Just got back from Femmoto, a women's-only track/demo day out at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. What a BLAST! This was really my first chance to seriously try out a sports bike (well, Sparky did let me take her Honda around the block once, but I barely got out of first gear.)Femmoto invites a bunch of different manufacturers to the track - then you sign up ("fill out your dance card") and go 'round the track on up to five different machines. Each trial lasts, oh, four or five laps around the Classic course, which is the LVMS road course.
My first bike was a Ducati and I did NOT get along with it at ALL. Perfectly fine bike but the ergos were exactly wrong for me, and I hated it. Second bike was a 250cc Buell Blast which was akin to buzzing around on a lawnmower, and pretty laughable. But then ...
I took a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R out and fell in LOVE. Now THIS is the experience I was looking for at Femmoto! I started to get the hang of how one hangs one's butt off the seat to set up the corner and that's when the day got REALLY fun. I am still far far far from good at riding that type of bike but started to feel the rhythm and flow and enjoyed myself thoroughly.
I also tried out a Ninja 650 which has a much more upright riding position than the ZX-6R. Nice, not exactly my cup of tea. Then, for my fifth ride I was signed up to ride another Buell, but ditched it to instead swipe another ride on the ZX-6R (you're not supposed to ride the same bike twice, but no one checks that carefully) because it was just that much FUN.
If I had a spare $8K I'd love one of those green babies in my garage :)
