A nice day.

The weather here has been all Colorado lately. Hot all day long, with scattered strong storms every evening as the cool air comes down off the mountains.
Yesterday was nice for me. It was around 100 degrees, so I decided to skip the gym which is still very hot despite the AC and go for a ride on my motorcycle. Fortunately the weather cooperated and I was able to make my commute to work about 3 times as long.
I rode to Lyons and took rt 7 from there. I recently started reading Twist of the Wrist 2 by Keith Code as some continuing education for motorcycling, something that I think is important in general and specifically since I am soon to get a more powerful bike. Alot of the book contradicts what they taught us in the msf basic riders class, but it all makes sense!
Yesterday was really the first day I was able to practice some of his ideas and suggestions and I feel as though I am a much better rider already, though I have yet to finish the book. Normally I would spend my time going up switching between fourth and fifth gear, but yesterday I was able to ride it all in fifth until I caught up to some traffic. I feel more confident and better in turns. Unfortunately I did find myself wishing I had the power of my new bike to be able to pass the traffic I caught, but soon enough.
From there I took 72 south to Nederland, and then 119 down Boulder Canyon to Boulder. I caught up to some Harley riders and found their cornering horrible. I would start in a turn maybe 50 feet behind the guy and end up right on his ass. It was kind of scary to see him braking in a turn, which is a big nono as it can cause skidding.
One of Mr. Codes theories is that alot of accidents are caused by rider fear- am I going too fast, is the bike tracking correctly, sliding, etc. A common reaction is to then tense up which can turn fear into actual problems and crashes. His advice is to relax and allow the bike to do what it is designed to do.
There was only once that I felt I might have been going too fast and freaked out a little- felt my heart race briefly, tensed up, tightened up on the grips. I had to tell myself to relax and put into practice the lessons that I read. And it worked of course.
It was a nice ride. Up in the mountains the temps were in the 70's rather than 100's. The only bad part is that I got stuck behind someone the whole way down Boulder Canyon. It is hard to pass because the road is so twisty, I don't have the power to accelerate that rapidly, and he kept braking though every turn, contrary to what you want to do on a motorcycle. So I would have to keep my distance before entering a turn.
A nice day in Colorado!