2001-08-11 - 11:34 p.m.

On the internal soundtrack: Music from the Godfather that's playing on TV (Poindexter's watching it)

So, I guess I have a $180 head!

There's a company that has an ad campaign where they say something about how if you have a $10 head, sure, buy a $10 helmet.

Friday night we went over to a local bike shop to check out a used XR-200 they had. The bike was FAR too big, not something I could handle, so we tried on a few helmets.

I thought I found one that fit. It was $85. I fretted to Poindexter about it -- "I only have an $85 head?"

As it turned out, when we went back today, and I wore the helmet for a while as I was trying on various goggles, it was too tight and uncomfortable so I had to start trying on more helmets.

The one I finally ended up with is what Poindexter calls a "cue ball helmet" -- an all-white helmet. And it was a tad expensive. But we negotiated down the price of my bike

(yes, my BIKE!)

by $200, plus, you know, my head's worth $180 to ME! I got some glare-reducing goggles and some gloves and I was ready to GO!

So, yes, I got myself a DIRT BIKE!

I woke up at 8:30 (early for me on a weekend) to go check the Post ads. Nothing new this week. So we called a bunch of bike shops. No XR-100s. Drat.

Our only hope was a "Cycle Trader" ad for a bike in the Richmond area, which had been placed on July 18. We figured it had been sold already, but called anyway.

They still had it, were actually near Fredericksburg, and I am now the excited owner of a 2000 Honda XR-100R. Yay!

The kid selling it has about six bikes of all types, because he's a racer. He wasn't using the XR-100 anymore.

There was a moment of horror there when the guy told us the bike wasn't paid off yet and he didn't have the title. I was ready to cry. We had sat in hideous I-95 traffic for an hour and a half. I had asked Poindexter if we should double-check about that before we left, and he said "I'm sure the guy has the title."

The situation was that the guy didn't own the bike yet outright (had either a bank loan or one through the dealer) and he was intending to pay off the loan with the money we'd given him and then he'd mail us the title. We're taking a chance on the guy, I guess, but the bill of sale is legally binding and at least in this case we know the title EXISTS and there's a record of it.

I hope. Either that, or I'm screwed.

Argh.

So, we bought the helmet and went to the mall -- Poindexter hadn't eaten since breakfast! -- and got me some steel-toe boots (at Payless, for $15, woo!) to clunk around in and wear when I ride the bike.

Then we drove down to an empty isolated parking lot and I learned how to ride my bike!

Wooooooooooo!

It's FUN!!!

All I did was practice clutching, starting, braking, turning, etc., and I never got out of first gear, but I LIKED it! It's really easy!! Once my hands figure out what they're doing without needing help from my brain, I think I'm really going to like this a lot!!!!

Poindexter is a very patient instructor -- takes his time explaining things and answering dumb questions, and didn't get mad at me once. Of course, that could be because I did everything exactly as he told me to.

When I'd had enough (the clutch is tough and I have weak hands, especially my left), he got on my bike and started riding it up curbs and over medians in the lot. He said it handled them very smoothly.

Tomorrow I get to try second gear. Woooooooooo!!

So, this is good. We figured if I didn't like dirt bike riding, we could just sell the bike. I'm very excited to find out that I honestly like doing it. It should make the trip to Trails Heaven lots more fun, and I can actually go out riding instead of sitting in the shade of the truck reading.

Although I suspect I'll still be doing that part of the time, too. :)

It's a funny thing, that phenomenon when dealing with stuff like shifting, how you have to practice until you can do it without thinking. It's like this when learning any physical activity, I think -- playing the piano is one -- and people refer to it jokingly as making your hands or your feet learn how to do something.

I wonder what it really is? Is it just that the process moves from your conscious to your subconscious? Whatever it is, it's fascinating and I'd like to read more about it.

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