Winter's Last Gasp?

We dodged the big snowball today; we were in line for 5 - 6 inches of snow today, but a cold front moved down further from Canada and kept the storm off of our backs.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that the cold front is dropping our temps tonight and tomorrow into the low single-digits.  Looking out a while on the forecast horizon, it appears we're in for a stretch of low-30 degree days.  Now that, I can live with...for a short time, anyway.

Yesterday, the temps went all the way up to 37 so of course I rolled the bike out of the garage and fired it up to get her juices flowing.  I'm still fighting off the headcold that's going around, so I planned on being smart and just letting it warm up in the driveway, I wasn't going to take it out into the chilly temps...

But then I nicked her down into first and rolled out to the end of the driveway, then coasted backward toward the garage...

...and promptly set the kickstand, ran inside for my jacket, gloves, facemask and lid, and I was off like a rocket!

I shot down the road to the nearest intersection, then hung a right, bringing me out to Rte 1.  I banged a quick right and had nothing but open highway in front of me.  Woo-Hoo!  I opened her all the way up...I mean ALL THE WAY UP!  Doing over 100 in no time, slapping through the gears, the engine was humming beautifully, the wind was soaring by me...and through me!  I hadn't bothered to grab my winter riding pants, so before too long, I eased her back down to a respectable speed and banged another right-hand turn at an approaching intersection, completed the loop back to my house and backed her into the garage.

Shutting her off, I was rewarded with the tinking sound of the heads and pipes cooling off.  Man, that had been so needed!  It wasn't long at all, but it was enough to get my adrenaline pumping a little, and given my hampered state of health, I didn't want to push things too much.

We're getting closer...just gotta hang on a little bit more...

Ride Hard, Take Chances