Ahhhh...Sweet Sanity!

Today day was clear and sunny, the temps were flirting with the high 30’s, and we’d had a fair amount of rain over the past week. The roadways were fairly clear of salt and I’d kicked around the idea of taking the bike out for a quick spin to work the fluids through the lines. I was leaning towards scrapping that plan but hadn’t fully ruled it out - just kinda keeping it in the back of my mind, to be dragged back up if need be.

It was mid-afternoon today and I had some time to kill. Realizing that I hadn’t talked to Flex in a while, I figured I’d give him a call and see what he was up to. Turns out he was up for meeting for a beer (I like that about him). He suggested a biker-friendly bar that’s around the corner from his house and we agreed to meet there.

Hmmm…a biker-friendly bar. And me, with this plan in the back of my mind. Coincidence? Oh, I think not. Besides, the weather was calling for more snow tonight (they were right; it's coming down right now). If I was going to get a final ride in before the end of the year, it had to be right now.

Excitement rushed through me as I rolled her out into the driveway and flicked the switches into ‘run’ mode. Once the diagnostics were completed, I was good to go. Choke; full-out. Throttle; two quick twists. Starter button; pressed. She turned for me a few times but didn’t catch. I twisted another quick gulp of petrol down the carb’s throat, and she fired right up. Locking the throttle on a medium idle, I ran back inside and started digging all my cold weather gear out. Donning everything, I was back outside and easing the idle down to a steady rumble. Settling into the saddle, I kicked things down into first and eased out onto the road.

There was still plenty of sand out there, so the cornering was civil and polite. No scraping today! I made my way down to the corner gas station and filled the tank - she took 3 gallons of fresh new gas, complete with the traces of stabilizer that all new gas comes with. I should be in good shape for the rest of the winter, now.

Heading back out onto the roadways, I wound my way up some main roads, down some side streets, and wound around some assorted lefts and rights. Man, did it ever feel great to be riding again! I knew that today’s mileage was going to be minimal, but just to be astride the machine again…to feel the pulse of the engine as it rumbled through my body, to feel the bite of the air as it washed over any exposed skin, to sense the pull of the lean as I eased through the corners. It’s just the best feeling in the world. I tend to get a bit depressed in the wintertime when I can’t ride (so why the hell do I live in New England then?) and these brief jaunts do wonders for my mental clarity when I’m able to enjoy them.

All too soon, I arrived at the parking lot of the aforementioned bar; The Anvil (a cool name for a biker bar, no?). And not surprisingly, there was another bike already there. I was happy to see this as my bike would have some company while I shared a few libations with Flex, inside. (Ok, so we didn’t exactly share the libations, but we did each enjoy our own.)

Being the end of December, the sunshine soon departed, ushering in the darkness of nighttime. We finished our beers and I strolled out to my now-lonely bike (the other rider had left for home a while earlier). I warmed her up again and headed off to home. Ahhh…a much too-short trip, but enjoyable as all hell, just the same.

What else is going on…let’s see. Oh; I’d talked about buying some real cheap vodka and running it through a Brita filter to see if it cleaned things up and turned it into a top-shelf drink. I did some looking on-line and found there have been tons of people who have already done this (no one’s ever accused me of being the first to arrive at the dance, so to speak). The overwhelming opinions of those that have tried this experiment is that while it does smooth things out a bit, there’s no magical transformation. The vodka might wind up tasting a bit better, but it’s really not worth the expense and trouble. And since I’m not much of a vodka drinker, I didn’t see the need to repeat what others have already accomplished. So that idea was scrapped.

The only other thing on the plate is tomorrow night’s New Year’s celebration. I’m heading to Ed & Sue’s house for their annual NYE party. Should be a good time - they always welcome you in with warm smiles and a warm house. Food will be plenty, fun will be had, and frothy beers will be shared with friends. Try and tell me that it gets better than that. It doesn't.

So this will probably be the last post of 2007. I hope that everyone has a safe and fun New Year’s and that 2008 will bring health, happiness and prosperity to you all.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Salt the ice, clean the vodka, and lock up the beers.

So let’s see…what’s going on. Well, a whole lot of nothing, to be honest. We’ve got snow, salt and ice up the wazoo and the bike is stranded in the garage. Actually, both Bill’s and my bikes are stranded. Normally I wouldn’t be moving them into the cellar until maybe January, as the snow starts to build up. I was hoping the snow we just received might melt quickly and allow for some year-end riding. That’s not going to happen, though. Single digit temps at night, mid-20’s during the days…not a lot of melting going on. I was out in the driveway the other night, using a 12 pound sledgehammer to bust up some of the ice. Good times! But both Bill and I were able to roll the bikes out and fire them up for a bit to keep the battery fresh and circulate the gas and oil. (Now it’s just a matter of digging a path through the snow, around back, to get them into the cellar.)

On a positive note, I did receive my new insurance sticker, so I’m totally in the clear to ride. (Did I mention the snow and ice all over the roads?)

A while back, I mentioned that I was going to try an experiment where I used a Brita water filter to clean up some rotgut vodka and see if it comes out nice and smooth. I mean, after all; that’s what refineries do, right? They distill it a bit more and then run it through carbon filtration a few times. The more it’s filtered, the better it gets. So I picked up some filters the other day and now need to pick up some Mr. Boston’s (or some other equally offensive brand) vodka and see what happens. I’ll take some pics and post things once that little diversion has been completed.

On a funny note; it pays to keep your beer locked up. Those that know my house, know that you can get into my cellar any time, day or night. And Bill happens to keep his spare fridge down there, and it’s usually full of beer. I was talking with Zig this morning and he said he was grateful that the Magraw Liquor Store was open late-night. During this past weekend’s big storm, he’d been out plowing and at about 2:30 in the morning, he realized with some horror that he’d run out of beer. Thinking quickly, he realized where he could obtain some fresh stocks and proceeded to stop by the house. Neither Bill nor I even heard the thief in the night, but Bill was quick to spot the missing inventory the next day.

And that’s about all that’s going on, on this end. My company is closed next week for the holidays so I should be able to dig the bikes out and get them into the cellar where they can hang out with the other bikes that are down there. Flex’s…John’s…the Shovelhead…the Rebel…it’ll be a regular party. I should also be able to get that vodka experiment done, too.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas, hopefully Santa will bring you some decent stuff. Me? I wasn't naughty at all this year so maybe he won’t bring me coal this time around. But I’m not holding my breath – that fat bastard seems to have it in for me.

I'll probably get one more post up before New Year's, so until then...

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Snow chance of riding this weekend

So the weather folks have been telling us all week that we might have a slight chance for a bit of snowfall today. A slight chance...for a wee bit of snow. Suddenly last night, the forecast changes and now we're getting a fast and furious storm, possibly dumping as much as a foot of snow this afternoon. Zoinks. Here's the current radar loop for my area...

That looks pleasant, huh?

Adding insult to injury; we're also facing the possibility of a Nor'Easter on Saturday/Sunday. Fantabulous. I can't remember ever having had this much snow, this early in the season. It's not even officially winter yet! I guess I just have to hope that we're getting our winter allotment of snow out of the way early, and that the new year will be clear. (Doesn't hurt to dream.) Anyway, have a good weekend.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Flurries, Football and Food

Another quiet weekend. Had some light flurries on Saturday night and then some freezing rain last night. Streets were nice and slick this morning – which means more salt was put down. Oh well, what can you do.

Highlight of the weekend was Ed & Sue’s football party yesterday. As usual, they put on quite the spread; chips, dips, chains & whips. Calzones and home-made chili, too. Superb stick-to-your-ribs fare for tempering the beerverages being consumed. Flex, Mike and Denny joined the festivities…Zig came along as well, but was on-call and got ‘the call’ (to clear some of the lot in case plowing was needed) almost as soon as he arrived, so he had to split.

We watched the some of the pregames – saw Detroit almost pull off an upset against Dallas (was bummed to see Dallas pull of the last-second victory). Also saw San Diego almost get beaten by Tennessee, but that fell short in the final seconds as well. The main event was to see if our Patriots could maintain their unbeaten streak, and they did, so we were happy. We started to watch the Indy-Baltimore game, hoping to see Baltimore do some beating up, but they were the ones taking the beating so we said our thanks to our hosts and headed off in our home directions.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot; Ed came into possession of a sweet bike lift, but he already had one…so he asked me if I wanted his old one (it’s hardly old, it looks brand new). So of course I said yes. He’s whacking me a whopping $40 bucks for the thing, is that a deal or what? Thanks Ed!

There’s been some chatter about next summer’s Rendezvous. A few more tickets needed over here…some new interest over there…looks like we’re shaping up to have an even bigger crowd than last year. But that’s next summer, when the temps are warm and the roadways are clear again.
For now; snow lines the streets…ice cakes the tree limbs…and the bike sits at the ready, waiting to be awakened once again. Not soon enough will that happen.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Windshield Pics

So here are the pics. I guess it doesn't look...too bad...


The black at the bottom of the shield sorta flows into the overall color scheme...

I suppose I can live with it (when the roads are clear of salt and I can get back out there). I will say that I wasn't sure how the height was going to work. The top of the shield is about in line with my mouth, so I have clear/unobstructed visibility (which I'm rather fond of), and most of the wind is still being pushed up and over my head, so my eyes didn't seem to feel much blow-by. Didn't really get out on the highway yesterday so I haven't given it a good high-speed test...yet.

Figured I might as well take a pic of the sky while I was outside. This was taken about 5 hours before the first flakes started flowing.

Dull gray skies...not exactly very inviting...

And there you have it. Happy Monday.

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Weekend Postlude

So Zig and I met up with Bill and Sam and Zack to see if those stunt riders were putting on a show today. Unfortunately; the weather seemed to have deterred them and they were nowhere to be seen. At the insistence of my niece and nephew, I did a quick 360 degree burnout so that the trip wouldn't be a complete washout for them. Upon completion, I rode back up to them with a certain level of satisfaction; a semi-respectable cloud of vaporized rubber hung in the air, the swath left by my rear tire (while not without some imperfections) was readily recognizable as a circle...I thought I'd done rather well. But they weren't impressed. They wanted more. They wanted sheer volume. They wanted a statement. They wanted lungs; fighting for oxygen...eyes; watering, swollen and red...eardrums; tattered and wasted. Instead; they received my humble apologies and meek explanation that I really didn't want to abuse my engine any more than I had.

So we parted ways. Zig and I wound our way up to a favorite local pub and settled in for some cocktails. Mike showed up to share our company and we made a call out to King to say some hello's.

Beers took their toll and I headed off to the lavoratory. I glanced out the main door to make sure the weather was still holding off. After taking care of business, I came back out and happened to glance outside again - only to see that not only had it started snowing, but there was a light layer of fluffy white powder on the ground. How was this possible??? Things were clear not a minute or two earlier? Regardless, the point was clear; I had to make for home and make for home quickly. I shot back to the bar, grabbed my gear, asked Zig to cover my tab and hit the road.

Taking corners on a layer of freshly dropped snow will add a certain level of ass-puckerage to any ride. Suffice to say that I didn't try to do any floorboard grinding on the way home. Instead, I behaved myself and was rewarded with a successful arrival back at the abode. I rolled into the garage and begrudgingly lowered the door on my ride, uncertain of when I would be able to retrieve her again.

Wow; lots of posts lately...and two in one day? That's unlike me. No worries, though. I'm sure I'll be plenty quiet once the riding dies out for a while. I still owe you the pics of the windshield, those will go up tomorrow.

Ta for now...

Ride Hard, Take Chances

Say It Ain't Snow!!

It was bound to happen sooner or later...after all, we are in Winter. The weather forecast says snow, starting tonight and running into tomorrow. Some of the more-southern areas will switch over to rain in the afternoon, but we're still going to wind up with some residual stuff. Areas north of Boston could get as much as a foot...poor bastards. And the rest of the week isn't looking any better; clearing a bit on Tuesday, then flurries again on Wednesday and maybe Thursday. All I hope is that they don't put any salt down...

So, I figured maybe if I was going to be 'down' for a bit, I might as well wash the bike and have it looking good for the next chance I get to ride. Got the soap and hot water all ready, the sponges and towels at-the-ready. I rolled the bike out and then it hit me; I hadn't turned the outside water off or drained the hose so I was probably looking at a bit of a problem. Sure enough, the hose was a coil of solid ice. Damn. No washing the bike today. But I figured that while I had it out, I might as well throw the windshield on. Was pretty easy, actually, only took me about 5 minutes. I guess I gotta admit that it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. The one I picked up off of eBay had black tinting on the bottom and I think it kinda flows nicely with the paint. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Tentatively planning to go check out those sport bike riders again this afternoon...not sure if they'l be able to get some stunts in before the weather starts up, but we'll see. If they're there, I'll try shooting some more vid clips and post them as well. Hell, it'll also give me a chance to check out the windshield.

Talk atcha tomorrow...

Ride Hard, Take Chances