Ride CT & Ride New England Serving New England, NYC and The Hudson Valley!
By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com
OK, maybe it’s still a little nippy and the snow crust hasn’t melted entirely, but this weekend has RIDE-CT believing that the riding season is here. The ice mound at the end of the driveway is gone and the clocks have been pushed ahead. Petcocks on. Time to ride again.
Taking that first ride of the season – assuming your bike(s) went into winter storage – requires preparation. I backed my 1994 BMW R100RT out of its space in the garage on Friday and attached the Battery Tender. An hour later, the charger was still glowing red, but I couldn’t resist the urge to try and start the bike. It took some coaxing but fire up it did, blowing clouds from the exhaust pipes – the result of condensation, I’m sure.
Eventually, the battery got charged. It’s now Sunday morning and the forecast is calling for clouds giving way to sunshine. A casual wipe-down, a check of the oil and tire pressure, a quick scan of cables and nuts and the RT will be ready to ride. It does need new tires and an oil change, but that can been dealt with soon.
It’s now time to text three friends to see if they’re up for meeting at 11 a.m. One more thing, the driveway needs to be swept and blown of sand and other winter debris. Nobody ever said prepping for a new riding season would be easy.
Afternoon update: The temperature never got above 44 degrees, but that didn’t prevent Carl Foster from Avon, Gary Randall from Harwinton and RIDE-CT from taking a 50-mile roundtrip ride to Toymaker’s Cafe in Falls Village for a late breakfast. We waited until afternoon before heading out and it really was quite pleasant. The RT got a gurgle of oil and some air in the rear tire before departure and it ran well. With only a 70-day gap since the final ride of the 2010 season, my riding skills didn’t seem rusty at all. So why did winter seem so damn long?
