Two Presents In One Day
by Dru

It’s a gorgeous day. The weatherman lied, as always, saying it should be raining in the morning with a few showers in the afternoon. All I can think is, “My bro isn’t coming to help me out.” He said he would help me install the new toy on my baby. A full Hindle exhaust was to replace the heavy stock system. Thankfully, he was true to his word and showed up on time. Unfortunately, the first part of the agenda involved getting my girlfriend a riding jacket, as tank tops won’t cut it, and some muffler cement. By then, it was already noon. Lost morning of excellent riding opportunities. Fast forward 2 hours and we have “most” of the exhaust out. Boy, is it HEAVY. The stock system was more than twice the weight of my new full exhaust system. However, the hard part is still coming up. As V-twins go, accessing the header under the seat is the worst part. Took twice as long to remove the header inside as the rest of the entire system. When it was finally completed, I felt like the proud father of a child who finally graduated college. She was all grown up. Time to cool the pipe down, as per instructions, and get ready for a celebratory ride.

Since this will be our first real ride together, I’m trying to be good about everything. I taught her all the basics. Look over my shoulder as we go into corners. Avoid excessive movement when doing slow speed manoeuvres. Special taps on the leg indicate different things. Specifically, I taught her signals of when to be cautious of what’s around us, and when to just hold on for dear life. I, myself, have yet to 2-up another person, so I was less than happy with myself when her helmet kept hitting my own. My own personal lesson was to be easier with the clutch and throttle. I also had to learn how to ride with the added weight. She isn’t fat, but she isn’t lighter than a single tank bag either. I had taken her out once before, but only it was only roughly an hour. Enough to work out the bugs, but things looked good. She was excited to learn what real riding would be like. That hour of riding was mainly the city, and straight highway riding.

So as an added treat, we would head up the most popular riding route in BC, a quick ride up the Sea-to-Sky highway to Squamish. It’s a heavy trafficked road with lots of twists and turns. It’s nickname also has an underlying meaning of how many deaths occur each year. Definitely not a very friendly road, but all twisty roads are deadly. The entire trip is generally faced with a cliff on one side, and a drop off on the other. So, with the girlfriend and I suited up and ready to go, I flip the switch, and start my baby up. With a roar, she greets me, and I return the favour with a grin as wide as my helmet. A lot of work and it’s finally time to roll out. We meet my brother and his girlfriend, and another friend. My bro rides an R6, and our friend rides an F4i. Obviously, they ride more powerful beasts, but they are entirely different types of bikes. Finally our trip begins. We hit the highway and begin our power trip. For our second time out, she’s already a pro. On the highway, an R6 takes off on a little SV any day of the week. So it wasn’t to my surprise that my bro took off on us like a rocket. I have the throttle pinned and it’s still tough for me to catch up to him. Gentle curves, high speeds, it’s everything needed to initiate anyone into riding. On the way up to Squamish, we have a few “incidents” as always. A car splits us up, look where you go really means, look where you go. Being the idiot that I am, I decide to push the limit of comfort with my girlfriend on the back.

Two turns in, and I’m slowing down like the responsible adult I am. I keep going close to the limit, but with room to spare, and we finally reach Squamish. She gets off the bike and I can see this smile on her face. She loved it. Her first real ride and she’s happy. I have a sore butt, cramped legs, tired wrists, but she’s happy. Those are small costs to pay for two great presents. My bike graduated to the big boys of loud and obnoxious motorcycles, and my girlfriend wants to start riding. I love my SV.

Dru