After getting clearance to ride, I was totally ready to go! The Furies were heading to the 3rd Annual A.B.A.T.E. Women’s Ride out of Fox Valley Harley Davidson in St. Charles IL. So, I tagged along! My riding mentor, MJ and I started out in the city and rode out to the meet-up spot in Elgin and we totally took the interstate the whole way. I did pretty well on the ride out, but had a few learning moments. The first was: remember to keep on the throttle when changing lanes. I kept falling off of my speed when changing lanes and it finally dawned on me that I was rolling off the throttle every time. Once I realized it, I was able to fix it and lane changes were easier. Well, except for the other lesson: when you are the back bike and the front bike signals they want to change lanes, YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER TO CLEAR THE LANE! Poor MJ sat there with her left arm out waiting for me to get a clue and switch lanes so she could change lanes too. I finally clued in and remembered I had to do the lane change first. Oops!
Despite those little issues, we made good time to Elgin and were able to meet up with Sue, Shannon, Caryl, and Kathie. We headed off to HD and I was in the middle of a Furies sandwich—surrounded by excellent riders who were keeping me safer than safe. It was great to FINALLY ride with the club. We pulled in to the HD with plenty of time to hang out and line up and meet folks before the ride.
Let me pause here and state this: If you are “helping” with a charity ride FOR WOMEN it is generally considered rude to have a “NO FAT CHICKS” sticker on your bike in multiple places. I realize that if you are short, balding and have a beer gut it might be tempting to think that women will be falling at your feet, but putting “no fat chicks” on your bike makes that scenario even less likely. How would you feel if we all had “no small dicks” all over our bikes? Yes, some of us aren’t supermodel thin. SO WHAT? We ride, we have fun, and most of us aren’t looking for a disgusting pre-evolution primate like yourself anyway. Yes it’s your bike and you can decorate it as you see fit, but next time? Don’t pretend to care about women and show up to help protect us on our ride. Ok?
Ok, rant over…sorry.
The ride itself was fantastically organized. Women riders were in front, followed by men with women passengers, and then by men riding alone. There were “Rescue Riders” interspersed among the riders and blockers at every intersection. The blockers were AMAZING. We were able to go through stop signs and red lights as an organized group and weren’t in danger of cars not stopping thanks to the blockers stopping cars and in one case even running them down. I LOVED the route. Sweeping curves and gentle hills led us through cornfields and farms and to our lunch stop. The bar where we were supposed to all eat was way too crowded, so we found our way to a diner where there it was a fried food fiesta! I had fried baloney, tatertots AND fried oreos. Diet be dammed—it was delicious! AND, Lisa was able to find us and join us as well, so that was even better.
Then it was back to the HD—more curves and hills leading us all back. And then the city girls broke off and headed back on the interstate. And this time I remembered the throttle AND to get over!
The highlight of the day for me was having 2 different people compliment my riding skills. I know I’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot of areas for growth, but to have my skills thusfar acknowledged was pretty special to me. I’m learning a lot and growing with each ride and now I’m up to 602 miles!
Despite those little issues, we made good time to Elgin and were able to meet up with Sue, Shannon, Caryl, and Kathie. We headed off to HD and I was in the middle of a Furies sandwich—surrounded by excellent riders who were keeping me safer than safe. It was great to FINALLY ride with the club. We pulled in to the HD with plenty of time to hang out and line up and meet folks before the ride.
Let me pause here and state this: If you are “helping” with a charity ride FOR WOMEN it is generally considered rude to have a “NO FAT CHICKS” sticker on your bike in multiple places. I realize that if you are short, balding and have a beer gut it might be tempting to think that women will be falling at your feet, but putting “no fat chicks” on your bike makes that scenario even less likely. How would you feel if we all had “no small dicks” all over our bikes? Yes, some of us aren’t supermodel thin. SO WHAT? We ride, we have fun, and most of us aren’t looking for a disgusting pre-evolution primate like yourself anyway. Yes it’s your bike and you can decorate it as you see fit, but next time? Don’t pretend to care about women and show up to help protect us on our ride. Ok?
Ok, rant over…sorry.
The ride itself was fantastically organized. Women riders were in front, followed by men with women passengers, and then by men riding alone. There were “Rescue Riders” interspersed among the riders and blockers at every intersection. The blockers were AMAZING. We were able to go through stop signs and red lights as an organized group and weren’t in danger of cars not stopping thanks to the blockers stopping cars and in one case even running them down. I LOVED the route. Sweeping curves and gentle hills led us through cornfields and farms and to our lunch stop. The bar where we were supposed to all eat was way too crowded, so we found our way to a diner where there it was a fried food fiesta! I had fried baloney, tatertots AND fried oreos. Diet be dammed—it was delicious! AND, Lisa was able to find us and join us as well, so that was even better.
Then it was back to the HD—more curves and hills leading us all back. And then the city girls broke off and headed back on the interstate. And this time I remembered the throttle AND to get over!
The highlight of the day for me was having 2 different people compliment my riding skills. I know I’ve still got a lot to learn and a lot of areas for growth, but to have my skills thusfar acknowledged was pretty special to me. I’m learning a lot and growing with each ride and now I’m up to 602 miles!
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