It's time to ride update

So far this year I've been out on Kimmie maybe three times.

Sunset - ignore the date it's a mistake

Over the last couple of days she would not start, a coughing spattering sound was heard as she tried to turn over.

Then yesterday....she started.

Susan elegantly stated "I guess the bitch doesn't like the cold."  I grumbled at both of them and started off down the road towards work, stopping to fill the tank with some high test gas and thinking that it probably would not hurt to either get a battery tender or other such device.  Being the geek I am I go internet diving for an answer but don't find anything that was truly helpful to me.

The ride was thankfully, uneventful.

Although I started to cramp up and my bike started to bother me on the way in.  Not so much on the way home.   I cursed myself, I've been off the bike to long.  I also wondered when the last time was I gave Kimmie a bath.

Bok Tower

I have plans for this year.  I hope to visit the Keys and Conchscooter.  I'm planning on possibly meeting Bill and Rocket sometime later in February.  I understand that David of  the infamous Life on two wheels blog  might be making a trip down my way as well.  I needed to be in top riding shape to keep up with these legends of the blogging world.

Rides are planned to Bok Tower, St. Petersburg and other places I've been to and visited but not by bike.  Other places I hope to revisit by bike again, or go for the first time.   Places like the Manatee viewing center and the Sunken Gardens.

Florida has a lot to offer if you know where to look, and little surprises when you look beyond the the corporate facades of Disney and Universal.

I promised myself I was going to get out more this year, and come hell or high water I was going to do it.  Now comes the hard part....actually doing it.

It's time to ride

I knew going into the month of January that riding would be an uphill battle.   Just the way the calendar fell with meetings, my job, routes that I had to run and other things would make getting out on Kimmie tough.  The cold snap and subsequent bout of winter flu I had did not make the situation any easier.

So here I am pouring over the forecast at weather.com like it's a proverbial treasure map, trying to determine if and when I can do any riding over the next three days.  The temperature was perfect today although there was a high chance of me getting wet going in.  Over the weekend the temperature would be falling but it appeared to be dry.

It was not so much the cold that scares me as the chance of rain.  Sure, I've ridden in rain before and this being Florida, I would again.  With a bit of a hacking cough and memories of my last accident still in my mind riding is less than ideal conditions concerns me.

It's funny how something that happened just over two years ago still plays in my head.  The accident exposed some other problems that I'm not going to go into.  It was nothing life threatening or overall that serious...but it did remind me that I am, in fact, mortal.  That little accident kept me off the bike till May.  Susan's ongoing medical issues have played into that as well.

In 2015 it was a combination of bad timing, bad weather, bad decisions that kept me off of Kinnie.  I was not going to let the new year start off the same come hell or high water.  Plus I wanted to build up to some longer rides planned for later in the year.  I needed to ride.

It's time to ride.

**EDIT**  I didn't get out Friday or Saturday due to previous commitments.  Now the bike is not turning over.   I'm hoping it's related to the current cold snap.

Bundling up because it's Antarctica outside (winter in Florida)

I knew that I would not be able to ride for a week or two at the beginning of the year.  We had routes to run and meetings to attend.

December and January have been thin months for me paywise due to the holidays and me missing some work.  So when the beginning of the week rolled around I was looking forward to jumping on Kimmie and doing my commute.  Only the temperature fell by 23 degrees overnight.  When I left for work it was only 47 F (8 C) and when I left work it was only 42 F (5.5 C).

I know I should not bitch.  After all my hometown was looking at a high of 12 F (-11 C).  I should be used to "fall like" conditions right?  After being in the south for six odd years my blood thinned out.  Days like this are a shock to my system.

So here I am, prepping like it's sub zero outside...freeze out jacket, freeze out gloves and I'm considering putting on my new neon yellow windproof and waterproof Bilt gloves.  I'm also thinking to myself how ridiculous I'm being.

"It's cool outside," I tell myself, " it's not Antarctica freezing."  Yet my soon to be 50 year old bones want me to bundle up.  I think about my fellow Rounders and how they must be having a good laugh about this.  However if I'm going to ride more this year, I'm just going to have to buck up and do it.

So I make it to work and back, the only part of me that got cold was my neck which a balaclava would fix and I have to curse myself for riding in anyway because I can feel a tickle in the back of my throat and it is that time of year.  We do have a Free Country jacket at the house that would protect the neck if I pulled the zipper all the way up, I've not worn it on the bike because it does not have any protective armor in it.  

I've ridden in colder weather than this and I remember pulling over sometimes at two in the morning to pull on a pair of sweat pants to protect my legs.  I didn't have to do that on Monday but it was still a brisk ride in and out of work.

The good news is that for the rest of the week it's supposedly going to warm up and make riding all that more comfortable.  Expect for Thursday where we are expecting (depending on which TV station you trust) a 70 to 100% chance of rain.

So hate mail can be sent to me at:

First ride of the new year

I had a couple of options Saturday, I had the chance to do a group ride.  A chance to meet up with an old friend for lunch.

Instead I decided to spend Saturday working on the house first, taking care of some business second and "taking a ride" was actually fifth on my to-do list.   One nice thing about waking up really freaking early on a Saturday is getting 1 - 4 done pretty early.

I left about 11:00 AM.  It's finally starting to feel like fall/winter in Florida as the sky's were overcast with a 15% chance of rain.  The temperature was about 62 degrees F (16.7 C) when I took off.  I did have a destination in mind...but was not really concerned about getting there.

Every Saturday Ybor City has a farmers market.  It's small and really not that interesting but would serve as a good excuse to point Kimmie's tires in that direction.  I have recently acquired a taste for hard cider from Cigar City Cider and Mead as well as being turned on to a little coffee shop called Joffrey's.  You can thank one of my work mates for that newest addiction.

I was also thinking about riding along Bayshore Boulevard, which would provide some wonderful views of both the waterfront and the city of Tampa itself.  I had my camera with me, and one of the goals I have for this year is to take more pictures when I am out and about.  There are just to many interesting pole barns and lonesome cows out there that need a little photographic love.

However I love Ybor.  I found myself wondering about on foot and finding some interesting little stores.  I ran into a friend from work and chatted with him for a bit.  A phone call from my brother meant that I soaked up the new warm winter sun for a half hour or so as we talked about my mother and his daughter.  I meandered over to the Ride Factory which I've been told has the best mechanics in the city.  Like nearly all dealerships they had mostly low milage Harleys in stock, but their bay was as big, or bigger, than their showroom floor.   There was a early 70's Honda on one of the racks looking like it was off the showroom floor.  Another bike, which the mechanic guessed was an early 1940's BSA, was being lovingly restored.  Frankly I could not take my eyes off it.


Sadly I had let time slip away.  I had to turn back, so I pointed Kimmie's wheel back north towards home.

That's okay though, it was a warm day now, the sun was at my back and I started back taking the long way.  I've been thinking about Ybor a lot lately because I've been kicking around a business venture in the area.  It's an up and coming area and their are parts of the city that can be had for a song.  If I and my partners do this right that is.  That however is another project, another song.

I pointed my wheels north and thought about how the New Year was full of promise...and what I would have to do to make those promises become fulfilled.

Riding Kimmie today was a good start, sadly starting Monday there was a damn good chance I would be off her for two weeks.   Ah, business..

End of the year milage post - Looking back on 2015

Later on today I'll fire Kimmy up, her "change oil" light will come on (it came on earlier this week), and I'll take her for a bit of a ride.  The last of 2015.

A friend of mine shared an animated GIF to his Facebook page (which for some reason I can not make work on Blogger - I tried) that shows his how his year went.  It started well, and as he progressed down the slide it got rockier, till at the very end (now shown as December) he rockets off the slide and face plants into the dirt.

Funny...but very accurate.

It's been another year of health concerns (not so much mine but Susan's), incidents, accidents and me complaining about the heat.  A gasket that literally had to come on a slow boat from Asia didn't help matter either. Nor did various battery/electrical issues.  All these things it seemed conspired to keep me off the bike.  Or at least made me feel like I didn't ride the way I have in the past.

Even though it's the last day of December the weather outside is gorgeous.  We're predicted to have a high of 84 degrees today (29 C) with only a 20% of rain, weather I know many of my fellow bloggers would die for.  I really don't feel like riding  We have had weather like that since the start of December, yet my Kimmie has sat, lonesome in her spot in my driveway.  This has had more to do with me not wanting to ride or being willing to ride than anything.

Earlier in the year I considered trading her in, thinking that starting a new relationship with a new bike would break me out of my malaise.  Or selling her altogether.  In the end though, I've formed a special little relationship with my Kimmie and letting her go would be like losing a part of who I am.

As I look back over the last year I know that I did a bit more than I thought I did.   I drove up to Brooksville and wanted to explore there a little more (another trip soon I think, this time on Kimmie).  I went exploring in Ybor, one of my favorite neighborhoods in Tampa.  I got to ride through the very heart of central Florida.  I even got to see a tiny house.  I even visited a legendary store in the Daytona area too.

Sadly however, not all these adventures were in the saddle.  Still though, they were adventures.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of Bobscoot and plan on showing him the sites, places that I've not made it to on my bike yet have visited in the past.  Places that I want to go but haven't yet.  So yes, I guess I'm looking forward to 2016.

Kimmie and I are not done yet, we still have roads to ride and sights to see, but I need to stop being the "whiny little bitch" that I've become over the last year.  There is great potential in the coming year...and I have to take advantage of that potential.

In a bit I'll ride for an hour, maybe two.   Another fifty miles or so will be added to her speedometer.  I don't see me putting any milage on that to her.  I'll come back in and duly edit to post, so I can have a record for the coming year.

Last year I started with 21736 miles (or 34,981 KM).  For the end of the year milage...it ended up being 26900.  Or only 5,164 miles for 2015.  About 1000 less than the year before.   Not good, not good at all.

Happy New Year then to all my friends and family.   Be safe, be well and be happy.

Speaking of the Holiday's

Copyright Sonja Mager

It's come to my attention that Scooterbob may be in my hands soon.   Which means that I have to start thinking about where to take him, and what to show him.  Some things are simple and truly make sense to me, Clearwater beach for example I'm sure he would have loved.  His trademark pink crocs would have fit in there.

When I first learned of Bob Leong's death all those years ago, I hate to admit that it did not really affect me that much.   Sure, Bob encouraged me in my riding and in my first attempts to be a moto-blogger, but I did not know that man personally.   My comments concerning his death were, I hate to say it, more out of kindness than any true sense of grief.

After all, I personally did not know the man or his family.   You never know how someone touches your life however, I've been following the adventures of this little wooden scooter around the world.  He's traveled to some 6 countries now and thousands of miles and I'm sure when the UPS box comes with that big wonderful soul in it, I'll tear up a bit.  Not at his loss but at the artifacts that make up his travels.   It's my understanding that somewhere along the way the tradition of placing a little memento began.  How many people had their lives touched by him, or a little wooden scooter, or both.

These memento's are something that defines the area that he's been to.  I wonder what treasures are from France, Germany, New Zealand and other parts of the world.   I wonder if he journey is complete yet?  Or are parts of mysterious Africa and Asia still on his list?

As some readers know my family has been having health issues.  My beloved Susan, my girlfriend for the last 10 to 12 years has been battling a plethora of illnesses.   Our combined family has lost two beloved uncles and an aunt in the last two months to heart ailments and dementia.  It has been a year of sadness.

Still though, we celebrate life.  We fight against the dying of the light to paraphrase Dylan Thomas.  We gather with family and friends this time of year to eat, drink and be merry.  To love and hope and do all that is perfectly wonderfully human.

It's a little late to being everyone a Happy Holiday Season (I have friends and family that are Jewish, Pagan and Christian so "Happy Holiday's" is more appropriate for me) but here it is.   Happy Holidays and hold on to those that mean something to you.

You never know when they are gone.

The arrogance of some dealers (and some local vandalism)

Before I begin this week's little rant I want to state one thing.  I'm not selling Kimmie.  I'm perfectly happy with my little scoot.

It's been a hard, long and tough week as we had had to deal with some ongoing personal issues.  So with some time to kill and absolutely nothing to do I decided to wander into two different dealerships to check out some models.

The first was the local Triumph dealership.  I like Triumph, to me when you think of what a motorcycle should look like, your looking at a Triumph.  It's all sleek lines and controlled power.  The Bonnie's are considered classics for a reason.

I've already decided that when the time comes to have a new bike I'll most likely buy the Honda 700 CTX but here I am at a Triumph dealer.  I throw my leg over the Bonnie, and....wait.   I don't wait long as a rather brusque older gentleman rushes over and starts to sell me.   Maybe he was an old salesman.  I've done sales too at various times in my life.   Sometimes you know when your dealing with just a "lookie lou."  Anyhow long story short I was dealing with him for less than 10 minutes when he's already shuffling me out the door.

A new friend of mine is pushing me to buy a Harley but I've no desire for that.  She's dangerous in a lot of ways since she rides without gear and I am Mr. ATGATT.  But lets put that aside for a moment.

Compare that experience to the one I had with my local dealership, Barney's.  I walk in and start chatting, I throw my leg over a nice Honda.  Again over a nice Aprilia.  We chat about local rides, about Maine.  30 minutes pass...then 50, and I realize that they have not tried to sell me yet.  We are bike people talking about bikes.

Guess where I'm going when the time comes.

Sadly where I live suffered a rash of vandalism.  I live in a quiet and safe community (okay, older community) and bikes are pretty common.  Mostly Harley's which are used maybe 3 or 4 times a year to go to special events or rallies.  You may hear the occasional low rumble of a bike being worked on but by no means is my neighborhood Hell's Angels central.  It's more Geriatric Angels central.

Which makes the recent vandalism all that more disturbing to me.  Someone poured paint over one of my neighbor's Harley's.

There is, of course, no excuse for this.  From what I understand they have an idea of who the culprit was and are taking the appropriate legal measures.

From what I understand the paint was water based so it actually did come off the bikes with proper cleaning.   Still though you hate to see anyone damage someone else's property.  The good news is that this damage was not permanent or hard to fix.

As I look at the photo though I can't help but wonder if any paint was poured into the gas tank itself.  That would be an issue.