Ok, a little history.

11 years ago I met my wife-to-be. It was a nonchalant meeting, she happened to be at my apartment with my roommate's GF and another girl. I was just dropping in to change clothes to go to a party. The party didn't have much appeal, and they were watching "Tommy-Boy", which I hadn't seen, so I hung out.

After the movie, my roommate was taking his GF out on his Honda Shadow for a ride. My other roommate mentioned that I also had a motorcycle (1981 Yamaha Virago 750), and suggested I take the GF's friends. Sure, why not...never turn down the chance to go for a ride with a girl. I ended up taking both of them...and then ended up dating and later marrying one of them.

As we progressed as newlyweds, my young wife thought she would like to learn to ride. My old Yamaha was pretty heavy, and I let her try a bit with me on there as well....it didn't go too well, she was nervous. That idea was tabled, and we didn't ride together much at all....the bike was just my sometimes commuter.

A couple years later, I had sold the Yammy, and had traded my Camaro (the car I had when we met....oh the times we had in THAT!) for a Yamaha Radian. This much smaller bike was more appealing to her for riding...and she kept saying she wanted to learn. Since we had a child by then, we didn't ride together, but I thought it was cool she wanted to learn.

One day she mentioned wanting to learn, and I suggested we go to a local church parking lot...we did, and she rode around a little getting used to the handling. She then took it around the corner on the street, and back into the parking lot on the other side of the church. This is where things went bad.

I couldn't see her, but apparantly as she was coming up the small rise into the parking lot, while turning, it accelerated more than she expected and she froze. The bike took its own path on a wide curve, and hit the only car parked in the lot. She hit it just behind the front wheel, and hard enough that the bike didn't even fall over, but wedged into the car. As the laws of physics took over, the bike stopped and she didn't. She somersaulted over the handle bars(through the mirror), and landed sitting on the hood of the car. A trip to the ER proved she had terribly bruised her pelvic bone on the mirror, and it was a couple weeks before she walked well again.

Since that time, 8 years ago, she has ridden my motorcycles maybe 2-3 times....only out of sheer need, never for fun or enjoyment....until last Saturday.

Her birthday is this week, and we had a sitter on Saturday so we could go out just the two of us. I had purchased her a Joe-Rocket leather jacket from www.newenough.com in case she ever was willing to ride....apparently this was the ticket to getting her to try again. She donned my new helmet, I donned my old one(boy does it suck, gotta get her one) and we took off....VERY SLOWLY. She was very nervous, didn't want to go above 45 (is that even possible on a VFR?) and didn't want to turn. She just wanted to go somewhere close by and eat.

I ended up going the other direction...away from the normal haunts of Main Street, Texas. The last thing I wanted was city traffic with a nervous pillion. Texas is hardly known for it's winding roads, but we took one with a couple ok sweepers...normally ok, and normally sweepers that is. I am sure anyone watching us thought something was wrong....she did great for her first time, but she fought me in the corners and object when i accelerated coming out. It was about 10 miles to the restaurant I picked, and by the time we got there she had relaxed considerably.

We ate our meals (rather poor dinner actually, not sure I go there again although she has been a couple other times and liked it). After dinner we still had an hour and a half, so she suggested we go get some socks for our son (school starting Monday). I suggest the next town past where we were, which meant highway riding. She agreed, I fell over in shock nearly, and we took off....somewhere between the sweepers and the chicken fried steak she lost much of her nervousness. The rest of the ride was mostly boring slabbing, but it was nice to have her tucked up behind me. As we traversed the same sweepers we had on the way out, she simply followed my lean. It helped her that a LEO had a victim in the midst of them, and I had to stay below the posted speed.

Over all we had fun, put on 50 miles or so (which is a lot for her) and plan to do it again!