Diary of a Motorcycle Babe

By Carmen V. Stern

Take the back seat and follow the journey along with Carmen as you experience her frustrations and her growths . . . the ups and downs to learning a motorcycle and the discovery of how driving a motorcycle is like ballroom dancing!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jul 19, 2011
• ISBN: 9781463430368

Carmen V. Stern

About The Author The interesting thing about this author is her ability to write about both fiction and non fiction in a way that allows the reader to see Carmen as the character who manages to get herself into all kinds of predicaments. Youll be laughing, crying and wincing as you take this journey with her in her limousine. In reality, Carmen is a brilliant author, accomplished dance instructor and talented woman.

Book preview

FORWARD

For Christmas my husband gave me a motorcycle trike. This was a wish that I had made many many years before I met him but which I felt would never really come to pass.

I was never really into motorcycles, but when I saw this Trike in the store, I fell in love with it and I just knew that it was something I would love to have and be able to ride and handle.

There were a couple of things that I did not see on the Trike at the time… you know… little stuff… like the clutch and the gear thing on the foot and I also never really considered that perhaps my hands might be too small to reach and squeeze such a clutch thing or something ridiculous like that! I was too caught up in what a gorgeous machine it was and how much fun it would be to own and ride one.

So that was my wish back seven years ago and now I had it. We got delivery of the Trike in Feb and I began to study the DMV booklet to take the test for the permit.

Let the story begin… .

March 14, 2011

I went for permit test to get endorsement for motorcycle trike. I studied the booklet for two weeks before.

Cinch… .

I Failed.

March 15—Failed

March 16—Failed

March 17—Failed

March 22—Failed

March 23—Failed

March 24—I passed! Woooo Hooo!

March 25

I had my first sitting lesson sitting on the trike. Dale explained all the gizmos and gadgets. The mere size of the Trike is overwhelming. He had me do all the movements on a cold bike. Brake in, key on, clutch in, find neutral, etc, etc, etc…

He did this exercise with me over and over again and each time I managed to do it differently. I knew what I needed to do, but it never materialized that way in the actual execution. It was most frustrating to me not to be able to keep the sequence right.

By the time this exercise was over I was in tears and wanted and hoped for a way out. I admitted defeat and could hardly swallow the enormous slice of humble pie that I had nearly choked on. Dale would not let me back out and however, and I feared that I would be a blank page again the next day. I was.

March 27

Lesson One—Going forward & learning gears

Today was an excellent day for grinding gears, lunging and lurching forward and back, stalling, jerking and sputtering in perfect order immediately after going into first gear and never making it 10 feet forward. This poor trike will be falling apart before I am ever capable to really drive.

March 28

Lesson Two—Same as lesson one. Maybe a little less lurching and jerking… . um… . well… on second thought, maybe not. I’m trying really hard to feel the shift of the pull in the clutch as I go from 1st gear to 2nd. Dale said I did good… but I warned him that I’m an instructor too and I know exactly what he means!

March 30

Lesson Three—Same as lesson one. Maybe just