I finally got my big motorcycle plan underway yesterday by picking up the gear I needed for my upcoming motorcycle course. While they provide bikes, riders are expected to provide their own helmet, jacket, gloves, pants, and boots. That meant buying a helmet and gloves at a minimum (denim is sufficient for the course); rather than buy a jean jacket to wear that day I bought a motorcycle jacket as well. I feel like a Power Ranger.
The helmet is an HJC CL-14 (chose white for visibility and because the pattern ones don’t do much for me), and the jacket is a Joe Rocket Meteor 5.0, in grey because I don’t know what color my bike is going to be yet, since I’m not buying until I’ve had a chance to ride a few different styles of bike at the course.
Today, Candice and I did an Ikea run. Came home with an outdoor carpet, a windproof candle, and seat pads for the balcony, curtains and a vase with rocks and some green bamboo for the living room, a new bathroom mat, a 2′ square cutting board ($25!), a snake-shaped shoehorn (99c!), and a bright green vase-shaped decorative lamp for on our cube shelves in the dining room.
It’s getting to the point where we tend to have only one or two pieces of furniture per room that aren’t Ikea. We still haven’t eaten there, though.
(I’m posting for the first time through Flickr, which I want to start using more, although I haven’t explored the community side of things yet. Apologies if the post screws up, I’m not used to this interface.)
4 responses to “bike gear, ikea”
friend of a friend has one ass-cheek that is literalyl flat, and needs to have extra chunks sewn into his trousers, because he was wearing denim rather than leather or kevlar when he came off his bike. a hospital will show you no mercy pulling denim out of legs and ass that look like corned beef due to road rash. seriously, buy the trousers.
Well, I suspect he was going a little faster than I will in the parking-lot intro course. I tried to minimize commitment to meet the specific requirements for the course on the chance I might find by the end of it that I don’t want to ride; once I’ve got a bike and am riding on the roads I’m all about All The Gear, All The Time.
The Ikea here in Arizona has surprisingly good macaroni and cheese in their cafeteria. The only thing weird about it is that you can only get it at the kids’ menu part of the line, but they don’t seem to have any qualms about serving it to me, as an adult, when I go over there to ask for it.
HJC makes a decent helmet, but I have a Shoei shaped head myself. As for the future bike, I started out on a 1994 Suzuki GS500E and I would definitely recommend the GS … it’s nice and light, handles easy, and was was big enough to take on the DC beltway. Krista started out on a 1986 Honda CB450SC Nighthawk … it’s about as middle of the road as you can get between a sportbike and a cruiser. The riding position feels like you’re sitting in a straight-backed chair.