Today it did hit about 13 degrees, so I was out on the road by 10am. Made it to Mussleman Lake:
…then hit Sibbald Point Provincial Park…
…then hit the top end of Woodbine Ave (where it turns into Lake Simcoe 🙂 ) and looped back home:
It was a beautiful day, nice and warm, and I got to travel on quite a few twisty bits of pavement. Though I’m exhausted now. Tomorrow I have to blast all the salty road grit off the bike again and store it for the winter.
It’s been a warm December, so even though I stored my bike 6 weeks ago, I decided to put it back on the road this weekend since it was supposed to hit 12-14 degrees C.
Got suited up and thought I’d loop from my place (Yonge + Eglinton) up to Musselman Lake and back:
I pulled off in a little lot somewhere on 9th Line to rearrange my jacket and pants and took this pic (not too good: from a cell phone)
A few minutes later I came to a stop at the intersection where 9th Line makes a quick right-left turn through Stouffville (which you can see on the map link). There was a fair bit of traffic on Main St, and I was making a right-on-red, but I saw a gap in traffic and made the right turn…
…and the back end of bike swung around to my left before I even had the clutch let all the way out and it pointed in the right direction!…
…one second later I’ve completed the turn and I’m slowly driving towards my next left turn with the clutch half-engaged and the engine revving. Yikes!
Dry flat pavement, no manhole cover, no road paint… just a bit too much gas, but it was about 3 degrees out. 100% my fault, and I can’t claim things sorted themselves out because of anything I did. Just enough time for my brain to register “Something Isn’t Right!!”… and my hands stopped where they were giving it gas and the clutch most of the way out.
I really really wasn’t giving it that much throttle (I don’t think) … but I learned my lesson.
Tomorrow, if my clutch arm isn’t still sore from the stop-and-go getting home on the DVP.. I’ll go out again… and be very very very careful
I’ve put just over 400km on the bike so far. Every ride I have jacket/helmet/gloves/boots/pants. Well, I sort of have on pants. If I can get them to stay up. I bought a set of Fieldsheer Titanium 2 Mesh Pants, but after 2 days riding on the motorcycle course and 1 day on the bike, one of the waist strap buckles let go:
So far the gear has worked fine. I’ve been caught in the rain once (bad planning), and had to turn back on one ride due to cold (I packed the liner for my jacket and non-mesh gloves… but forgot to put the packsack on my back before leaving, doh!).
So, gear review #1: Fieldsheer pants didn’t work out so well.. but maybe my pair were simply defective. Stay tuned…
Normally I fill my time by tinkering with computers, both at home and at work. But recently, after having my yearly review and finding out I’m employable for the next 12 months or so, my mind wandered back to some of the other things I used to do for fun. My mind has wandered back before… but this time the musings coincided with some use-it-or-lose-it vacation days. Days to actually go out an do something about it.
In University I had a toy: a toy originally bought from a close friend in Kenora and brought to me at Western in the back of my grandparents minivan (a long 2-days drive). My first bike: a Honda CB450S:
One day I wasn’t paying attention and a crashed it. Totally my fault, not in traffic, involving me, the bike, and a disagreement with about 20 feet of asphalt + concrete berm. The bike suffered a lot of cosmetic damage, and the forks were twisted in such a way the front wheel could barely move. I had on jeans, leather jacket and gloves and a helmet, and walked (stumbled?) away with nothing more than a healthy respect for motorcycles… …and a cast on my leg.
[Aside: people who drive motorcycles in shorts, T-shirt, flip-flops and an open-face helmet are insane, because a couple hundred in safety gear will let them walk away from (or at least survive) most common accidents. Maybe they think they’re saving money because it’s only about $20 for some Polysporin and bandaids and OHIP will cover the skin grafts and pain meds…]
Anyways, I sold that broken bike for my first CD burner and some cash. But every spring since then I’ve thought about getting another one. Actually, that’s not entirely true: the first couple years after the crash I thought the motorcycle industry was nothing more than a way to find organ-donors for people who obviously had a stronger will to live…. but my thinking changed with time 🙂
So, buy an Auto-Trader, scope out some deals, have my sister drive me to the outer reaches of the GTA to look at some prospects, and next thing you know:
It will take another week to take my M2 course and get ownership and insurance sorted, but then I’m on the road again.
And this time I intend to keep the shiny side up.