Upper 20's into work this morning

The street outside my house looked like white velvet under the street light. I crossed my driveway and scuffed my boots across the fuzzy white surface to see if it was slippery. Although it looked intimidating, it felt like bare pavement.

I decided to give it a try.

The temperature was in the upper 20's when I rolled my bike out of the garage and started it up. Although we had a little bit of freezing fog during the night, the mist had dissipated and I could see stars overhead. My pre-dawn commute would be the first of the week; I had errands each day that demanded use of my car. I flipped my visor down, squeezed in the clutch, dropped it into first gear, gave it some gas and began to roll forward.

It barked far worse than it bit. Although I rode gingerly until I got to the main highway -- which is sprayed with de-icer -- I never lost traction or felt like I was about to. Once I was on the main highway westbound I knew I was in the clear.

There was an east wind in town that actually warmed things up several degrees. When riding, I can feel even minor temperature differences. The only part of my body that was cold was my cheekbones from the air swirling inside my helmet. Once at work, I dismounted and walked around the dark exterior of the office building and unlocked the front door and entered the warm lobby, ready for another day's work.

28,000 miles

I rode to work today, after being out sick. I very rarely get sick, but when I do I try to get the rest I need to heal quickly rather than work through it. That approach accomplishes two things: makes the illness last longer, and gets my co-workers sick as well.

I heal quickly and felt well enough to ride today, the only dry day of the week. My bike is still filthy from the trip I took to Long Beach two weeks ago. I gassed up the bike and noticed that I was getting really close to rolling over 28,000 miles.

I'll hit that milestone about halfway home after work today. The bike has been rock-solid and given me nothing but smiles.

Rare January commutes

I'm able to ride to work three days this week. Lately it's not been a matter of weather that's led me to commute in my car, it's been a matter of errands while at work that require a car as well as simply being too tired to ride. I tend to get up pretty early and sometimes I'm just not awake enough to ride safely.

That's one of the biggest tenets of motorcycle riding ... riding within your limits. It not only means staying within a reasonable speed for your skill level but also within your own physical and emotional limits. Don't ride angry. Don't ride tired. Don't ride distracted.

Muggy commute

It's been very hot in recent weeks, setting records in fact, and I've opted to drive my air conditioned car rather than ride my motorcycle and risk passing out from heat stroke by the time I reached my destination. Yesterday it cooled down enough that riding was feasible and desirable.

I wore my Draggin Jeans and had a comfortable ride into work. Needing to run an errand downtown, I took a long lunch and met a friend for teriyaki and then took care of my errand before riding back to work. By the time I got back to the office I was sweating inside my Aerostich.

When it came time to leave there were rain drops on my windshield although not enough to matter. It was a dry ride home but muggy.

It was raining by nightfall and still raining when I got up this morning. Rain doesn't bother me that much so I intended to ride to work, but the forecast high was 75 and the idea of increased mugginess was very unappealing to me. So I wussed out and drove the car to work instead.