spring has rung in the new year, so who did what, and where did you ride.

i made a 75 mile ride along the columbia river here in washinton state. it was nice.

here's how thumper looked with new tail light and pillon seat.  ok it's just a piece of leather covering the holes. but the fender would support a 98lb biker babe  

Went for the first ride of the season last week. It was easy as pie getting back on the horse so to speak. I wasn't sure since this is just my second season of riding my own.

The night before, I put the bike back together after having her in pieces over the winter. It was satisfying to clean, polish and put everything back into place. Felt like I was bringing something to life. Once my baby was back together, I turned the pet-c-o-c-k to prime, pulled the choke, turned the key and vrooom she started right up. Ran her a few minutes and then said goodbye for the night. Hard to sleep that night anticipating RIDING.

The next day, I wanted to go for a ride immediately but duty called and I had to take care of some things first. Got out about 3 pm. Was a little nervous at first -- would I be awkward or would everything come back. Oh boy, everything came back! Took it easy for the first 30 miles or so -- had to run a few towns over to return some tile we'd borrowed anyway (re-doing our bathroom at the moment). Hardest thing in the first part of the ride was finding a safe way to park the bike in the tile store's parking lot! Small lot on a steep hill...

Had another errand to run. Stopped by the local repair shop and got my bike inspected (required annually in PA and mine was expired). All was in order and I was soon on my way.

From there headed out on one of my favorite short back country twisty runs. Hilly, wooded, twisty. Part of it runs alongside a stream. With all the rain I wanted to see how the stream was faring.

I easily fell into the joy and rhythm of riding. Remembered all the important stuff. Watched the road for gravel and sand. There was plenty from all the rain. The stream had doubled in size from the rain and was beautiful. Grass was starting to turn green. Crocuses were out.

Stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things and had a woman ask me about the bike. She said it was beautiful and she would love to try riding but is too scared. Told her about the MSF course (its free in PA) and encouraged her to just take the course. Great way to see if you like riding or not. Felt good to be an ambassador.

All in all it was an amazing ride. Rode for over two hours. I went a little over 100 miles and was able to put lovely fresh gas in my tank for just over $3. Life is good!  8)

Saturday was 70+ degrees here so I'm not sure it was a Spring ride or not. My Daughter, Stevie, & I rode to Fort Walters in Mineral Wells, (Texas) lots of twisty roads between my place and the Fort. The Fort is closed and now an industrial park so we almost had the road to ourselves. Rode inside there for over two hours then back out 180 East towards home. Turned off at Garner, Texas to get back on the twistys, and home, rode for about 4 1/2 hours. Tired but happy. Stevie then rode home, another 30 minutes of country roads. We had a great outing. Yesterday, I talked my hubby into installing my new saddlebags so am in business with a place for my "Stuff". I went back in archives for tips on installing and want to say thanks to everyone who shared tips. He installed them & the brackets in less than an hour and didn't even mumble about that "darned" motorcycle. Without your help it could have been a disaster. Since then the wind has been gusting 35-40 miles an hour, which doesn't make for a fun ride so am waiting for it to settle before going out again.

It seems most people on here are seasoned riders?? am I right? I dont have a car licence, so for the past 6-7 years have been riding 'all weather'. which isnt too great in the UK. somtimes it rains so hard I cant see out my visor (on my ZXR,750). Wet arse all the time from rain, wet feet, wet and sore/frozen hands (even in good gloves) I think most people here are all weather riders, we only get a few weeks on sunshine really in the summer so would be a bit of a waste for us. I guess that all you people in the states (sorry US) get good long summers? I would love to ride in the US somtime in the future, My dad when he was 19 or 20 rode from Mexico to Canada on a triumph 350 (cant remember the model name) that was a two stroke!!! He did have at least three new pistons and ring sets but hey... I can dream about the day I have the money to do as he did (much bigger bike tho )

Sorry again this habbit of bableing on, My question was are you all summer/seasoned riders only?

Hey Brit dude,

at least in Chile, we get only 2 months of winter weather, June and July,   when it usually rains a lot, you can still get showers from late April to early September,   but it's mostly dry except in the 2 months above. 8)
So we Chileans ride an average of 320-340 days per year,  8) not bad, eh?  
Take care,

RW

Sorry keyboard a bit rubbish... Sluggo (sorry to ask this in a different subject than to this thread) but where did u stick the rectifier when u did ur solo seat conversion? Im having trouble finding somwhere cheers!

LondonThing wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:04:
If you look at The Map you'll see that about 1/4 - 1/3 of us are in the Sun Belt and can ride comfortably all year long.
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You can ride a bike but can't drive a car.  Hurrumph.  Here in the Colonies we have to get the car license first and then pass an additional test for the motorcycle.
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Not quite border to border, but I did ride a Suzi GS450E from Los Angeles to Seatle and back in '81 or '82.  I also rode a Honda 500 (the water-cooled V-thing) for 5 weeks in 1983 in England, Scotland, and even (momentarily) Wales.  Bought the bike at a dealer in London, sold it back to the same dealer -- cheaper than renting.  Can't remember bothering with insurance or registering.

Mine's finally almost ready to roll.  No more pix until it's done...

Last night I finally crafted a bracket to mount the rear turn signals to the license plate mount.  I need to bolt that on tonight and snake the wiring back in.

I also sanded down the battery case and primed it.  One more sanding and priming, a few coats of black lacquer and it goes on this week end, I hope.

My GTS seat mounting is done and just needs a couple nuts to finsh that off.  I did a variation of Odin's method.

After that, a real good washing and waxing, and a ride over to The Rice Paddy to have the Metzeler ME880s mounted and balanced.

Future hacks over the summer may include removing the belt guards and painting or covering the rear belt wheel.  I saw one guy's site where he painted the black paint over the spoke on the back gear with metallic aluminum paint and it looked real sharp.  Also the handlebars are a little taller than expected, if back issues, carpal tunnel issues or handling issues arise, they might get the axe.