Posts Tagged ‘motorcycle riding in March’

Good Timing On A Chilly Ride

Monday, March 6th, 2023

That’s snow coming, those clouds off in the distance.

The first of the month was two days earlier, so that meant I had three motorcycles to ride. It was an overcast day but not particularly cold and the forecast was for much colder soon. I figured it was a day to ride; I chose the V-Strom.

I wasn’t going to be fooled this time; I wore my riding pants with the lining in plus long underwear. It didn’t take any time at all to find that this was definitely the right choice. I’m stupid sometimes but not all the time.

I had no idea where to go. I just got on DTC Boulevard and headed south. That road turns into Yosemite and I just kept going. At County Line Road I turned west. It occurred to me that it had been years since I’d gone more than a few blocks on County Line Road so what the heck, I’d just take it all the way to Santa Fe Drive.

It was a nice ride, not a lot of traffic at all. And all the way west I could see clouds bunching up over the foothills. That’s weather coming in. Maybe I could find a good spot to do a picture of the bike and the clouds. This is the kind of thing that drives a lot of my rides. I don’t have any clear destination but I decide I want a particular type of photograph and then I go somewhere that I can get that shot.

The temperature was dropping, but I had my electric vest keeping me warm so it was not at all unpleasant. Meanwhile, it was fun being out on the bike. None of us get in enough riding time at this time of year.

I blasted north on Santa Fe, to Belleview, then turned east to home. Ten minutes after I got home I looked out and it was snowing. OK, I guess that worked out pretty darn well. Now I have two more bikes that need to be ridden.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle shop is the only place riders like window shopping.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

Riding In March

Thursday, March 14th, 2019
Daytona Bike Week

Just a shot in recognition that it is currently Bike Week in Daytona. (Photo by Friggs Pryor)

I was not the only one out of a bike on Thursday and Friday last week. I saw three other riders on Thursday and four on Friday. Meanwhile I was doing my standard thing of making sure each of my bikes gets ridden at least once every month.

It might seem that with that kind of policy I never have a chance for my riding skills to get rusty, and that is mainly true. However, when you think about it, in the worst case I can still go nearly two months without riding. That would be if I got out on the first of one month and then was not able to get out again until the last of the following month. That has happened a couple times.

And while it wasn’t so bad this time, it still had been quite a while since I had ridden. I went out first on the Honda and that was OK but when I brought that bike home and went out again on the Concours I could really feel a bit of hesitancy. The Connie is a big, heavy bike, and I just didn’t feel quite as at home on it as I normally do. Of course the best remedy for that is to ride, so I did. And by the time I was getting home I was definitely feeling more comfortable.

Not that the spin I took on the Honda was all peaches and cream. The road had been clear the day before but I didn’t pay much attention to the fact that we had a light snowfall overnight. I took off down our street and quickly found myself having to cross areas of ice from where the snow had fallen, melted, and then frozen. This was late morning and everywhere I rode through shaded areas it was the same. Then where it wasn’t icy it was generally wet. I got splattered a good bit and had to clean my visor when I got home. Of course the bike got pretty dirty, too, but I’ll tend to that later.

Getting out on the V-Strom the next day was totally different: dry and warm. It was just a good day to ride and was also an uneventful ride. We like those. “Eventful,” in this case, is a pejorative term. As in the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

But now the weather is to get cold again. I sure hope I’m able to get out at least a few more times in March. Heck, that’s part of the reason I live in Colorado.

Biker Quote for Today

The best path through life is the open road.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides | No Comments »