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April,2010
· Paragliding
March,2010
· San Francisco - Sebastopol
January,2010
· Nürnberg + Berlin
December,2009
· Saas Fee
· Look what I got from Santa ...
· Colmar
November,2009
· Two Weeks in Moscow
September,2009
· Gotthard & Tessin with Ria 2009
· Gotthard with Philipp 2009
July,2009
· Provence Vacation
January,2009
· The Ant and the Cricket
July,2008
· Crete Vacation
May,2008
· Birthday Love Ride
January,2008
· Silvester
November,2007
· Victory!
September,2007
· Toscana Vacation
August,2007
· BodyFlying
June,2007
· Bday Grill Party
May,2007
· Three days in Paris
April,2007
· Turbulence
· Yeehaw!
March,2007
· Geneva Auto Salon
· Ski Weekend
· Swissmoto 07
February,2007
· Poker
· Three nights in Paris
· Snow in Zurich
November,2006
· Cooking with Adam
· Season's end
· Biking progress update
September,2006
· Freestyle!
· Hungary Trip
· Dead Flies
August,2006
· Videoton vs. GC Zurich
· Andalusian Vacation
June,2006
· Bike club meet
· Tour with Phil
May,2006
· Bday Party
· May 1st Bike Tour
· Magic / Google Video
· Anthrax Concert
· Sechselaeuten
April,2006
· Reflecting on Mortality
· John outdoes me again.
· Pre-Sechselaeuten procession
· Proud Bird
· She is back online!
· Hi Gillian!
· Finally realistic shop display mannequins
· I was in Montpellier and all I took were these crappy pictures.
· Primitive Man
· Back from the USA
March,2006
· Party at John's place
· Oops, I did it again!
· Snow Day
February,2006
· I'm famous
January,2006
· Private Fiction
· Tabula Rasa: 2006
August,2005
· Matterhorn
· Stunts
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Victory!
Posted on Tuesday, November 06 @ 23:27:33 CET by Adam |
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I admit this post is embarrassingly late. Initially this blog was called 'Adam's Motorcycle Weblog' and it was to document my journey toward securing my motorcycle license, starting with the purchase of my Triumph Speed Triple in the spring of 2005. (Since then I have archived those old posts in favor of saving space, but may put them back up again...) Since then I documented some of my more memorable training courses and bike trips. At the same time the topics in this blog became more random / diverse, and as my motorcycle training consisted largely of the same sorts of rides repeating over and over and over as all the common features of machine and traffic handling went from painfully conscious practice to become reflexes and automatisms. I repeated the basic training course twice, and went through two instructors taking probably about 20 1:1 lessons altogether.
I had signed up for the exam early September, since my practice license was about to expire for the second time, with no further opportunity for simple renewal. The moment of truth came on September 20, 2007. The days before I still tried to close some painful gaps in my routine, such as wet road emergency breaking. In general I felt that I was decently prepared. I got a bit uncomfortable in the morning of the fateful day, though, as it was indeed rainy, something I had not expected even the day before. Fortunately by the time my exam rolled around in the afternoon, the rain had stopped, though the road was still wet. My instructor accompanied me, and haggled with the examiner on my behalf on a few minute points, such as the aesthetics of my slalom. I was most nervous during the emergency braking, but I did it well. After the routine part, a young lady on a 125-er and I were taken by the examiner on a trip around Zurich's inner city. He first sat on her bike for half an hour -- from behind it appeared that she had quite poor style, and I was sure she would fail. During the second half his attention was all mine. I thought I was going to fail as he had to remind me once that we were in a 30 km/h zone where I accelerated to 50 out of pure carelessness. In the end he let both of us pass. Since then I am a licensed rider.
I am super proud of myself to present the following picture:
This is the 500-er Honda that I did the exam on, as my Speed Triple is inconvenient for tight slaloms. In the end I was able to do the slaloms on the Triple as well, but I ended up taking the exam on the Honda anyway, just because I felt more 'one' with it, thanks to all the practicing. After the exam I returned to my Triple and by the time winter came around we were best friends again.
I would like to thank Urs Tobler who was undoubtedly an absolutely neccessary part in making this happen, and Ildiko, whose encouragement and enthusiasm really made certain that I pull this through. I already had many great bike rides together with her as sozia*, and am looking forward to many more.
* a german but infinitely cuter word for pillion.
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