Monday, September 21, 2009

End of the Motorcycle Season

Yesterday may have been my last bike ride of the year. This morning was gloomy and wet with snow being predicted for later this week. I should have gone on a longer ride. I wanted to use up most of the gas in the tank and I think I did that with about 180 miles on the odometer. Usually, I need to switch to reserve at about 200 miles. So tonight, I guess I'll drain the tank into a gas can for the snow blower and clean up the garage enough to move the bike to it's storage spot in the back of the garage. Kind of depressing. I still need to do some maintenance on the truck before winter so I may as well get enough cleaning done to move it into the garage as well. One of the blogs I follow is Redleg's Rides and his latest entries are about a Ural Sportsman he just traded his BMW R1150RT for. In case you aren't familiar with these, it is a Russian built copy of an old BMW with a sidecar and 2WD (the bike's rear wheel + the sidecar wheel). This should significantly extend the motorcycle riding season for him.

Last Saturday was the Equinox Marathon and I, due to lack of preparation, didn't enter. I had wanted to try and find a team to join but I didn't try very hard. Since I went to Barrow, my walking has really slowed down. Through most of the summer, I managed to walk just about everyday and now I am only about 150 miles from the next Nike+ milestone (3000 miles). I'm not sure what the incentive is now that I found out that mileage t-shirts are only available for the 1000 mile mark (and even those are usually sold out). All day Saturday, I was wishing that I had signed up for the marathon even though I know that I wouldn't have done too well. Actually, in all honesty, just like last year I would have been happy to just finish. Lately, my hips ached after running a short bit on campus and I believe that I need new shoes (again!). They sure don't seem to last very long. These only have about 4 months on them so that would mean about 1200 miles or so. They don't look that worn out but they sure feel like there is very little support of cushioning left in the sole. I seem to feel every step. Maybe that's why my hips are sore...

Tuesday Morning - Yep, little specks of white this morning. Not cold enough to stick but still to "iffy" for me to ride in. Besides, I actually did put the BMW away for the season in the back of the garage. I even cleaned up the garage enough to get the truck in. I still need to drain the gas tank on the bike but that is pretty simple since it is "old school" enough to have fuel petcocks on each side of the tank. In fact, one of the maintenance items on my list is replacing the O-rings in the valves.

No comments:

Post a Comment