Does the "Gearing Up Saga" ever end?

A few days ago at work a buddy of mine asked me how hot I was wearing my jacket every day.  I explained to him that I just bought myself a new mesh jacket that allowed for better airflow, and that lead to a little discussion about safety in general.  How wearing a jacket or a helmet just becomes habit, much like putting on a seatbelt.

At this time if you are still reading then good for you!  Hopefully this is NOT going to be a "boring safety post."

Well  maybe a little bit of safety.  I am going to review my new mesh jacket and talk a little bit about my future plans for Kimmie.  All of which, strangely, seem to revolve around safety issues.  I've already done more "farkles" on Kimmie than I ever did on the Burgie.  I'm counting the new seat as a farkle even though it was not planned that way.

  Ten years ago if you would have told me I would have fallen in love with Motorcycling (actually I'm a Scooterist) I would have thought you were nuts.  Five years ago I was giving it some thought, for the same reasons I started riding.  To reduce my costs and make my life simpler.  To a great extent it has.  Sometimes I pull next to a bus or some other reflective surface and I find myself wondering who is that guy in the dark helmet, the new grey and black jacket wearing the heavy boots is.   I've come a long way from the guy in the half-helmet wearing a bright yellow spring jacket with no armor at all.  No gloves, no boots.  Riding my little Zuma 125 down twisty roads in the middle of the night.  So paranoid of being hit from behind I would pull off the road at night to let cars pass me.

Today, on a bigger machine, I wear proper gear most of the time.  I will admit that I've gone to work on hotter days sans jacket (one of the reasons I bought the mesh jacket).  Or I've had a meeting sometime in the day where I've slipped on my dress shoes instead of my boots.

Now that Sue is starting to ride with me, we have been looking at jackets and a new and better helmet for her than the old half helmet she wears now. I only bought my new jacket at her insistence (Yes I'm that cheap!).  It's funny how suddenly having a passenger changes things.  Suddenly the lighted license plate I toyed with buying takes on more urgency.  Installing a air horn becomes less of an issue and moves up the "to do" list.

Well I certainly find the light modulation kits annoying when I ride, I can understand why others have them.  I'm not sure if I'm willing to annoy other drivers yet by buying one.  I am not so worried about the personalization of Kimmie as I am about making myself and my riding partner safer.

It's funny how that works.  How something originally intended to get me from point A to point B cheaply became something more.  How it inspired this silly little blog.  How it's taken me further and now I want to share that...that feeling of joy I have when I just go anywhere.

See I told you there wouldn't be to much safety talk in this post.