Home again…

Posted by Rashmi Tambe on Feb 1, 2009 in Motorcycling | 0 comments

I rode my SV to work today after six months. Small victory? I’ll take it.

My left arm has started hurting again and I find myself wincing while picking up the lightest objects. I even found myself waking up multiple times last night and finding that both my arms had “gone to sleep” so to speak. This might have something to do with the fact that I’m forcing myself to rotate the arm and wrist 360 degrees to regain my mobility. It’s been five months since the surgery, so I don’t feel like I’m pushing it too soon.

As for riding itself, it doesn’t hurt too much when I just have to hold on to the handebar. Pulling in the clutch is another story though. I guess only time can cure that and until then I have to contend with cornering like a n00b. :|

There’s also of course the feeling of – “oh crap I’m on the freeway going 70mph on a motorcycle and in my… protective gear…” like when you first started riding. Granted I have the best protective gear money can buy, but that’s small consolation. At least I feel absolutely in control when I’m riding though and have very little PTSD type symptoms, like I do when I’m a passenger in a car and white-knuckled and screaming on the inside all the way.

The SV is currently plagued with electrical issues too. The battery keeps dying. The starter switch seems to have a bad connection because I have to really press down on the button to get it to start. The gas warning light is permanently on. This time though I’m determined to fix it all myself rather than ask the “experts” for advice. I’m going to go get a multimeter and run through all the diagnostic tests to isolate the problem to the battery, the reg-rec, some short or bad grounding. I would loathe for it to be the battery because I had a brand new one installed in it in May and barely even rode the bike since because I had the BMW then. Those frakkers are almost $100! :|