Like I mentioned yesterday, it’d been ages since I’d ridden. So this morning I rode Svetlana to work. It’s funny how things felt a little unfamiliar. I had to think about the controls, from pulling out the enricheners to get the Ural going, to remembering how much to shift my weight on turns and curves.

It was all worth it though. By the time I rode home this afternoon, I felt back in control, felt the smoothness coming back to my technique. Setting up turns smoothed out. Acceleration and shifting got easier, more fluid.

The one funny part: when trying to start Sveta up, she wouldn’t turn over at first. I tried a couple of times, but had no luck. At first I wondered if I was out of gas. Then I thought, “Well, it’s pretty warm today, maybe I don’t need the enricheners?” I’d pushed them, hit the starter — and she fired right up.

Nice.

It’s good to be back in the saddle.