Where did you ride today? - New rider version

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Along river st north through cabbagetown good side streets, little traffic and good for a warm up, across Carlton to church, north to park road, down Rosedale valley road (beautiful) right on the Bayview extension south to river back to start, Has lots of nice elements, traffic, starts and stops, slow curves and nice scenery down the valley a bit of speed on the extension pretty straight and a solid little jaunt to the next exit and A good curve coming off the extension on to river st. A great beginner ride with lots of variety :D
 
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Rode with Elizabethgypsy from High Park along Dundas st. to Dixie, south to Lakeshore, west to Cawthra and stopped at Dairy Cream. Westbound Lakeshore rd to Parkside, north to Bloor st. Was quiet at the time of night we went, ~8pm on a Sunday. Fairly straight forward city ride, traffic and stops, but also some clear straights and some winding turns near Royal York / Lakeshore. Not a bad little ride. REAL windy last night though, made for a bit of a challenge.
 
JonHorv said:
Rode with Elizabethgypsy from High Park along Dundas st. to Dixie, south to Lakeshore, west to Cawthra and stopped at Dairy Cream. Westbound Lakeshore rd to Parkside, north to Bloor st. Was quiet at the time of night we went, ~8pm on a Sunday. Fairly straight forward city ride, traffic and stops, but also some clear straights and some winding turns near Royal York / Lakeshore. Not a bad little ride. REAL windy last night though, made for a bit of a challenge.
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hahah is funny you mention the wind, i went riding with a friend yesterday and we went up north to Newmarket and came back down on "warden" there are some curve around that area and it was soo windy i swear i was going to get blown off my bike, but overall it was a great day, no rain and the sun felt great.

Ride safe and have fun this season =).
 
JonHorv said:
Rode with Elizabethgypsy from High Park along Dundas st. to Dixie, south to Lakeshore, west to Cawthra and stopped at Dairy Cream. Westbound Lakeshore rd to Parkside, north to Bloor st. Was quiet at the time of night we went, ~8pm on a Sunday. Fairly straight forward city ride, traffic and stops, but also some clear straights and some winding turns near Royal York / Lakeshore. Not a bad little ride. REAL windy last night though, made for a bit of a challenge.
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NAILED IT! :p
 
Furpo said:
Up and down the length of Annette Street about 20 times. Which means I've graduated from the church parking lot. Shifting still atrocious, and my CBR250R needs to go up the gears rapidly. The manual suggests being in 4th at 40kmh so I am constantly on the clutch. Great practise, but I would love a long open stretch where I could plan the shifts and think about them, reflect on what worked, and so on. Ventured on to Dundas St. West and promptly lost track of what gear I was in as traffic slowed, decided to step down to first, traffic starts moving again, I'm getting a tad anxious, you get the picture. Having said that, the promised improvement is coming. I no longer regret moving on from my scooter, and can't wait for the coming long weekend. What's more, I think I may be ready for the RTI group ride I booked on May 4.
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I definitely did the same drag quite a bit last year, getting used to traffic. I think I've seen you this year, I'm near Runnymede and Annette.
One thing about getting used to the sound of when to shift vs looking at tach - I upgraded to a much nicer helmet this season, and having less wind noise in the helmet has made all the difference in hearing the bike.
 
I82l8 said:
Rode into work this morning :)
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Me too. 35 minutes, mainly south on highway 48 into Markham. A bit chilly. I had to warm my hands/fingers on the engine.
 
elizabethgypsy said:
I definitely did the same drag quite a bit last year, getting used to traffic. I think I've seen you this year, I'm near Runnymede and Annette.
One thing about getting used to the sound of when to shift vs looking at tach - I upgraded to a much nicer helmet this season, and having less wind noise in the helmet has made all the difference in hearing the bike.
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I do need a better helmet--that may well help. I also would like to get earplugs.

As for riding, I have progressed from Annette Street and the neighbourhood and rode yesterday to Hamilton on the QEW. Fairly uneventful, sometimes enjoyable, nice to see what a CBR250 can do (very happy up to at least 120). Took the long, scenic route back: north of HWY 5, meandering, down to Lakeshore. Followed a Sunday driver for a long while because after 4 hours riding I had hit the point where I found it difficult to multitask and needed calm. Finished back on the QEW because, well, you can only tolerate 40kmh and red lights for so long.

I should add that I took the intermediate course with RTI last weekend. Well worth $200; a real boost to skills and confidence. At 800kms and riding nearly every day I am enjoying my motorcycle immensely and am not entirely crap at it, but lots to learn. For example, downshifting from 80 to turn right off a highway at a green light. I would love to quickly throttle blip down to second or third and whizz round the corner. For the time being, my apologies to the motorists following me.
 
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What did I do this morning motorcycle related?

Am I a new rider? Technically... this is my 4th season.. but.. I rode out to 200 John St. W, Oshawa.. Rode around with a blue chev aveo in tow, and an earpeice in my ear with some annoying man who was more grumpy than anything on the other side.

And passed my full M... He was being very nit picky.... No doubt trying to deduct as many marks as he could... But that being said, glad to have it over and done with.
 
I rode up Southdown, down Lakeshore, up to Trafalgar and down to the place where i took my M1 exit test. It was fun and i did get into some real traffic on the way back. Was no stress.
 
East on Britannia Rd to Hurontario then 401 to Dixie and West on Eglinton in Mississauga. Dont let the sun fool you its cold and windy. But it was nice to get out. Saw a fellow rider riding East on Eglinton around 1:40pm. I was wearing my black and yellow wind breaker over my gear
 
I took my first ride today. I have a CBR250. This morning I went over to Rosedale Valley Road and south on that little stretch of Bayview before coming back DT. I think I overestimated my skill taking a sharp curve on Rosedale Valley Road at perhaps just too high a speed...but nothing too major. Just had to slow down a bit. Then I partnered up with another rider and we went up Bayview to Leaside and down via Mount Pleasant. We were able to use our iPhones with the original white iPhone headphone In one ear and phone each other to establish a voice connection. This way, we were able to talk on the ride and he was able to direct me as I was leading. The fastest I did today was about 70-75, in fifth. That was a bit unnerving for me so I think I'll be taking it a little easier for a bit. I rode all day as well, but the rest of it was in traffic mostly through the Little Italy area. Just getting practice doing left turns, managing street car tracks, and trying to get smooth starts from stops.

but the coolest thing was getting waves and nods. I didn't even think about that before heading out. I'll always remember the first acknowledgement I ever got, where it took place and what the rider looked like. These are special times :)
 
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Past 3 weeks, been commuting to work (port credit to downtown core) and back, lots of clutch work and slow speed work.

Went to brampton 2 weeks ago-ish. Only rode once in the rain (on my first day) and it was a pretty good ice breaker. Now i can't wait to do bigger rides. My buddy is moving to Angus so ill "have" to visit him more often. He drives a classic car and knows a bunch of twisties up there.

I'm still breaking in the bike but the odometer reads 700 (and thats all my km :D) so 1000km maintenance is approaching but also, the break in period is almost done. 6-8k RPM Range here i come
 
Saturday - rode around the Holland Marsh back roads and then headed up to lake drive along shore of Simcoe.
Sunday - attended Can Am Spyder demo day at Ontario place. short test drive up and down lakeshore
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