biker babe: how I learned to ride & purchased a motorcycle in 35 days

To say this was a momentous weekend for me would be an incredible understatement. Even now, as I'm home relaxing and watching Rooney Mara rock it on her motorcycle in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I'm choking back tears because I DID IT.

This weekend my dad rode over from Spokane and helped me pick up the motorcycle I bought on Thursday night from Everett. Today we went tooling around a high school parking lot to get my "sea legs" under me and then on a quick ride down to Lake Samish and back.

I wrote all about how I learned to ride through a 3 day motorcycle safety course on a separate blog entry here. I began with a Kickstarter course the end of June and took my 3-day course the beginning of July. Meaning it's only been 35 day since I first used a clutch.

Last weekend I bartended a wedding for a dear friend down in Skagit county and on my way down on Chuckanut drive I decided to quit being wishy-washy and find myself a bike. I quickly settled on a few options: a Honda CBR250, CBR500, and my favorite, the CB500F. My dad (and mom) tried to convince me to find a smaller, older, cheaper bike to start with and upgrade in a year or two once I was more comfortable with everything that goes along with a motorcycle instead of a scooter. Being the obnoxious independent child that I am I decided that I would throw caution to the wind and buy myself a brand new bike.

And I know what you're thinking, Emily, you will drop this on the ground and it will lose value and you will be mad, etc. etc. — you're probably correct, but for now, this is the only thing in the world I really want.

Last Wednesday I traveled from Bellingham to Marysville to try and sit on all three models of bikes (since they're such different styles and sizes the differences were very noticeable). I struck out at my first shop for sitting on the CBR250 and decided to continue south on the I-5 corridor and try my luck in Everett. They too had just sold their last CBR250 so I couldn't sit on it there either. Before you write me off as a total idiot because hey, I went to two bike shops without verifying their online in-stock models were actually in the store, I did call the last shop before driving to Woodinville.

The third try was indeed the charm and at the last shop I found a nice salesman to show me all three bikes. Immediately sitting on the 250 felt too small and that I would quickly outgrow it. I then sat on the CB and CRB500 models and began an internal debate of what kind of riding style I would be most comfortable with. The CB500F has a straight handlebar which allows for more "straight" riding style, while the CBR500 has handlebars that are more street bike style and force you to hunch over to hold them.

I decided that for my riding, and my style, the CB500F was the way to go. I called my dad and we began plotting insurance, maintenance schedules, dealership fees, etc.

Thursday I called four motorcycle dealerships along the I-5 corridor who listed CB500Fs on their websites to find the best pricing and nicest salesperson.

My first call, to Everett Powersports, turned out to be the right one. I was paired with a great salesperson who immediately gave me a quote and promised to match anything else if someone underbid him. After gathering the other quotes, which were much higher (how is the same bike priced over $800 differently from one shop to another in the same area I do not know) and with much pushier salesmen I called him back and began the process of reserving my bike and teeing up my financing options for my arrival after work Thursday night.

I also had to settle between State Farm, Safeco, and Progressive insurance. I went with Progressive, as their rates closely matched State Farm and the agent I worked with (if you're in B'ham and want her name and number she is amazing) was awesome. Because of my age (under 25) and because this is a fairly large, new, speedy motorcycle my rates are substantial but they will decrease once I turn 25 and gain some standing with Progressive.

The process of making all the calls, haggling over the phone and asking my poor dad about 25925 questions all paid off when I arrived in Everett Thursday night and saw this beauty.

My bike, whom I have named Trixie, is incredible. Being the aesthetic snob that I am I knew if I went with an older, uglier bike I would be displeased and that would translate to all sorts of not-so-great things. This sleek, black, modern bike is just what I need to get going as a real biker.

My dad rode partway to B'ham Friday night and the rest of the way Saturday morning to drive down with me and pick up the bike. After mulling over choices of: 1) me riding it (hah), 2) borrowing/renting a truck to pick it up in (ugh), and 3) someone else riding it I went with option #3 so long as it was my dad doing the riding. We drove down to Everett in my car and as we approached the exit it began to rain so hard it felt and looked like hail, to which I said, ahhh hail nah. Pulling up to the dealership it was POURING and was making me very anxious and my dad angry he left his rain gear in my 80º apartment.

We poked around the shop for a bit, I found a leather jacket (finnnnally) and we picked up oil to do the first oil change (done quickly after purchase to remove metal particulates from circling around gumming up things) and then it was time for the big trip. The rain cleared as we were preparing to head out and we made it back to Bellingham without incident and without me having a heart attack watching my dad follow me on the bike.

Today I rode around a high school parking lot for a bit, herking and jerking as I got a feel for the clutch and throttle. The weight was new and different but I didn't feel out of control at any point. We came back to my apartment for a breather and I decided I wanted to ride a bit more in a controlled environment and then perhaps go on a quick ride.

Getting out of my parking lot proved to be the biggest challenge of the day, I hadn't taken off from a stop on an upward slope before and managing the clutch, throttle, and front brake (to keep from rolling backwards) simultaneously caused me much difficulty.

We successfully got up to the high school and I quickly decided a longer ride might shake out some of my jitters about being out on the open road. I chose a jaunt down to Lake Samish and that went without a hitch, errr any hitches I feel like mentioning.

The feeling of riding on the open road, on a brand new bike that I navigated the purchase of almost completely on my own, was one of the most amazing feelings of my life. I hope I never forget what it was like to take the first ride.

I am so grateful my dad was able to come over and help me through this new beginning of my journey. Having someone to high five when we got to a good stopping point by the lake was priceless. Thanks dad!

So what's next? Now I try to figure out how the heck to 1) park it in my crappy parking lot, 2) secure it so 4 burly dudes don't come pick it up and take it, 3) start riding on an uphill slope! After that the world is my riding oyster!

Journey to Badass: Motorcycles, Hospice, and Doula School

Since I was a fairly small child I've been rather risk-averse. Whenever I was introduced to a new activity I weighed the benefits of partaking against the risks of injury and death. I don't play contact sports, mostly because I'd hate them, but partially because I'd worry about breaking my teeth. I would love to do roller derby, for instance, but again, my teeth.

As I enter what I would consider my "mid" twenties, I am settling into a pretty regular pattern of life — I work, I go home, I watch some movies or TV, I go to sleep, I get up, I go to work, to ∞. This last weekend I changed that pattern, hopefully forever, and I'm aiming to change it even more in the coming months.

Over the weekend I took part in a 3 day motorcycle training course and received my motorcycle endorsement. My family, mostly my dad, has encouraged me to ride since I was younger and 4 years ago I began riding a scooter in preparation to one day take on bigger and better two-wheeled things.

The course was hard, much harder than I anticipated, though I didn't really know what to expect. I set myself up to make it much harder by choosing a training school an hour from my house. My schedule last Saturday and Sunday consisted of: get up at 5:00am, leave house at 5:45am, arrive at school 7:00am, ride motorcycles all day, depart for home, go to sleep at 12:00am due to nervousness, get up at 5:00am, drive drive drive ride ride ride.

There were 10 students in the class including myself and while at first I was a bit frightened by all their chain-smoking, Def Leppard blasting from their cars, and experience riding they all turned out to be lovely people. Our instructors were a British transplant who gave all the right/left directions backwards and some sort of Harley-riding cowboy type.

Class focused a lot more on surviving potential hazards than I would have thought. Little time was spent learning about shifting and cruising and more about swerving, sudden braking, and not falling over. I appreciated learning all those things, as I know first hand how important they will be, but I'm a little nervous to go out on the open road when I've never been out of 2nd gear.

The written test was a breeze, the riding test not so much. First of all, on day two of riding, three of the class, I made a big effort to eat and drink much more than I had the previous day. I had gotten really overwhelmed and anxious and thought part of that was due to dehydration and low blood sugar. I guzzled coffee and water on the way down and once the class got going we didn't really stop. As you can imagine drinking 12oz of coffee, about a quart each of water and Gatorade did not sit well when I literally had to sit on a bike for 3 hours without a break. When it came time to take the test half my intention was on not falling over while the other half of my brain focused on not peeing on myself.

The test itself focused, again, more on hazard avoidance than on actually cruising around. We did a quick stop, we swerved around an obstacle at decent speeds, we wove through cones, we executed a u-turn and some other more sweeping turns at higher speeds. I completed each task and then re-entered the long line of bikes waiting to test. I was about 4th in line which was great to see a few people before me and meant I spent a ton of time watching other people finish a task I'd already completed. I tried not to watch too closely to some of the exercises, such as the u-turn, because watching other people totally biff it really didn't boost my confidence.

When we were all finished with each of the tasks we gathered as a group while our instructor finished up our scores. He first let 3/10 students know they had failed and would have to retest. When he started to address the rest of the group I had an inkling we had all passed but when he said the faithful words, that we were finished and were now endorsed to ride motorcycles I jumped with joy, literally. And then I went and peed.

So much of my time is spent working, sleeping, and worrying about what I'll do next I think this journey, to uncharted waters of motorcycles and trips and adventures and potential hazards is going to be incredible. I'm already on the hunt for my first bike, my second bike, my cool bike, I'm already thinking of how cool it would be to tour through Europe with my dad, or ride down the Pacific Coast Highway to California, or or or so many other things! This is one tool I can use to gain some more badassery back into my life.

In other news, I will very shortly be registering for Doula training in the fall, and next week I have my interview to become a hospice volunteer. With each new activity, new training, new adventure comes a lot of nerves and a lot of risk weighing but in the end I know these are things that will change my life for the better and help me become the person I know I can be.