October 12 @ 9:27 am
The best part of the riding season has passed I’m afraid. Though the weather is decent this week and I’m hopping on the bike here in a bit to ride up to a meeting in Bellevue, WA… soon it will be to unpredictable and cold to plan any major rides. Plus the mountain passes will close at some point making the best roads unavailable until the thaw next year. I’ll still get a few day rides in I suppose but I don’t really enjoy those as much as a nice multi-day ride to someplace new and interesting.
There are practical reasons that riding will be limited for a while too. After a excellent season of riding, the bike is ready for various maintenance activities. It’s due for a valve check and carb sync. The tires are starting to look a bit worse for wear. Probably need to replace front brake pads and new brake lines would be nice too. I’m thinking about new paint to repair the last of the damage from last year’s accident also. I wouldn’t mind trying a new windshield now that I think about it. Plenty to do!
In the mean time, there’s always planning for next year. Discussion going on about a West Coast meet in May… probably in Oregon or California. And I hope to make it to the national Sport-Touring meet in June. That will take me to the area around Custer, SD. A long ride that one will be. The straightline distance is around 2200 miles round trip… and we rarely go the direct route. I’ll have to horde my vacation for that, I’ll need to take a full week off for sure. Planning to ride out with Dave from Canada, we’ve chatted a bit that maybe I’ll pre-ride up to his place and we’ll depart from there. Haven’t ridden the bike in Canada so that might be fun.
Of course, that means I should probably get my passport taken care of… and it’s never too early to start planning out routes. I wonder if I should upgrade to hard luggage before this big trip? And there is this new flip-front helmet I’ve been looking at… Oh yes, plenty of things to do even when I’m not actually riding the bike!
October 12 @ 9:49 am
That’s the kind of passion and passtime we all hope to find… an all-season all weather passtime… I bet you decorate your bike for Christmas.
~S
October 12 @ 10:27 am
Although I don’t need a “a valve check and carb sync.”, I approach my running in the same fashion. I’ve begun planning for next year and seeing what short races I want to do plus the big mambo-jambo marathons… those require a bit of planning with training and travel…
October 12 @ 10:46 am
Shephard, I didn’t decorate at *all* for Christmas last year being as that I wasn’t doing much walking at the time. But now that you mention it, I may have to plan something special this year!
P3, you may not need a valve check and carb sync *yet* but just wait a few years…
October 12 @ 2:36 pm
We ran into a gaggle of cyclists last week while driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. In fact, a motorcyclist followed us down the hairpin turns off the mountain. He passed us on a double yellow line. Guess we weren’t moving fast enough. I hope you don’t do anything like that. I saw him almost lose control before he passed too.
Just enjoy the ride and the scenery, right?
October 12 @ 2:46 pm
Well Dave, in point of fact I *will* pass you on a double-yellow in the right circumstances… if a) it’s a winding road and you are driving much slower than I am *and* b) you have passed several turn outs and have not availed yourself of them to let me by legally *and* c) I can see far enough ahead to determine that I can safely make the pass with room to spare then yes, I will pass you on the double-yellow. But up to that point I will patiently wait and relax and enjoy the scenery.
October 12 @ 6:38 pm
You need a snowman for your bike!
(I don’t know if you know this, but I’m a big snowman freak. I collect them like crazy ~ plushy ones.)
M~
October 12 @ 6:58 pm
Hmmm… I could see a snowman I suppose, but it would have to be some sort of radical biker snowman, wearing black leather. I better start looking for one now! They’ll probably be out of stock closer to Christmas…