Curtain poles!

On Monday, as my OH and I got home from work, I overheard 1 of the local children saying to one of their friends "that's a really cool house; they have 2 motorbikes". Looks like our coolness factor has increased since my latest acquisition!

Since then, I as my OH had promised his Mum he'd fit a curtain pole the next time he was round, I used that as an opertunity to go for a practice run on my bike. As we were getting kitted up and the bikes unlocked a wee girl from up the road was really interested and was asking lots of questions:

"Why are you taking both bikes?" - because I'm a learning and wanted my OH to follow and keep an eye out for me.
"Why has that bike [mine] got a red L on a white bit of card?" - they are my L plates and I have to show them to let other road users know I'm just learning.
"Do you let her on your bike?" [to my OH] - yes, she rides on the back seat….etc, etc.

It was quite cute and, besides we would be hypocrites not to encourage her curiosity as it really annoys us when adults knock children down for being interesting and asking questions in general.

When we were ready to go, she insisted on watching. My OH made sure she was clear of our gates (so she wouldn't suddenly roll forward on her bicycle). I started to roll forward on the drive, but as we have a drop before the road, I was a little apprehensive riding my bike straight onto the road, as opposed to rolling it forward without any engine power. My OH told me to just roll it, if I felt more comfortable that way.

Once I had my bike on the road, I waited a moment for my OH to get saddled up again and started off. I was a little wobbly at first. I need to work on making sure my moving off is nice and positive. This is much safer as it makes the bike more stable. My OH also commented I was a little hesitant, though did agree when I said a little hesitation won't get you killed.

As it's 8 miles to my mother-in-laws on country roads, I took it easy on the bends, but was really impressed with myself getting the bike up to 55mph on the straights. That felt very similar to the sensation I had when I was learning to drive, My instructor would gently encourage my to speed up. I was convinced I was nailing it, but when I looked at the speedo, I'd barely got above 40mph…how things change!

My OH fitted the curtain pole and we headed for home. On balance, given I hadn’t ridden a bike for 3 weeks (apart from when I picked it up) and it's a new machine, I don’t think my ride was too bad. I will admit I need to practice, especially moving off, stopping and the dreaded u-turn!