Katie gets her wheels ! It seems odd that the one person primarily responsible for organizing and delivering the longest, most complex off-road motorcycle adventure rides in Australia, has never actually ridden a motorcycle herself!
As Katie has said, the enjoyment is in the giving, not only the fun the Cannonball Crew get from each ride but more importantly , through the funds raised and delivered to charity. Nice Katie, but you do know that when you hang around dirt bike riders, at some point you just got to saddle up yourself and experience what it’s all about. This is exactly what happened last weekend when Cannonball Ride leader Dave Oliver turned up with a TT125 in tow to give Katie her first riding lesson!
Katie was sweating, well for a lady she was perspiring, actually no she was sweating! It was one of those typical scorching summer days in Brisbane when if you move you sweat . Here Katie got her first lesson, just putting on protective gear by itself can be draining , without even getting on the bike! Dave was sweating too, while the Cannonball lead rider handles a bike himself pretty well, he has never taught anyone else to ride! He was a bit nervous with starting his education career with the powerhouse of the Cannonball establishment Katie herself. If Katie wound up in a leg cast due to some ill-instruction, it was going to make the running of this years rider a little more difficult, especially for Dave.
Katie drives an automatic, so before she could deal with "clutch control" she had to deal with "What is a clutch?". However despite these small hurdles, pretty soon both teacher and student relaxed and the riding got underway, not too bad at all was the general comment from Dave. The bike in question was a TTR125 and proved to be a great first time learners bike, now with a long range tank and a sheep skin on the seat, is it going to be able to crank out 5000km's in a week or two, that is the question?
Dave has since left the TTR with Katie to do some "homework" in her backyard but beware, if you come on a adventure ride with the Cannonball Crew, you might have to eat some dust from Katie as she and the 125 roost off to the front of the pack!
Katie 1 - TTR 0
