My First Ride of 2006

[Gord]

March 28th dawned a bright and beautiful day here in my corner of Ontario. With forecasts of 6-8C today and tomorrow and a wonderous 13C on Thursday, I had my eyes set on riding for the first time on Thursday. But as I sat in my office today, watching the snow melt, the urge was just uncontrollable, so I checked the bike, geared up and headed out on my first ride.

Although not up to DJ's International Standard For Motorcycle Photography, here are a few pics I took of my first ride:

First, a view of the snow that is still blanketing large portions of my lawn:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948350-M.jpg

My RR pokes its nose out of the garage for the first time this year:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948353-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948357-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948359-M.jpg

I rode for only about 25 minutes today. Had to get back to the office for a meeting. But I did stop by the Barrie waterfront to check out the ice on Lake Simcoe:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948361-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948347-M.jpg

I wasn't the only one out enjoying the weather. An old guy was having a frustrating day fishing - not a nibble in about an hour he told me.

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948369-M.jpg

Time to saddle up and head back to the office:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/61948365-M.jpg

The forecast is for 5 straight days of rain staring Friday, so I am hoping to squeeze in more early season riding tomorrow and Thursday

[DarthRider]

Sure looks like a lot of shovels hanging in that garage...
Congrats on the break-out!

Dave

[DJ Down Under]

Great pics Gord.

Beautiful house,car,bike....and it looks like it was a beautiful day.

But geees..it looks cold....I hope you get more riding days in soon.

DJ

[Promethean]

Nice pics. Looks like they're pretty liberal with the salt up there. :)

[Ed K]

Great pics Gord! Brrrrr...looks cold... for us down "south" in the SF area!

Great sense of style in choosing the best color for an
RR. :icon_wink:

[Gord]

Dave - with all the snow we get (I live 5 minutes from a place called "Snow Valley"), you need those shovels. I have one for me, my wife and two kids, plus a backup. Strange how I am the one who uses them 95% of the time.

DJ - thanks for your kind words! I am just doing my bit to keep the wheels on the bus of the economy! I ain't 'fraid of no debt! So my bank loves me, and I live well to boot!

Abhijeet - yes they do make liberal use of salt and sand up here. I don't expect the road sweepers to be around for another month, so I do have to be careful on the sand getting out of my village and onto the main drags. Once there, the roads are fine - but the side streets can be hazardous until the spring rains and the sweepers clear all the left over dregs of winter away.

And Ed, it is actually much warmer than it looks. Mind you, I dressed for the cold. I have a fantastic pair of Alpinestar Drystar pants and with the lining zipped in, they are plenty toasty. Yesterday I wore my Alpinestar Airflow jacket with its lining in and it was plenty warm too. Today, I did put on my Black Jack Electric Vest under the jacket, but did not plug it in (I have never had to plug it in so I am not sure it even works!). My biggest problem was not the cold on my body, but my breath steaming up my glasses and my visor. I guess I was breathing too hard! :icon_redface:

Here a couple of pics my daughter took of me as I headed out for a ride at 11:00 this morning:

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/62091035-M.jpg

http://r1150r.smugmug.com/photos/62091036-M.jpg

[Ed K]

Gord, Have the same problem with my glasses steaming-up at least at slow speeds... wait pain...

[Acacia]

Glad you up country bumpkins are getting out to ride again. Nice to smell the Spring air and fresh skunk roadkill!

Weather this passed WE in TX was great! Sat morning I decided to go for a short day ride. Left at 5.45 am -temp was 34F so it was for us a little chilly - Gerbings did its job - got back at 7.15pm -60F. Watched some 4 hours of motorcycle racing at Cressen, West of Fort Worth as well. Returned via the top of the TX Hill country.

LEO's were out in force - my radar detector was chirping most of the day - every band plus laser - and signalled me in time to be good!

Total milage for the day 609 Miles. Getting ready for the PAGAN Hill Country Ride next month!!

[Gord]

Left at 5.45 am -temp was 34F so it was for us a little chilly - Gerbings did its job - got back at 7.15pm -60F.

Holy Crap!!! From 34F to -60F all in one day!!! You Texans sure are tough hombres putting up with that!!

:icon_wink:

[Acacia]

Yes, no. Its just the way we write here - right? Or is it how Canadians read/write -right? :)


I am sure you would get the wind-chill calulations right (35F at 80mph---) - we at experts at heat exhaustion in summer.

[Gord]

Or is it how Canadians read/write -right? :)

We can only write when the wax in our crayons thaws. And to read, we have to take our mitts off. So when it is is frikkin cold (like -60F), we can't read.