My First Motorcycle Ride of 2011

March 12, 2011 – First Motorcycle Ride of the Season

This is no big deal to those who don’t ride, but those who do, they understand. Today was my first motorcycle ride of 2011. There were some very strong winds, but it was warm enough to ride. The only snags other than the wind, was the pea gravel on the roads, serious chuck holes all over the back roads, and the mud in a friends driveway that I nearly sunk in. The bike now needs it’s first wash of the season as well.

I took my Honda Shadow Aero 750. These bikes have one major flaw and that’s that they are hard to start and keep running until they warm up. It was a little slow starting, but other than that, my no winter maintenance plan worked. There are recommendations for winterizing a bike, but I’ve found that just running them and trying to keep some fresh gas in them works fine. The Suzuki V-Strom didn’t want to fire right up as usual either, but with a little throttle while trying to start, she fired up.

For me and mine, it’s been a tough winter to say the least. The economy sucks and that’s about all I have to say about that. It was nice to forget about it all for a while and just enjoy the ride. I seen 2 hawks along the way, people were out in the yards, and stopped to watch some horses playing in a field. It’s been tough winter alright, but life goes on.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Honda parts are going to be harder to get for a while considering the earthquake/nuke meltdown/Tsunami/volcanic activity in Japan. That’s selfish of me to think that, but one has to wonder. About all that they haven’t experienced is a hurricane. My prayers go out to these people. Things like these really put hardships into perspective.