So my event schedule for meeting dumb drivers was at an all time high today. I decided to ride double today, threw my guy friend in the bitch seat, and headed to Bay Street in Emeryville. What’s great about parking there for motorcycles is that it’s free and a specific area is designated for motorcycles only. Of course, the designated area for bikes is only four spaces, but there was no one else parked when we arrived. Our errand took only about an hour or so.

When we came back to where the bike was parked, we saw that not only was our bike blocked by another motorcycle parked diagonally in two bike lanes (including ours), but there’s a freaking car parked in the motorcycle only area. The car had haphazardly parked in three and a half of the bike lanes causing the next motorcyclist to have nowhere to park except directly behind us. I’m angry at this point because it clearly says MOTORCYCLES with tiny marked lanes that could only fit bikes! Also if you park in designated car areas for less than 30 minutes it’s still free, so I didn’t understand why that stupid cager was parked in our spots! I proceeded to call security and they didn’t really care. So, I begin to call the tow company to remove the damn car, when the idiot comes back.
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In my opinion, I think that a great multitude of people ride R6’s. I would think that most new riders have similar tastes in sportbikes to me. Their dream bike is to get a R6. A lot of young riders also like to aspire to the R6, yet some just go straight to it. The unfortunate downfall to that is some newbies totally wipe out their new bikes because they just aren’t used to riding a bike yet, much less one as aggressive as the R6.

Not only is their pride hurt from falling, but the new bike is trashed, which equals a big bill to pay. That particular fear has kept me from making that kind of choice. It’s a good thing too because as I said before, I used to drop my bike a lot.
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So the inside scoop about me and my riding experience…. in 2006 I took the MSF course to get my motorcycle license. I took the beginner’s class knowing absolutely nothing about how to ride a motorcycle. I hadn’t even ridden a bicycle in 10 years! But I went for it anyways. (When you do take classes that you know nothing about, it’s always good to have a buddy doing it with you for moral support.) During the class I dropped my bike twice during practice and voila! I still passed.

About a couple months later I purchased myself a used 1995 Honda F3. The bike was pretty ugly to me. The colors were the stock neon green and purple. The previous owner also tried to eliminate his back fender without a kit and failed miserably. I therefore had no turning signals and a tail section that was held together by zip-ties. I also had only one working brake light bulb because the other one was out and fused to the socket rendering it irreplaceable. The overall reason that I bought this particular bike was to learn on it, and boy did I. During my practices I dropped her many a times because I wasn’t used to balancing a 407.9 pound bike, hence we come to the name Drops. I haven’t dropped my bike since my practice days but the name still sticks.
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Hi guys, it’s me, Drops again. I just wanted to give you guys a quick run through of what modifications are currently installed on my Yamaha R6. I’ll tell you a little bit more about me in my next blog. Stay tuned!

Hey guys! My name is Kathy, but you can call me Drops, for reasons I’m embarrassed to say just yet. I’m real glad to be a female presence in a man’s motorcycle world, especially at Inline Performance. I currently ride a 1995 Honda F3, for practice, and a 2005 Yamaha R6, for fun. I know this is going to be a great experience, so here I go!

P.S. Summer’s just around the corner, so let’s get out there ladies and ride on! Here are some pictures of me and my baby:

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