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Today was the first day of the practical portion of the riding training institute. I was a little giddy about finally getting to ride a bike, and I arrived early at the site. We were given some time to familiarize ourselves with the bikes, and I picked one of the more sporty ones. Mind you, they were all small bikes, but still..
Anyway, a lot of the morning was spent getting used to the weight of the vehicle and learning to move around with it, and move it around without the engine on. Then we were allowed to turn them on, and spent the rest of the morning learning clutch control and staying at very low speeds.
After lunch, we got to working on upshifting. The place wasn't that big, but there was still enough space to get up to third gear. Then we started practising downshifting.
By the end of the day, we were all putting around on a circuit that was laid out on the parking lot. Mind you, it was hot, sticky, and very humid, so it wasn't particularly comfortable wearing all of that gear for the entire day. Fortunately, it was overcast so I didn't have the sun beating down on my black boots or black gloves.
In any case, the training was fun, and I felt a heck of a lot more comfortable on the bike than when I started. Considering that I never touched a bike before - well, not while in the rider's seat - it felt really good.
By the end of the first day, I felt comfortable enough to at least ride around on my own. Maybe not on the roads, but at least on a parking lot where I can practise. I couldn't wait until the second day..
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I went to VW's birthday party after I got home and got cleaned up. I was sort of expecting a lot of people to show up, but was a little surprised to see how few people were around. (Relative to previous years.) I guess the main entertainment of the night was Wario Ware. (I think that was the name of the game.) It was quite fun actually, with all of those little crazy mini games which looked like something you could play on the original Nintendo.
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