STEP FOUR: POWERED MOVEMENT
The next step was to just get used to
moving around. Ben guided and pointed and
signalled where I should go, challenging me
to go up the hill, (who knew it could be so
exciting?!) do some figure eights, try to turn
tighter. He encouraged me to stand up at
times which scared me a little. I had this idea
in my head that if my butt left the seat I was
going to lose total control, fall off and break
my neck or something drastic. Thankfully,
’twas not the case.
Occasionally I’d ride over some bumps
and accidentally rev the throttle too much
and I’d be jerked forward and try to regain
control. Sometimes I regained control (very
ungraciously), other times I would come to
a sudden halt and throw myself off to avoid
being wedged underneath when the bike
tipped. These were moments I appreciated
that riders must be hellauva fit because trying
to lift the bike off the ground took every
ounce of physical effort. It was a workout in
itself. I was given a few tips of how to get the
bike upright again – lots of squatting action,
my thighs were gonna be screaming in 24
hours. I’d never felt so weak in my whole life
(note to self: join the gym).
STEP FIVE: GEARS
I can’t say there was too much success
in this area. I think after a while, I started
to overthink what I was doing and was
struggling to start without stalling repeatedly.
I thought prior, that using the rear brake took
a bit of getting used to but trying to change
gear was 'nek' level. It was difficult to know
if I had changed the gear or not, or hooked
the boot underneath the gear lever thing
properly, or if I had pushed up or down hard
enough. I ended up either switching to a
higher gear than I was supposed to or putting
the bike in neutral, or stalling again. Changing
gears along with everything else is definitely
a work in progress, but it was super fun to
be challenged and there's so much to look
forward to with improving.
KIWI RIDER 59