Early Spring Sunset

Stopping somewhere on a road to take in an early Northwest spring sunset.  In the northern hemisphere another winter season has been put to rest again. Spring is the door to warmer weather with all the beautiful colors emerging soon. 

I hope you view it with your kickstand up.

God's speed.

Struggling with the Weather and the Whether

The last few mornings the weather has been unstable.  At our house we've had a mix of snow and rain.  Last night we had some snow flurries along with some rain which gave this morning a thin coating of ice and light crunchy snow on most everything.

I had a breakfast scheduled this morning with a couple of friends at 9:00.  Knowing that today's forecast was to be sunny and 45 (F), I did the usual checking the outside temp on the house thermostat and looking at the current conditions online.  Then I looked outside and saw the ice but it didn't look too bad.

Then the little voice from the area around my left shoulder whispered in my ear, "You can ride anyway. Don't worry, it'll be okay.  After all, by the time breakfast is over it'll be sunny and warm and everyone will be riding."  Then the voice from the other shoulder whispered, "No, it's too icy and there's too much risk of going down and scrapping up the bike."  Then the other voice said, "But you can go slowly where you need to.  Go ahead it'll be fun."

Do you ever have this "discussion" in the morning?  Struggling with the whether... that is the whether to ride? 

In the end the voice from the right shoulder won out.  I'm glad I didn't ride because the roads were worse than what I was hearing from my left ear.  Of course hearing voices should be reason enough not to ride. 

I didn't really hear voices but the struggle really happened.

Safety should always rule the day.

God's speed.

Rusty Rotors

This morning was a beautiful sunny morning in an almost constant overcast Northwest.  The big yellow ball in the sky was a welcomed old friend. Not riding since last Saturday gave me a strong hankering to ride today.

Our oldest grandson had a basketball game this morning.  Everyone piled into our 4Runner with Amber at the helm which allowed me to take the Beemer.  As I was putting my gear on I noticed rust on the rotors - a telltale sign of stagnate steel.  A bothersome discovery that put my lack of riding lately in perspective.

Our grandson's team hasn't won a game yet this season.  It's not because of a lack of trying or not practicing hard, they've just been playing teams that are better.  Nope, there's no rust on his team.

When I decided on the title of this quick post it made me wonder if there's actually someone with the name Rusty Rotors.  I know, that's kind of a strange thought but believe it or not there was a guy at my junior high school named Russell Sprouts.

May your rotors not gather any rust.  Go forth rust free.

God's speed.

Tire Change Reflections

Last night I posted this photo with a very short write-up then decided to delete it. The trouble with doing that is Blogger doesn't delete it from the blog lists of others.

Next Friday it will be a year since the truck arrived at our house with the Beemer. I've put 14,000 miles on it this year. When I got the bike it had a little less than 12,000 miles and the previous owner had just installed a new rear tire. In the last couple of weeks the tire had worn through the wear indicators. Since I plan on making a trip to Southern Oregon next week I figured I needed some fresh tread.

I bought my tire online from my favorite motorcycle supply house, which happens to be in Oregon. The tire was waiting on my porch the next afternoon. Wednesday afternoon I stopped at the nearby Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki dealership to work out the installation. They wanted to check out the rear wheel to make sure it would work on their balancer. Everything check out okay so I told him I'd call Thursday to make the arrangements.  Before I left I popped a couple of shots of the FJR next to me. I'm pretty sure some people in the service department thought I was weird to take several pictures of the side case of an FJR waiting for its owner. I just thought it was a Kodak moment.

Here's where the glitch came into play on the tire thing. Wednesday was a nice day with high clouds but Thursday was clear and sunny and very beautiful. This caused anyone with a motorcycle to call the dealership and want their bike worked on for the upcoming beautiful weekend. The service department was slammed and he said it would be two weeks before they could look at my bike. Wow, things change fast when the sun comes out.

So this morning I strapped my tire on the bike and rode to the BMW dealer across town by the airport. It's first come first served so I made sure I was first. Actually I was the only one. An hour later I was back on the road.

Before I left, a man and a lady each pulled up on 1200GS's. His bike had two new tires strapped on the back. I couldn't help but notice that the two tires on his bike looked okay, so after he went inside I asked her about the tires. She said that they were cupped and because they're leaving for Alaska in a few days they need replacing.  They're both tour guides for trips from Portland to Alaska. We spoke for a while before she gave me her card. The company is MotoQuest and the trips look very interesting. It's not necessary to have a dual sport bike because they have all sorts of tours. Maybe someday.

While I was waiting for the shop to open I couldn't resist another reflection shot with the FedEx truck.

What's In Your Weather?

So far this week I haven't been riding much. I'd like to officially blame it on false weather information but the truth is most of the blame falls on me, as it should. Here in the Northwest where the jet stream enters the country our weather conditions are hard to predict, thus weather forecasters aren't always right.

Even with the sophisticated satellite information now a days, sometimes the best data gathering methods are people and experience. I remember years ago when I was a salesman in the restaurant industry I made a weekly call on two sisters who owned a coffee shop in St. Helens, Oregon. One Monday about this time of year they both told me that by the following Monday we'd have snow. Since it wasn't near cold enough and we don't usually get snow in November and the weather people weren't saying anything about snow, I told them no way is it going to snow. I'm glad we didn't put any money on it because sure enough within about 4 or 5 days we had snow. When I went back the following Monday I asked them how they knew. They said all you have to do is watch the elk. When they start coming out of the mountains and start feeding on the grass then you know the weather is changing. So I guess we can pull the plug on the expensive satellites and watch the elk as our ancestors did.

Each day this week brought predictions of some kind of adverse weather for the next day. Either high winds or large amounts of rain or both. Monday I rode the bike and just about got blown off the bottom deck of the Marquim Bridge. No problem, it was a good riding day but I noticed there weren't too many other bikes out. The forecast for Tuesday had heavy amounts of rain for Portland and Vancouver but it didn't materialize. There was one brief downpour in Vancouver but other than that it would have been a good riding day. Same thing for the trip to Eugene yesterday; a downpour south of Portland but it was blue sky and sunny when I arrived in Eugene. It also would have been a good riding day, although a little gusty.

Today I chose not to ride due to predictions of high winds but it would have been okay. When I got home I hopped on the bike and went to the store. Three non-riding days in a row produces some kind of poison that develops in the bloodstream. I think.  Anyway it's bad for you, it has to be because riding is good.

And here's what Mt. Hood looked like this afternoon. It's hard to see the elk but they must be there somewhere because there's snow all over it.

I would like to hear about your method for determining whether you ride or not. I realize some choose not to ride this time of year and that's understandable. Some will only stop riding if there's snow or ice, and others live in areas where weather is not a factor.  But if you still ride and are in an area with adverse conditions, does the weather report play a big factor in the decision to ride or not? And a second question is where do you get your weather information? Because the elk method is looking pretty good right now.

Riding and thinking; sometimes.