Just another Monday morning…

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

They say to try one new thing everyday. So today I tried riding a BMW to work.

Some observations:
Monday morning in bumper to bumper traffic on 520 with my glasses all fogged up and visor sprinkled with rain probably wasn’t a good day to start out on a new bike.

The upright seat positioning is strange but comfortable. My clutch is awkwardly placed and very stiff – I need to run down at lunchtime and adjust the lever downward towards me. Not much I can do about the stiffness though.

I kept missing the turn signal indicator because it is so faaar away (damned tiny hands). Only honked once by accident though.

This bike handles totally different from the SV (as expected). It’s more dirt bike like and so twitchy. I move my hands just a little bit and the entire handlebar swings to the left or right. WTF?

I tried gripping the tank with my knees once. Just once. Holy crazy vibrations, Batman. I think at some point I felt like I was going to get vibrated clean off of the 520 bridge. And this bike is supposed to be good for long distances?!

I had to keep shifting up to get the revs down. I think I was actually in fifth gear at some point just going 65! O.O I never get out of 3rd on the SV.

I think I spent $9 of my attention getting completely distracted by the bike and being stiff and achy as heck; and about $1 on actual riding. Not. Good.