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So, I just bought myself a sweet, new ride.  I had been putting it off for months.  However, necessity has driven me to stop depending upon the public transportation system and get my own moto.  Once I actually get set up in the countryside, I will need to be able to hop around between villages and research sites easily.  This will make it much easier.

It is a Daelim Citi Plus, 100cc four-stroke, four-speed kind of thing.  I have not idea how old it is, and the odometer is frozen on “37.”  It is in decent shape (although, I am currently harboring concerns about the alternator), and came from a friend of mine.  So, he knew its history, and how dependable it was.  Dependability is important, so I went with his recomendation.  I like it because it is a pretty standard rig.  Not the cheapest moto out there, but far from the most stylish.  Not what the kids these days are looking for.  It is also a very practical choice.  They are cheap bikes, and so they are ubiquitous.  All repairmen can fix them, and parts are easy to find.  They have nice practical touches too, like tie-down pegs for securing cargo on the underside of the passenger seat.  I am very happy with it so far (though it has only been 2 days).

Though I have occasionally been bitten by the motorcycle bug, I have never actually driven one (my wife’s motorcycle crash in the early 90’s helped set the current family policy on such technology).  So for the last couple of days, I have been trying to figure out how to actually ride this thing.  You use all four appendages– 2 hands and 2 feet, all in synchrony (well actually, there is no clutch so the left hand sits idle until you have to signal a turn or beep the horn).  And, it is a little bit like trying to pat you head and rub your belly at the same time!  My largest current problem (aside from pressing the brake pedal with my right foot when I am trying to actually speed up– a carry over from driving a car), is downshifting.  The shifter is a little toggle: forward shifts up, backward shifts down.  Just ease off the gas and shift.  I have yet to find a place where I can leave my foot and be able to both shift up and down by pivoting on the fulcrum.  This slows down my downshifting a little.  Maybe that does not matter much.  At least I have stopped leaning over to look every time I had to shift!

Practice has become a priority.  Yesterday, I went up and down a quiet street a couple of times.  This morning, I made some loops around a parking lot.  After lunch, I ventured out to get gas and tool around the neighborhood.  I did not hit anyone, and no one hit me.  I finally got the mirrors adjusted correctly.  So far so good.  The other trick with this thing, is that if you give it a little too much gas when you just start moving, it really takes off.  Of course, this is surprising so you hang onto the grips really tight, so you don’t fly off the back of the bike.  As you might expect, a tight grip seasoned with a little panic keeps you from easing up on the gas like you are supposed to and actually regaining control of the bike.  Feedback loop.  Tricky.  That only happened a couple of times.  My friend suggested that I start off in second gear, rather than first, to prevent such things.  That was a useful suggestion.