First Ride Of 2025
Yeah, it’s pretty snowy out there but the roads are mostly clear. The only ice I had to deal with was on my street.
You never know at this time of year when you’ll be able to ride so you take advantage when you can. That’s what I did on Wednesday.
Isn’t it funny how your tolerance of the weather adjusts with the weather. In September a day in the 40s seems really cold. Now here we are in January and I thought, “Wow, it’s in the 40s. What a great day to ride!”
I hadn’t been on the V-Strom in a while so it was time it had its turn. I had no plans to go far, just making sure to get in a ride on each bike in January.
Heading southeast I crossed the Cherry Creek Dam and the reservoir told a tale of the weather. Frequently, long before this time of winter the lake will be completely frozen. But it has been warm–until the last couple weeks–so while most of the lake had ice there were small portions that were open. Then I noticed that the freezing was very spotty with a lot of little bits of water amid big sections of ice. I’ve never seen it in this stage of near-freeze before. And with the temperature expected to take a serious plunge in just a couple days, by next week it could all be ice.
I headed out on Parker Road, all the way down to Parker and then turned west on Main Street. For some reason, as soon as I turned west it seemed the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Not at all sure why.
I was totally geared up, with one of my heated gloves set to the lowest setting and the other to the number 2 setting. I’m always experimenting to see what difference something like that makes. Well, in this case, my fingertips in the lowest setting glove were getting darn chilly, so when I stopped to shoot that photo above I bumped it up. That felt good.
It was a pretty uneventful ride but I did see one other rider out. Plus, I had seen another one earlier when I was out in my car. Some people know a good day to ride when they see it. Back at home I felt like the ride was too short. How nice to go out in the middle of winter and wish you had stayed out longer and ridden further. You gotta love Colorado.
Biker Quote for Today
Motorcycling is an endless opportunity to accessorize.
