Because the local township couldn’t wait to get out their winter salting toys
I'm Done For The Season - It's Too Cold!!
- Thread starter EllenGtrGrl
- Start date
EllenGtrGrl
Active member
Riding out of necessity in cold weather - how I remember doing that when I was an early 20-somthing attending college, wearing crappy, cheap cold weather gear to boot, an open face helmet, and not having heated grips (I was riding a dual sport Honda 250). What was I going to do though? My cycle was my only set of wheels, I lived at least a mile off-campus from school, and I sure didn't want to be a slave to bus schedules. As a reult of that experience, I actually tell people that " the days of having to freeze on a motorcycle because it's my only set of wheels, are over!"
BTW, semi-knobby tires aren't much use, when a serious snowstorm is in progress. I did my first two years of college (my late teens to 20 years old) at a local junior college (I transferred to the University of WIsconsin for my final years of college), living at home to save money. One mid-March day in 1984, I decided to commute to school on my XL250R, since temps were in the mid 40s (all of the snow had melted off of the ground), and no highway riding was involved (hence no mega cold wind blast). I finished up my classes for the day, and went out to the parking lot to make the trip home. By that time what looked like rain the last time I'd looked out a window several hours previously, was a major snow storm! I remembered being caught out in 2 inches of snow once before on my motorcycle, and the squirmy/squirrly handling I'd had to deal with then. Also, it didn't help that it had sleeted before it changed over to serious snow. I didn't want to deal with those conditions on a ride home. So how did I get home? I pushed the my cycle 1 plus miles home!
I had to take it slow (even walking [much less while pushing a motorcycle] was slippery at times), and I had to take a roundabout route to avoid risking pushing the bike up a steep hill. As it was, when I got home, I had to leave my Honda on the parking pad alongside of the house that my parents used to park their camper on in the warm weather months (when it wasn't in storage), exposed to the weather, because the slope on the driveway ramp to the garage was too steep to push a motorycycle up in icy conditions. My mom was relieved to see me, since I had not been home by the time she got home from work (she was a lab technician at a medical clinic), and was worried how I was going to get home, due to the relatively sudden change in weather for the worse (I hadn't called asking for a ride).
EllenGtrGrl
Active member
Yeah I forgot about that. And I bet like my grandma's second husband (who drove plows for the county in the winter), they probably looked forward to all of that ridiculously high overtime pay they got (I remember Felix coming late to the family Thanksgiving dinner, and crowing about all of the mega overtime pay he'd just earned for plowing during a light snow storm).
cupcake_mike
Active member
My 1125 was about 500 miles away from a big service (valve adjustment, oil change, front tire) so I took advantage of the 75F (but windy) day yesterday in Kansas. I rode 520 miles round trip to deliver some small parts to a guy that needed them (spent $30 in gas rather than about $5 in shipping costs).
We aren't the most rational bunch, are we?
The FTR is around 500 miles from its next service...hopefully, get that knocked out before Christmas. Kansas is good about sprinkling in a reasonable riding day every few weeks during the winter.
We aren't the most rational bunch, are we?
The FTR is around 500 miles from its next service...hopefully, get that knocked out before Christmas. Kansas is good about sprinkling in a reasonable riding day every few weeks during the winter.