Litchfield Rider Ventures Out for First Time

By Bud Wilkinson

Headed north out of Litchfield on Route 63 on a recent Sunday morning, I came up behind two motorcyclists who were riding in staggered formation at a speed that was at times a little south of the posted limit. As we approached a passing zone, the rider in back turned on his emergency flashers and waved for me to overtake them. In passing, I glanced over and noticed the lead rider was aboard a small vintage Honda, which got me speculating about their timid pace. Were they perhaps taking a newly-rebuilt bike for its inaugural test ride and merely being cautious?

Curiosity got the better of me before I reached the traffic circle in Goshen, so I pulled over and let the twosome get ahead of me again. Farther up Route 63, after observing the rather stiff posture and deliberate mannerisms of the lead rider for several miles, it dawned on me that the Honda’s operator had to be a nervous newbie taking an extended ride for the first time.

That was indeed the case for 56-year-old Jocelyn Charles of Litchfield. “I’m not shaking. I didn’t get off the bike shaking,” she said a half-hour later after parking her bike and seating herself at a picnic table outside Toymaker’s Café in Falls Village.

The first long trek for any rider is certainly an accomplishment. In Charles’ case, it took a few years for her to venture the 20 miles from her home. She successfully completed the state’s Basic Rider Course in 2008 and her motorcycle, a sparkling red and white 1973 Honda CL175, was purchased in 2009.

Since then, she’s ridden it up and down her street. Going a greater distance was daunting. “I didn’t feel like I had the gumption,” Charles said. What finally got her out of the neighborhood was her partner’s love of riding and her own frustration. Matthew Philips was aboard the 2005 BMW R1200GS that tailed her. “It’s an awful important part of his life and I want to be part of it,” she said, explaining that what finally triggered her courage was the fact “it’s the middle of July and I haven’t gotten my ass on that bike yet.”

With four years having passed since she received motorcycle training, Charles said, “At first, I didn’t think everything would come back to me.” The techniques and tricks did return, though, and her goal now is to get “at least to a point where my skills are at a certain level that if I don’t like it, I don’t like it. It’s a challenge. I hope I get to a point where I find it more fun,” she said of motorcycling.

Charles took the BRC under difficult conditions. The last day, which is spent on the range and ends with a final exam taken on a motorcycle, was rain-filled. But she passed. “It’s a little overwhelming. “There’s a lot you have to pay attention to,” she said of the course, a statement that anyone who has experienced the training regimen won’t dispute.

Her CL175, a neat little 20 horsepower scrambler with high exhaust pipes and a top speed of 70 miles per hour, was found at the American Motorcyclist Association’s Vintage Motorcycle Days meet in Lexington, Ohio. It cost $1,500, more than double the price of what the bike cost new. “Not only is it the right bike for her,” said Phillips, “it’s a bike that should be saved, looked after and cherished.”

While Charles said family members “think I’m out of my mind” for taking up riding after years as a passenger, riders will undoubtedly applaud her for taking the big step that she did last weekend. “I was remarkably calmer than I imagined. Things were coming back to me, the right things to do,” she said after having a few minutes to decompress. “I think if I can relax more, I can be a better rider. I want it all to become second nature.”

That will come with more seat time. The ride home “went by really fast — much faster than the way there, so I must have been more relaxed,” she said a few days later. “I was really exhausted for the rest of the day. I realize I have to do it more frequently – like every week, at least.”

(Originally published in “The Republican-American” on July 21, 2012)