Chilly Ride

My commuting might be over for the season, but I ain't given up riding. Met my wife and kids for lunch. My son suited up and rode home with me.

Sitting on the bike, the two of us, in the McDonald's parking lot, I noticed that the rear suspension was bottoming out on the frame. Everybody off the bike. Check the rear suspension air pressure. It's way low. This proves a slow leak -- I pumped it up a month ago. Or is it just that the air shrinks in cold weather?

Pumped it way up, felt a lot better.

My wife: "Does he need a balaklava to keep his neck warm?"

Me: "I don't know, he's got a winter coat on with good protection around his throat."

Decision: "If you get cold, you tap your dad on the shoulder and tell him. He'll stop and he can put the balaklava on you."

My son: "What's a balaklava?"

Smile. And demonstration.

Okay, back on the bike, pull out of the parking lot, to the first stop light.

"Daaaaaaad, I'm cooooooooold."

"Okay, I'll pull over first chance I get."

Pull into the Walmart parking lot, park, get off the bike, off with my gloves, off with his helmet, on with my wife's balaklava, back on with his helmet, back on with my gloves, back onto the bike.

And on down the road. Pulling hard left through an intersection, scraped the two of my left boot as I dug down to grab second gear. Can't upshift in a hard left turn on this bike.

"How are you doing?" I ask at the next stop light.

"Fine. My ankles are the only thing that's cold," said my son.

I look. Tennis shoes and cotton socks. The socks are the only clothing on his entire body that's not double-layered. He has sweats on over his jeans. Long sleeve shirt and two coats. The ankles hang out in the open in the breeze.

Motorcycle Safety Public Service Announcements

Here is a motorcycle safety public service announcement.

So far, I haven't seen an effective one in the US ever.

The most powerful one I've seen is this UK public service announcement

Not over yet

Another week and I had four more days of riding. My predictions of the season's end were premature.

Last year I stopped 11/11. So far this year I haven't ridden beyond that milestone. We'll see. There might still be a day here or there.

Ed's Chassis

Fellow Maggot Ed had a brain-dead cager pull in front of him while he was riding his V65 Magna. Frame, forks, and front valve cover were damaged. Driver did not even stop. Ed was fortunate not to have been seriously hurt. He lives out east, but bought a rolling chassis in the midwest, about an hour from me. He asked me to go get it for him and store it until he could arrange to pick it up.

No problem, I said.



After my daughter's fifth birthday party we hitched up the trailer to the Tahoe, and my 7-year-old son and I rode an hour to go get it. Found the place, met the seller's wife. She helped us wheel it from back-yard shed to the trailer parked out front. My son helped me strap it down in the trailer. And off we went.

Season Ends?

My season of daily rides drew to an end as the temps are often hovering around the freezing mark when I leave for work in the morning. I did ride Monday 10/30 but did not ride the rest of the week. It's interesting because I rode daily through 11/11 last year. This year's frost comes early by comparison.

I cleaned up the brake fluid off the tire, tightened the fittings, and rode it without any leakage. This intermittent leakage business is perplexing. I did buy a used set of brake lines off of eBay for $9.99. (New ones were about $150.00). So if I don't need em I'll hang on to em. Anyway once I get the fairing off the whole front end will be more accessible.

I bought the timing belts at Napa. $30 a piece instead of $80 each at the Honda dealer.

I haven't given up on the riding season totally yet. There might be the occasional odd day with temps above freezing at 7:00 am between now and the end of the year. But they'll be few and far between.

Always wear your gear

Always wear your gear