Saturday, June 22, 2013

Summer Solstice

It's the first day of summer, time for a new blog theme and background, I change it with every season. Brandy and I like to go for a ride to celebrate or observe the Solstices and Equinoxes but Friday I was called into work, that is if you call riding motorcycles for Team Oregon "work".

I've been helping out Pat Hahn lately; getting together a couple times this Spring to shoot video for several projects he has been putting together. Pat is a fantastic guy and easy to talk to, he is very patient yet maintains the same energy and enthusiasm for "take one" as he does for "take umpteenth".

However, he did fail to mention one small detail this time...

I have taken the ART class (Advanced Rider Training), the RSP (Rider Skills Practice), a corning clinic and a braking clinic all under the watchful eye of veteran instructors and the higher ups and all in a group setting with other riders and instructors.  Needless to say, to have the Director of Team Oregon follow you (extremely close) running cornering techniques, traffic scenarios and emergency maneuvers over and over on public roads while being on video you can understand how one may be somewhat apprehensive. Once I overcame my initial trepidation and discovered that it is much more difficult to be an error rider than it looks, I began to relax and enjoy myself.

Irondad was present, snapping "behind the scene" photos, hence my new header photo. I was goofing off and quickly gave Dan my best imitation of his police stance.

Smirking "IronBrad"
I didn't bring my camera as I was too busy modeling in front of many other cameras to use it, but I sense a blog post from the Intrepid Commuter is in the works. We had a lot of fun, some great and even unexpected footage and many miles covered. I hope to share more photos as they surface and come available.

Happy Summer Solstice to my friends in the Northern Hemisphere. My condolences, a Winter Solstice to friends in the Southern Hemisphere.


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10 comments:

  1. I like the 'puffed up' police pose :) heck if they wanted an 'error' rider come visit Victoria on a hot summer day, it can get pretty interesting here at times. Love the new theme.

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    1. Thanks Dar. It is hard to ride wrong on purpose, the riders you speak of don't know the difference. I mentioned to Dan that his pose can look intimidating to new riders on the range so I tease him about it when I can.

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  2. Happy Summer Solstice to you, too "Officer IronBrad".

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    1. Thanks Sonja, hope you are enjoying your travels. I am jealous of your Scotland trip.

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  3. You are correct, it is hard to ride like a idiot on purpose....I am sure you gace t your best shot though. Nice pic, very staunch.

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    1. I still have my moments and bad habits do come back on occasion but to intentionally screw up takes practice.

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  4. I'm even intimidated way over here..... :)

    Thanks for the Summer wishes Brad!

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    1. I'm not very intimidating with the smirk, nor do I hold any authority whatsoever. Dan on the other hand, has the authority and the Ray Bans.

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  5. Troubadour:

    IronBRAD has a nice ring to it. Now you've got an excuse to ride like an "idiot" . The next time someone says anything about a bad maneuver, just tell them it was on purpose to see if anyone noticed

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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    Replies
    1. Good idea "practice error riding" , that's it... I was practicing.

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