Original Title: Who are you, and what did you do with my wife?
Before I start the story, please understand that my wife is a wonderful person :thumbup: and has been surprisingly supportive ever since I gingerly mentioned that I was, you know, maybe thinking of buying a bike. (I was riding when we met in college but tapered off then stopped a bit after our first was born and I started a suit & tie job.) But she also has a rep for being pretty much a straight arrow, which seems to come with teaching elementary school music.
So, I find the bike I want, Craigslist. It's a great deal but is 60 miles away and is on the other side of the river, in Ohio. I'm in WV. Plan A was for my neighbor (experienced rider, great guy) to ride it back, but he was not available till Sunday. Then I learn from my local dealer that I need to get the title notarized because it will be switching states, and our best bet was to go to the Ohio BMV. They're not open on Sunday. Will I wait till next weekend?
RIGHT
So, plan B is that I ride it back. Yep, first ride in at least 25 years - 60 miles. The wife is still fine with this. Notice the title of the post?
One more wrinkle. I forgot to look into getting temp plates. We realize this in the parking lot at the BMV. After a bit of discussion we decide to wing it. (This part is unlike either of us. BIKE FEVER!)
Next, I suggest that I should follow her on the way back home, but she insists that she'd rather follow me. She hates the GPS and wasn't watching the road on the way there. After a very brief suspicion that she was going along with the whole bike thing so she could dispose of me by running me down, well fairly brief, I agreed and we go.
So I take off and I'm being VERY VERY careful, sticking to the speed limit EXACTLY! Perfect skills-test-type stops at stop signs, the works. The wife is following closely so, you know, it's less likely anybody, ahem, will get close enough to notice the lack of a plate. The first 20 miles were 2-lane with no place to pass. I noticed that a red Cherokee was tailgating my wife pretty hard for the last few miles before the road widened to 4 lanes. Soon as possible, the Jeep flew by. A few minutes later my wife passes and signals to pull over. She's decided to use a gun?
So I stop, pop the helmet, and walk up to the car. She asks, "Are you doing OK?" I'm grinning ear to ear. Yeah, it's going great. I LOVE this bike! Again she asks, "No, really. Is everything OK?" Hmmmm, I finally recognize the tone of voice, and the look in the eye. So I ask, "What's up Honey? Why are you asking?"
Get ready...
She asks, "Why are you going SO SLOW?" After a moment of stunned silence, maybe a minute or ten, I cracked another grin and asked her the "who are you?" line. But she's serious. "I was going exactly 55! It wasn't a 65 zone, was it?" She says "No, but you were going 51, not 55." But, but, NO Way! Never...
Hmmmm. After a moment, some of those old brain cells reconnected and I remembered seeing posts on this forum about the speedometer error. I resolved ON THE SPOT that I was going to get one of those calibration correctors. The rest of the trip I did not enjoy estimating my speed by multiplying by 0.9.
After getting home and doing a bit more research I ordered a SpeedoDRD. Installation was very easy. Wife helped calibrate it with ony a few compaints. It works great! Correction of 4.5%.
BTW, the tags were obtained first thing that Monday and the inspection was done Tuesday.
Chris Shoop
Before I start the story, please understand that my wife is a wonderful person :thumbup: and has been surprisingly supportive ever since I gingerly mentioned that I was, you know, maybe thinking of buying a bike. (I was riding when we met in college but tapered off then stopped a bit after our first was born and I started a suit & tie job.) But she also has a rep for being pretty much a straight arrow, which seems to come with teaching elementary school music.
So, I find the bike I want, Craigslist. It's a great deal but is 60 miles away and is on the other side of the river, in Ohio. I'm in WV. Plan A was for my neighbor (experienced rider, great guy) to ride it back, but he was not available till Sunday. Then I learn from my local dealer that I need to get the title notarized because it will be switching states, and our best bet was to go to the Ohio BMV. They're not open on Sunday. Will I wait till next weekend?
RIGHTSo, plan B is that I ride it back. Yep, first ride in at least 25 years - 60 miles. The wife is still fine with this. Notice the title of the post?
One more wrinkle. I forgot to look into getting temp plates. We realize this in the parking lot at the BMV. After a bit of discussion we decide to wing it. (This part is unlike either of us. BIKE FEVER!)
Next, I suggest that I should follow her on the way back home, but she insists that she'd rather follow me. She hates the GPS and wasn't watching the road on the way there. After a very brief suspicion that she was going along with the whole bike thing so she could dispose of me by running me down, well fairly brief, I agreed and we go.
So I take off and I'm being VERY VERY careful, sticking to the speed limit EXACTLY! Perfect skills-test-type stops at stop signs, the works. The wife is following closely so, you know, it's less likely anybody, ahem, will get close enough to notice the lack of a plate. The first 20 miles were 2-lane with no place to pass. I noticed that a red Cherokee was tailgating my wife pretty hard for the last few miles before the road widened to 4 lanes. Soon as possible, the Jeep flew by. A few minutes later my wife passes and signals to pull over. She's decided to use a gun?
So I stop, pop the helmet, and walk up to the car. She asks, "Are you doing OK?" I'm grinning ear to ear. Yeah, it's going great. I LOVE this bike! Again she asks, "No, really. Is everything OK?" Hmmmm, I finally recognize the tone of voice, and the look in the eye. So I ask, "What's up Honey? Why are you asking?"
Get ready...
She asks, "Why are you going SO SLOW?" After a moment of stunned silence, maybe a minute or ten, I cracked another grin and asked her the "who are you?" line. But she's serious.
"I was going exactly 55! It wasn't a 65 zone, was it?" She says "No, but you were going 51, not 55." But, but, NO Way! Never...Hmmmm. After a moment, some of those old brain cells reconnected and I remembered seeing posts on this forum about the speedometer error. I resolved ON THE SPOT that I was going to get one of those calibration correctors. The rest of the trip I did not enjoy estimating my speed by multiplying by 0.9.
After getting home and doing a bit more research I ordered a SpeedoDRD. Installation was very easy. Wife helped calibrate it with ony a few compaints. It works great! Correction of 4.5%.
BTW, the tags were obtained first thing that Monday and the inspection was done Tuesday.
Chris Shoop
