Days 190 - 195 Austin

After arriving in Austin I haven't been too productive. I managed to find a service shop that could change the oil to Rosie and I got her washed. Originally I planned even polishing her but as she got pretty clean in wash I ditched the whole idea of buying wax and necessary equipment.

I put Rosie to Craigslist on Friday afternoon. Within an hour I received a message from Brent asking if he could come to see the bike on Saturday. That suited me perfectly and we set a meeting at nearby Shell. Guy sat on the bike, started the engine and said he'll take it. Wow! Was it really that easy?

I was so surprised about the speed of the deal that I didn't even realize to take a photo. I walked back to my brother's house carrying a helmet and a riding jacket. And a pile of dollars. Not a big pile of course but still. I felt a little weird...

After all I had ridden Rosie more than a half of the distance I rode with Annie during this trip. Actually quite precisely two thirds of the distance. That's a hell of a lot of miles. During that time she never failed me. Never let me down. But still I never learned to trust on her on the road.

I've been thinking about this a lot. What were the issues that made me dislike Rosie?

Here are the reasons I figured out.

1. Feeling of being loose on the bike. There's no natural position of squeezing one's knees on the tank. That leads to a loose feeling. 

2. Foot pegs are substituted by foot rests. They might be more comfortable but as mentioned in #1 it leads to a feeling of being loose.

3. Lousy suspension. When taking a bumpy corner the rear tire seemed to be jumping. The front didn't seem to have any better feeling on the road. There was no chance to enjoy the curvy roads.

4. Terrible brakes. It seemed the front brake was only for looks. The real slowing down was done by rear brake. That just doesn't make any sense. Normally the braking power should be nearly 100% on the front. 

5. Sitting position. If your bottom is totally sore and in pain after 50 miles (about 80km) the position isn't suitable for your body. With Annie it was common to ride 100 miles or more without stopping. 

Of course there were good sides on Rosie too.

1. I really liked the torque of the huge (1500cc) v-twin engine. Usually it didn't matter much what gear was on. It just kept going.

2. Headlight. The lights were absolutely the best ones I've seen in a motorcycle. That enormous single headlight beat Annie's smaller dual headlights 6-0. The headlight was better than my Blackbird's super bright HID-light. 

3. The feeling. Probably it was the engine that gave the feeling. All it's shaking and trembling and the sound. When one cylinder is as big as Annie's both cylinders together it gives definitely certain amount of credibility to the feeling.

In sum the faults were probably not only on Rosie. It was the unsuitable match of my needs and a cruiser. I needed more tight riding position, more power on breaking and a lot more sporty riding experience. Annie is not a sport bike - far from it. But the more I rode with her the more I could take her to corners. Lean in and come out opening throttle. I never gained that kind of trust on Rosie. Not even close. 

But now I was in Austin without a bike. I'm extremely grateful to my brother who was willing to let me borrow his car. Next best thing after motorcycles are cars with a lot of power. His Jaguar XF really has the power.

While having no specific plans in Austin I spent a lot of time watching Grand Tour on Amazon Prime, movies on Netflix and Friends on TV. It was really nice to just relax. Some evening I walked to the pizzeria nearby to listen to some live jazz.

I visited Enchanted Rock which is one of the world's biggest single piece stones. It is huge. You cannot realize it's hugeness from the photos. Of course it seems like a big hill at first. But when you realize it's one single stone it feels a lot different.

And again a beautiful sunset