Glad I Was Out (aka Winter Marches On...)

... and I do mean winter ... woke up to this crazy white landscape again, with a thick crust of compacted ice and slush beneath and 3 inches of the fresh stuff on top.

I am really glad I got so many March riding days in - rode every day this past week, even did a short WI border run.

Ah well. All this snow will be done & done soon enough. For right now, it's time to enjoy the snow with a warm cup of something by a crackling fire.

Wishing a Happy Easter to all.

No Saying No

OK, so I got done with the work day and I needed to ride... it's freezing outside and more snow is forecast, what's a guy to do?

Find a twisty, snow-lined road and... well... RIDE, of course. :-)

Out to the river valley we rode, Sunshine and I, freezing my ass off but hell, it was worth it and nice to dip into some twisties again and feel the rush of the bike and the ride.

Made it. Frozen numb. Life is good.

More Cold, More Snow

So I've been out riding, almost every rideable day between several snowfalls and excluding only those sub-zero days where I didn't feel safe out on the frozen meltwater.

But this spring seems to be going in the wrong direction. It's actually getting colder, not warmer, and there's more snow on the forecast for this weekend.

I really was hoping to get a March road trip in, a couple thousand miles to loosen up and feel the ride again and really spend some quality 'bike time', but I'm not sure that's going to happen any time soon...

Bummer.

Roadtrip Weather?

Still March, still snowing (yesterday the morning was a white winter wonderland again), but I'm getting geared up for a long road trip anyway.

Trying to stay warm is my biggest concern. I can work around bad roads and bad weather...

Looking forward to it.

Mountains of Snow

Sometimes, just the sight of the snow all around me makes me wonder, what the hell am I doing out here...? It's still cold. Really cold.

But I just had the good folks at Midwest Cycle do some basic service as well as mount some brand spanking new Michelin Road 5's on Sunshine, and I just want to get that "new tire slime" worn off as soon as possible.

Or at least, that's the excuse I used to get out here and ride!

The reality is, I just feel like life in motion is better than life standing still, at least it is now. I can think better, breathe better, and express myself better in motion than standing still.

Everything that was in flux with both my parents at the start of summer last year is still going strong, amplifying and demanding more and more of me, in every respect. Both my mom and dad are quite elderly, and both are slowly but surely closing in on that final appointment with "the great mystery" as their bodies and minds fail them. It's hard to watch, but that's life. Getting old is hard.

All the more reason why I'm out here. To live.

Getting old is inevitable, but living life to the fullest is something we have to choose to do (or not do), moment by moment.

I choose life.

Winter Riding and the COLD

OK, riding again even though the air temps are still hovering in the 30's.

Now that I know how to watch my tire temps, and I know to avoid making any sharp or "friction-demanding" maneuvers until the tires have had a chance to warm and soften, I actually feel pretty comfortable crossing short ice and snow patches, riding confidently, and keeping my mind focused on the road and hazards and, well, basically staying upright.

Road to a coffee shop today for the first part of my work morning, and the one aspect that riding in winter cannot easily avoid - the COLD of the wind blowing across your body at 60+ miles per hour.

That wind chill just bites through my many layers and my winter gloves and nips at my bones after any longer amount of time spent riding. So, even though the asphalt isn't ice-covered and the flakes aren't flying, just the bitter bite of winter keeps my rides necessarily shorter than I'd like.

Still, it's nice to be out riding in March in Minnesota!

After 3 long snowy cold months...

... it's finally here, on this early March day - the ice and snow have finally started to give way and I could see and smell the early signs of spring.

It's still freakin' cold (30's and 40's, with more ice and snow in the forecast for tonight). Really it's too cold for any kind of long rides... but for a couple hours around town with my full winter kit on, I figured I could manage it.

Anyway, with "that much" asphalt finally showing through the snow and ice-covered roadways around here, I decided to make it the first riding day of 2018. The riding is fine, just have to be careful. There are a bunch of meltwater puddles that are really quite deep, some obscuring a thin layer of ice still underneath. The potholes are out of control, though not as bad as some years. Also a lot of the shady spots (behind buildings/garages and under big trees) are still sporting a thin veneer of glare ice.

Everywhere I go, big piles of snow still dominate the neighborhoods around Minneapolis, but what the hell, I'm out and it's an awesome first day of riding... Everything I remember about riding my first year came back to me in a flash. Having low-sided in November due to too cold tires and a total lack of awareness about tire temps, I am riding and being especially careful about keeping my tire temps up with extra maneuvers and engine braking, and also making sure that I take every corner less aggressively and with smooth control of power. 

A couple of rides through unavoidable "snow patches" here and there gave me a pretty good test of my confidence as a new rider, but I kept the bike upright and fishtailed my way through them without incident.

I just love riding - glad to be back.