First Ride of the Year
January 14, 2014
I have my monthly ride chain intact. It was in the mid thirties yesterday so i just had to ride something. I needed some small purchases from the local grocery store and Family Dollar and the 50cc bike was calling to me. A few kicks on the old fashioned kick start lever and it fired right up and off I went. Now I had a question asked of me and I'll tell you the honest truth. No, I wasn't cold even though the wind chills hovered around zero. Today's modern clothing materials are pretty amazing. I had on my KMart ski jacket, a pair of Dickie work pants, work shoes and my ancient Gore Tex ski gloves from my skiing days and I was reasonably comfortable even though the bank thermometer said thirty-seven. If I was going to ride further than to town I would have worn my leather mittens and neck warmer. As I told one of the local ladies, if I even think long underwear, I take the car.
One of the cool things about riding this time of year is seeing snow piles on the side of the road but a clear path to ride on. It's rained recently so the road salt is less and the road is light gray instead of snow white. I also get a kick out of the smiles I get from people on the roadside who are amused at a bike out in January. I was just glad to be riding and moving on something on two wheels. The cars are more comfortable, but a bike is special.
After I got back I just had to know how the rest of the fleet was doing. The Honda Rebel, as always, fired up on the first push of the button and settled into a happy idle. The 150cc Chinese scooter followed suit and lit off immediately, happily purring away. Now it was the big scooter's turn. It was not happy about being woken up. It gave me the cold awakening shriek from the clutch and spun and spun without starting. Finally after about thirty seconds of spinning during a second try it fired....and died. Repeated starts eventually had the motor running but it served notice that I should be out trying it more often. It is not happy about being left idle for weeks at a time..
I'm hoping that this won't be the last ride this winter and I'll get in many more. Next time I'll see if the mission into town can be done on another of the fleet. I have to spread the wealth around.
One of the cool things about riding this time of year is seeing snow piles on the side of the road but a clear path to ride on. It's rained recently so the road salt is less and the road is light gray instead of snow white. I also get a kick out of the smiles I get from people on the roadside who are amused at a bike out in January. I was just glad to be riding and moving on something on two wheels. The cars are more comfortable, but a bike is special.
After I got back I just had to know how the rest of the fleet was doing. The Honda Rebel, as always, fired up on the first push of the button and settled into a happy idle. The 150cc Chinese scooter followed suit and lit off immediately, happily purring away. Now it was the big scooter's turn. It was not happy about being woken up. It gave me the cold awakening shriek from the clutch and spun and spun without starting. Finally after about thirty seconds of spinning during a second try it fired....and died. Repeated starts eventually had the motor running but it served notice that I should be out trying it more often. It is not happy about being left idle for weeks at a time..
I'm hoping that this won't be the last ride this winter and I'll get in many more. Next time I'll see if the mission into town can be done on another of the fleet. I have to spread the wealth around.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
