[St] The First Rides

[Lisa & Richard White <redriders@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm in love again . . . .

Taking a ride on a new bike is exciting and nerve racking at the same 
time.  You know you have to "get used" to the new bike, and I know I am 
afraid of that first scratch on a thing of  such beauty.  There were two 
ways the first ride could have gone:  (1) like my first ride on my '99 
ST when I pillioned with Richard to a parking lot on her, took a turn in 
the parking lot and went out on the street and never looked back; or (2) 
like the ride I had on the same bike after I had gotten "used to" the 
Tiger and thought I would kill myself on it.  Both of these memories 
were lurking in my mind yesterday morning as we prepared to take the red 
beauties out for their first ride.  Their odometers read 5 miles. . . .

I am happy to say that I felt the same way as I did when I took out my 
'99 ST for her first ride.  I love riding again!!! Don't get me wrong, 
the Tiger is a good motorcycle, but it really was not the bike for me.  
I never truly trusted her because she was so top heavy, so tall I could 
not flat foot her, and more twitchy on the road.  I thought I would get 
used to these things over time, and they don't bother other riders, but 
they bothered me, which is why in the 4 years I had my '99 ST, I put 
nearly 50K on her, and in the slightly over 4 years I had the Tiger I 
only put almost 13 K on her.  This will be changing, I am happy to say.

Everything I loved about my '99 ST is there in the '08.  She is steady 
and firmly planted on the road.  I feel seemless with her.  It is like 
my ST is part of me or I part of my ST.  The throttle is more immediate 
than the '99, and I am about 95 % accustomed to that after the 270 miles 
we put on the bikes this weekend.  I am still working on the low speed 
handling, which is, of course, the most scary because the bike is the 
most unstable.  She takes a little more effort to corner than the '99 
but can't complain.  It has been years since I just took a series of 
curves on instinct without looking at my speedo, and I did it on my 
first ride on Saturday and repeated it a couple of times on Sunday.  The 
gear box is breaking in nicely, and I can tell the power difference 
between the two.  I do like the bar placement and the seat to peg 
distance feels fine.  Richard likes that the '08 provides more room for 
his 6'2" frame.  I am looking forward to getting together with Rude Dog 
and doing a little comparision with a '99 ST in the flesh, so to speak. 

Saturday we did a lunch run up what we call the forest road through the 
Sam Houston National Forest north of Houston.  It is a good ride since 
we wanted to watch our tachs.  We put 95 miles on the bikes, and I 
grinned in my helmet the whole time.  Sunday we took a lunch ride to 
Round Top, and got back to the house at 3:00, with the temperatures at 
94 degrees without the heat index.  I will tell you that while the '99 
ST baked the calves at low speed, the '08 bakes the thighs.  On Saturday 
we rode with tank bags which were removed for the Sunday ride, which 
helped with the air flow.  I am glad we did not ride them back from New 
Mexico as our butts are rather out of practice, and I am afraid the gel 
seat is not cutting it at the moment.  We were tender after 95 miles on 
Saturday and had a good case of "monkey butt" on Sunday.  We'll try the 
stock seat for the next ride, and perhaps Sergent will get a call. . . .

Richard will download some pictures we took in the driveway on Saturday 
before and after the ride and will post where he uploaded.

I am so happy to have an ST again!!  BTW, Tornado Red is still the 
fastest color ;-)!

Lisa
'08 Sprint ST
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