Motorcycle training by Tux Racing?

I have been playing a bit of this game Tux Racer lately, it is a wonderful little game very well designed and shows nicely that open source software can do really neat things ... also I think it is one of the few things that pushes my overpowered system here to the edge, it is the only thing where I can feel a really big improvement after having installed 2 extra GB of Ram moving to 3GB of dual-ram on that this machine (P4 3GHz, 400 MHz FSB). Now this game is really floating along with all the graphical features turned on.

Playing this game gives me a little bit of the same feeling I have when riding my motorcycle "to the edge" of what I am able to ride it.
So I kind of tell myself that the time I am wasting playing tux-racer is good training of my motorcycle skills here in the winter where I don't get so many kilometers on the road ... I have been out a few times just to keep the engine oiled, the gasoline from going old and the battery from dying, but it really is freaking cold out there :)
Anyhow I just hope that I don't some day see a hearing on the road and do a dive to get to it on the motorcycle :)

Counter steering

Now this morning sitting here at the computer, thinking about what to write here at this blog, I remembered that there was something about counter steering that I had never gotten looked into as much as I wanted to, but I thought I had the basic idea what it was about and it wasn't so complicated, so just understanding it in a little time now and then write a blog post explaining it would be great .... it turns out that is not possible.

Counter steering is far from as simple as I just though. Ssure the gyroscopic effect, that I thought it was all about, has a lot to say here, but there are other things like rake and trail to consider that I hardly even thought about.
So this is going to be something I will need to study a bit more ...

In short counter steering is the action of pulling my motorcycle wheel in the opposite direction of the turn to lean the bike into the turn fast and efficiently.
Many seem to want to teach people that they should think of it as push steering, I understand that this is easier to comprehend as it easier for brain to understand when you are used to cars and bikes at low speed that you should "do action" on the side of the bike that you want to turn to, but I have a feeling that keeping on thinking of it as pull steering is the way to go, for me anyhow. I have tried doing both when riding and somehow pull steering just seems the most efficient to me.

I think it will be really healthy for me to really understand counter steering. both for the sake of everyday riding totally correct and efficiently, but most of all to be able to handle the emergency turn that I might at some point have to make to safe my life and/or others absolutely perfect.

I have been looking through a few pages this morning, I'd recommend this one for people totally unknown with aspect of counter steering and this one for those who want to know more.

Traveling

I am now in my mothers house in Ry, where I have just arrived from Lolland. It has been more than a week since I last was home and have seen Kvistur and Captain. I miss them terribly.

I am afraid all this traveling is not going to get less in the coming time. I been hired for a full time employment on Zealand for what looks like 3 months time, starting on the 10th of July. I think I will pretty much only be home on weekends.

I about a week I will go to my motorcycle driving test, if I pass some things will be somewhat easier as I will then be riding a Honda CBF 500A.

I wish I had some highly interesting thoughts to write about here right now, but I can't come up with anything right now. I guess writing on Captains weblog doesn't feel right without Captain lying on my lap.

Another positive spin of from motorcycle riding

Today I realized another great thing about taking motorcycle lessons to get a drivers license for motorcycle.
I have gotten better at riding a bike and doing so safely, when biking to Kjellerup today I suddenly found myself planning how to get around in the turns the best way, also have started being even more aware of the other road users and what is going on the sides of the road.

Apparently the fact that I have now been out riding bike with a higher speed than what I can ride a bike for longer times has had a very positive effect. Quite different from how I when I went to Gymnasiet (~high school) almost taught myself halfway to sleep while biking the ~25 km. to and from school at pretty high pace (50 km a day does help you get into pretty good shape).

A little revelation on motorcycle

Today I for the first time was out riding motorbike on the road, I really enjoyed it.

We were driving three people in formation with our teacher behind us in car and with radio contact.

After a few minutes I had gotten used to the feeling of the wind, from there on it was pure pleasure. If transport has to be motor driven this is the way. Everything is experienced much "closer" than in carm the feeling of the road, with the motor and vehicle is so much better. It is not like in a car where you risk halfway falling asleep because of the bore of driving ... going from A to B is going to be a pleasure this way.

Another cool little feature is how much power you have when only weighing ~300 kg and have plenty of horsepower to give from.
At one point we got stuck behind a truck and our teacher told me (I was riding in front) that when there was room I could just overtake. Me not really having tested this power before waited nicely to have plenty of room ahead for a long overtake, when that room was there and I fired of the power of the little bike. It wasn't much more than blinking before I was past and a few seconds later the two other bikes and my teacher with his fancy four wheeled BMW was past.
I start to understand what my brother meant when he said it could be difficult to stay within the speed limits ... I will have to watch myself when I am let out on my own.

I wonder why it took me so long to get this mc drivers license. I am really happy that I have finally gotten this started :)

phew

I managed to convince my motorcycle teacher that it would be better if we found some other kind of solution instead of letting me go riding motorcycle with a sprained ankle. I guess it would have been OK to do it, but I feel very relieved that I am not going to ride tomorrow, it would have been a stupid risk to take.

Instead I will be going to Kolding with a friend to install some new sound equipment in a building. Those who know me better will now for what purpose that building is for ... but that again is something I leave out of my blog for now. Anyhow if you are curios it doesn't take a lot of research on my homepage to figure out what I am up to, but I just don't want to give those that would hunt me through the internet for these things the direct lead by giving them the search terms on the blog also.

My foot is doing ever better, captain is lying on my lap relaxing and Kvistur is slowly growing to become a good and calm leader of his herd here outside my window. So everything is well. I will get to bed to be ready for the drive to Kolding early tomorrow.

Riding motorcycle with sprained ankle?

Morning ... I finally made it out of bed this morning. I guess my foot was kind of an excuse for staying in bed for a long time this morning. Sometimes that is a bad sign, that I am not able to find the power to get out of bed.
That was not the case this morning, this was one of these mornings where I was just following my dreams. Sometimes I am able to stay in this area in between sleep and being awake for hours, this "special room" where I am still dreaming but at the same time to some degree am able to control the dreams.
What these dreams where about I guess I'd better keep to myself or at least only share with those special few, that isn't something to put on a blog, sorry folks ;)

I plan to do quite a bit of training of my foot today. I have some motorcycle lessons on road planned for tomorrow and if it is possible I would like to do them. Fortunately it is my right foot that is hurt badly, this means the back wheel brake which doesn't need a lot of pressure to be activated. If it had been the left ankle it had been a bit more of a problem as that would have been the gear foot, which needs to do somewhat more difficult movements.
The other problem is if I will need to put down my foot for balance on the right side. It is going to hurt if I need to push of hard from that side, but it will only be a short kick ... I'll survive.
I just need to remember to gear down before I stop the bike ... I won't be able to put down the right foot to control the gears with the left foot.
This is all difficult to figure out in theory, the best I can do is to try and get my foot workings as well as possible before tomorrow, talk to my teacher see what he thinks and if he thinks it is OK then give it a try.

Well I'd better get out and do some running to get my foot into shape ... or maybe not ;)

A bikers day

Captain is here in my lap, I was about to start writing here but it didn't feel right without me at least checking if Captain was outside in the stables and wanted to get back in here. I found Captain lying in the straw, where he had made himself a little nest and seemed quite comfy. It looked as he had been lying there for at least some hours from how nice the straw stayed bend after Captain body even after he left his resting place.
I wish I could what Captain has been doing here in his log, but he doesn't seem to be all to informative ... I do think he has been down in the swamp here from how dark his paws are ... he is cleaning them right now.

Yesterday was a bikers day for me, after again having been in Bjerringbro in morning, at noon I left for Viborg. There I went to something called a bikeshop to see if I could not find some good motorcycle clothes.
When I got into the shop I met a man, not all that high, broad-shouldered, bald and with a solid full beard. After having served the last costumer he asked me if he could be of help and I told him of my errand. He then said that I should talk to Mads at that shop who knew everything about mc-clothes. Mads showed up shortly after that, in looks pretty much an exact copy of the man I had just been talking to. Mads was very helpful, was able to answer my every question well and also was very kind. For once I actually enjoyed spending trying different kinds of clothing etc. in that shop, otherwise other than in computer shops I do my best to avoid having to go into stores as seldom as possible. Anyhow it ended up with me having everything I need for a long motorcycle trip, helmet, jacket, trousers, boots and gloves and I was one very positive experience richer, some thousand kroner poorer, but not as many as I feared, so I can only give my very positive recommendation of Bikeshoppen in Viborg.

After having shopped I went to my first lessons in course that I am taking to get a mc-drivers license. All in all a very positive experience, I like my teacher and his attitude. He drives a Ducati 916 himself, which in my brother, Dan's, world is a very positive sign.
Driving teachers are a very special people. The one I had a when I took my car-drivers license last year was also a motorcyclist who had also been racing when he was younger and he also drove a Ducati 916.
I wonder if it has to do with my big brother that I for some reason keep on running into driving teachers riding Ducati ;)
I do wish I was able to follow the motoGP, Caparossi, my favorite rider seems to be doing quite well this season. But following the MotoGP would involve me getting at least a television and probably also a satellite dish. The only positive addition to my life there would be Eurosport and Discovery Channel (and maybe an American football match now and then) while the drawbacks might very well be me wasting time looking at stupid things that I don't really want to see, but when I am feeling down just sitting down in front of the TV is such an easy solution, so I don't think I will get a TV right now, another reason is that I don't have the room for it here in my small hut.

Trains and busses

Today Kvistur got on shoes again after having been without shoes for some months, the farrier showed up 8:30 as we had agreed. I had more or less just gotten out of bed even though my alarm clock was set for 7:00. Getting out of bed in the morning can sometimes be quite a struggle for me, especially on days like today.
Yesterday I was out drilling boreholes for Geoscandic. I turn up for work 7 sharp in Hjortshøj, that means that I am not able to go there by public transportation out here from Ans in the morning, so I have to come up with some other solution. Yesterday the solution I found was to get a lift with my co-babysitter, Mille, who works in Ikea and starts work at 5:00, from Ikea to Geoscandic there was something like 1.5 hours of walk so that fitted pretty well. When Henning, my boss at Geoscandic, showed up he soon got a call from my coworker that he had a littlle problem getting to work because the busses in Århus held something called a "fagligt møde" which has something to do with the union and is in some ways comparable to striking, I think later on the day they went into a strike. I don't really know what to think about these union conflicts, I do understand both parts in the conflict and the only conclusion I can draw from this is that it is just another sad sign how humans are good at creating big conflicts when there are not enough of them gathered somehow and there is not some kind of good and strong leadership above all parties involved.
Anyhow after Henning had been to the other side of Århus picking up my co-worker we worked until 5 pm, after that I had something a long way home, first going to Århus and then a long wait for a bus to Ans. I think I was home something like 10 pm and went straight to bed.
I really look forward to when I get myself a motorbike, then all this transportation problems will hopefully be over. I will be starting to get my motorcycle drivers license on the 25th of April.
Tomorrow I will be working for Geoscandic again, but this time I start at 8 in the morning so at least I will be able to get there by public transportation, but I still need catch the bus from Ans 5:13 (4 km. from Ans) compared to being able to leave from here something like 7 and as long as we are above 0 deg. c the trip would also have been so much more enjoyable riding on a motorcycle.
So much text just to explain why I am tired today. I am not known for being brief or coming straight to the point when writing, so dear readers please bear with me.

Kvistur behaved pretty well when getting new shoes today or at least much better than I have feared after I have been spending anything near half the time I wish I had during the winter. He is behaving more and more like a stallion. After Kjarkur, the other youger gelding living here left because he has been the lone tyrant of the little herd of horses living here. I wish we had a strong mare to take control, but the mare that could potentially do that in this herd seems to be pretty intimidated by Kvistur forcefull way often I think he is just bored and wants to play with the others, but his very physical way of playing is a bit to much for the others most of the time. I will have my hands full when I hopefully soon will start working more with Kvistur again, no doubth about that.