I've been itching to take the Duke out all this week, but work's been crazy, so when I was actually home before 10pm last night I decided to go for it.
First hurdle: getting the bike out of my driveway. As I mentioned last time, our driveway is pretty sloped. Fortunately, the bike is much smaller than a car, and I can actually disengage the clutch almost fully before I even hit the uphill.
As it was 10pm, there was basically no traffic around my neighborhood, so I just cruised the streets for a bit. Our neighborhood has a plentiful supply of stop signs, so I got to practice 1st gear/2nd gear/neutral/stop quite a bit.
I didn't feel as solid on the bike as I did on Sunday, but I chalk it up to being tired from work and feeling nervous because it was nighttime. I also felt bad about maybe waking some neighbors up with my nice loud exhaust. I called it quits pretty early, but still got some reasonable riding time in. I pulled up onto the sidewalk and managed to back my bike down the driveway incline and park it right where I wanted to.
My bike cover came in the mail, after making a detour to Hawaii. I pulled it out and put it on my bike to keep the dust off. It fits very well and the bungee cords go underneath my bike and through the front wheel. I wasn't sure how I could make it work with my alarm, tho. I could probably lock it and pull the cover over the lock as it's arming, but to take the lock off, I'd surely bump it with the cover. The lock's motion sensing feature is mighty sensitive, and I couldn't figure out a good way to use both the lock and cover, so I ended up taking the alarm out of the lock (it disengages using a provided alan wrench) and just locking my bike up with the cover on, but no alarm.
Verdicts:
1. As long as I park the bike facing the street, getting out isn't a problem, even with both Corey's and my car there.
2. Even with both cars in the driveway, it's not particularly difficult to back the bike down our driveway.
Miles: 3
Time: 15 mins
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