made the decision to get a new bike that would be track-worthy.

On a personal level, I also couldn’t rid myself of this underlying feeling of anger at the thought that here’s a world that will never be open for someone like me. I wonder how many talented female racers are denied the opportunity to break into this world due to lack of sponsorship. :| This is one of the biggest reasons why after 5+ years of being a rabid Formula1 follower, I finally quit watching. I think it all started in some F1 rag I was reading that did a story on Jarno Trulli’s wife – a racer in her own right, who quit after a few years of trying to get a break. The writer of the article said something on the lines of – “she finally accepted that racing was a man’s world and there was no place in it for her”. And no, the writer wasn’t angry on her behalf, rather he was applauding her sensible decision to quit and settle down and be a good little wife.

The movie was splendid though, even if it was more of a documentary of sorts.

Long Way Round: I had expected this one to be a movie, but it turned out to be a reality tv show type thing, with Ewan McGregor and his buddy Charlie Boorman riding around the world on their motorcycles – starting from England, going through Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Canada, Alaska and finally winding up in New York. Unlike Faster, this one at least is something most of us motorcyclists can dream of doing somewhere during our lifetimes. You get to see past Ewan McGregor the moviestar and see the Ordinary Joe/Jill who gets giddy about motorcycles and is happiest in his saddle, going through strange places and meeting new people.

My respect for Ewan went up tenfold after watching this – he is so exceedingly funny and giggly, making fun of himself and his experiences and engaging the viewer every step of the way. He makes you giggle along with him and lays to waste the macho male testerone-laden image that the word motorcyclist usually invokes. Not to mention that he also makes a full beard and thick, black rimmed geek glasses look sexy. :P Oh, and I’m pretty sure that he’s read at least a fraction of the tomes of slash featuring him, seeing as there are references galore to the man-love between him and Charlie. I didn’t even have to read between this lines this time. :P

I was a bit disappointed to see that they had a big-budget backup crew help them across some of the stickier areas. I also wonder, why on earth would a guy like him want a FREE MOTORCYCLE from BMW?

Another plus of watching this – you will never again feel bad about dropping your bike. If Ewan can do it inspite of a TV audience watching, there is no shame in doing it yourself occassionally. Oh, and I finally learnt the correct way of getting onto a bike that has a huge pack strapped to the back – and trying to swing your leg over it is not it. :P

To summarize, I loved this entire series, until the part where they got to America, where it suddenly became much less exciting, and more of going through the motions to finish. In any case, watch this!