Went for a ride yesterday......

[Guest]

I installed my new Pirelli Scorpion MT90 rear tire Sunday, and while doing that I discovered my rear brake pads were in need of replacement, so I picked up new ones at the local dealership (30 miles south) on Monday afternoon on the way to practice with a pit orchestra I'm playing in that's in the same town. Bear with me now, this is just a lead in to my story here.............I couldn't ride the bike to check out the new tire on Sunday or Monday, so, yesterday morning I installed the new brakes and put my cheap too small Chinese saddlebags back on, and went over to my son's house in my truck (it was pouring down rain) to help him install drywall. When I returned home in the afternoon I worked in my shop until about time to go south to Brainerd again for orchestra practice.

The sky had somewhat cleared up, only a little drizzle, and it was a balmy 44 deg. F so, I donned all my gear (fleece lined jeans, cotton t-shirt, hoodie sweatshirt, leather vest, AeroStich roadcrafter suit, down vest over that, my regular riding boots, baklava, helmet, and warm gloves), and set out for my ride to Brainerd. It was about 4:30 pm, traffic was pretty light, I rode rather gingerly on the new tire not doing any quick maneuvers or fancy cornering as I wanted to be rid of the mold release agents on the new tire. It rained and drizzled all the way down to Brainerd, the bike handled well, the roar I'd been hearing from the rear was gone, my old Pirelli was a slightly different size than my new one, I'd tried out a 130 radial instead of the bias ply 120, don't guess I'll use them anymore. As the wider tire wore down, it got noisier due to the unworn lugs on the corners (too much straight, flat road riding......note to self: gotta ride more of those twisty roads right out my back door.....), anyway, I got to the stoplight on the north end of the Baxter/Brainerd conglomeration, and as I was waiting at the light in the drizzling rain, a girl in the car next to me, in the left turn lane, looked over at me and gave me this incredulous look, wondering what this crazy guy was doing on such a chilly, wet day, on a motorcycle. I just grinned, gave her a thumbs up, she got out her handy cell phone, and was taking pictures as I rode away to my practice.

After the play practice was done, I dressed in all my warm gear again (everybody at practice was quite impressed too, or convinced that the bass player really is crazy), and rode home. The moon was peaking out from behind the clouds, it was down to 41 deg., the bike ran perfectly, grip heaters and fairing lowers are sure nice.........I followed a car most of the way home so if any of those four legged vermin with or without antlers ran out in front of me the car would get it first, and hopefully I could avoid it.

All in all, it was a nice ride, but I was the only motorcycle on the road, never saw another one either going there or riding home. Doing it again tonight, hasn't been raining today, should be an even better ride.

[67fire]

After living in NV, I forgot just how much fun it is to ride in the freezing rain.
Boy am I happy to forget!

Eric

[gbw]

Dan...thanks for sharing. Always nice to have a new tire and brakes. Sucks that its starting to get cold, but thats no reason not to ride!

[Redman]

Dan,

Yah, any ride that does not involve police or ambulances and the bike returning in same condition as went out is a good ride. Just got back from short ride myself (50degrees, looking like rain. Frost warnings yesterday, snow predicted in a few days).

Thanks for posting your story.
Pit orchestra, you say.
Bass player, you say.
On motorcycle.
Apparently this involves an upright bass, that is provided at the location.
Or is there more to the story that could be told?

.

[Skateguy50]

I will admit I have stopped commuting on the bike, but take it out for soccer on Wednesday nights. Last week was chilly and tonight is forcasted for 46, heated grips sounds pretty nice but its good enough just riding.

The only issue is I have to be extra careful not to hurt myself or the ride home could be hard. I rolled my ankle pretty bad a few months ago skateboarding and that was a long ride home.

[DanTheMan]

Dan,

Yah, any ride that does not involve police or ambulances and the bike returning in same condition as went out is a good ride. Just got back from short ride myself (50degrees, looking like rain. Frost warnings yesterday, snow predicted in a few days).

Thanks for posting your story.
Pit orchestra, you say.
Bass player, you say.
On motorcycle.
Apparently this involves an upright bass, that is provided at the location.
Or is there more to the story that could be told?

.

I'm playing my fretless bass guitar and leaving it in secure lockup presently, but next Monday I'll be driving my truck down to leave my Kay string bass there. This weekend and tomorrow night I have to use my Kay in the Heartland Symphony Orchestra for our fall concert series. I prefer to play it rather than the bass guitar, but until I can leave it locked up down there for the practices and performances (performances start next Thursday), I just use the bass guitar.
I haven't made a bass trailer for my bike yet, but it'll probably happen.

[bonanzadave]

Thats what ya get for living inside the arctic circle. Come on down south Dan. Its still a comfy 72 degrees. Oh wait, thats inside the Metro Dome. Go Viks ! Go Twins !

[spyug]

Nice story but I too was waiting to hear about lugging a stand-up base
Having a daughter who switched from cello to base around 10th grade and playing in a jazz orchestra all through school and university I'm very familiar with hauling those things around. Age 24 and she's still not driving and I'm still hauling the damn thing (but thankfully not so often).

I think you need to get a custom built "bass" trailer Now that would surely make for some good stories or at least a good pic or two.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Spyug

[Bigbri]

The moon was peaking out from behind the clouds, it was down to 41 deg.,

I feel like such a sissy. I had to put the liner in my jacket before I went for a ride late this afternoon. It was sunny, upper 50's here in Chicago. Beautiful day to ride. Worse, I scurried home before the sun went down.
Dan you are the Man!

Bigbri

[67fire]

Yesterday it was a high of 50 and I did see 4 other riders in 50 miles.
Even saw a couple on a H-D! I gave them a thumbs up as I passed them. (they were under the speed limit and I was "accidentally" over it. )
It was chilly. (fingers and neck)

Eric

[tkent02]

Go Viks ! Go Twins !

One out of two ain't bad!

[Buffalo Bill]

Fretless biker…

If you had your Bass guitar strapped to your back, it must have topped the whole site of you, so she had to get a pic. Unless she was actually holding a compact mirror.
What make of fretless do you use Dan?
Bill

[DanTheMan]

Actually, the bass guitar was already at the Arts Center waiting for me, I wasn't hauling it around this time. I normally strap it to my sissy bar on the passenger seat, it's pretty tall there but doesn't create a whole lot of wind resistance. I've got a fairly new Rogue that my wife bought me a couple of years ago, I had to put a taller nut on it, new strings and do a neck adjustment. It plays pretty well, but I still prefer my string bass.

[Ponderosa]

Chinook....

We have warm days here on the front range of Colorado in the middle of Jan sometimes.. And, yes, they will get you in trouble...

A Chinook is a downslope, westerly wind, it can warm temps up to 80' in the middle of winter Chinook-Snoweater...

One fine Feb day with the temps rolling at a balmy 77', my friends and I fire up the machines for a quick ride. Nice little 200 mile round to the foothills and back. We took off a little late, had to wait for one of our friends to finnish his Honey-dos, finally on the road at 10 am..

Awesome ride, hit our destination and stopped at the local pub for lunch, played pool for awhile, and about two decided we better hit the road. Walked out into a cold north wind, when I say north wind, I mean 50mph wind...

Most of us had light jackets, with heavier shirts in the bags, so we put on our heavy shirts and hit the road.. Within 10 miles we hit the snow, heavy and wet, blowing sideways, but the highway was just wet at this point and we poked along towards home. Somebody had turned the lights out within 50 miles from home, snow was sticking now, pulling over to the ermergency lane, dragging our feet through six inches of wet snow, stopping every half mile or so, and hovering hands over the engines for warmth! There was no place but open prarie to take refuge..Collldddd...

One of the riders thankfully lived 10 miles out of town on our route, he had a large shop we pulled our machines into and left them dripping snow and ice from the fairings/bags/trunks. Snow was still falling the next morning, we recieved over 16 inches that night. No one lost and fingers and toes, we were young, we all recovered, a little wiser. From then on we checked weather reports before, packed all our gear, and limited our winter runs to a fifty mile radius! Chinook, indian word for, fool the stupid white boys into riding their motorcycles....

[DanTheMan]

Hey, Ponderosa, I remember those Chinooks well. "Back in the day", I drove a wood products delivery truck from Littleton north on Tues & Thur every other week and south the other times. I got caught in one of those in Loveland, the State Patrol closed the roads and I had to overnight in Loveland. I almost didn't have enough money in my pocket for a cheap motel ($1.65/hr then), and the company didn't even re-imburse me, they didn't feel that they had to.