Winter riding....

After I read the paper this morning, I clicked  on the little bell on the top right hand side of the page that tells you that someone posted something on the pages that you follow, well this morning one was Women Motorcycle Enthusiasts.  It was about riding in the winter.  Yes, I have ridden my bike here in the northeast in the winter, I was born, raised, educated, employed, married, had children, in Brooklyn, NY.  We were 34,  before we made the move to New Jersey.  Culture shock indeed.

When I was a kid my Dad would take us to Gerritsen Beach, we would ride our motorcycles on the sand dunes, along the water, and on the track.  It was idyllic.  Until of course, the cops would come.....We rode there in the winter on Sundays, that was our family's version of church.  It was cold, yeah it was cold.  Growing up in the 1970's, they did all kinds of things to start to save energy, they switched around our school hours, and gave us a holiday week in February, cancelled school and called it "Energy Conservation Week", it was great, really, really great.  My Grandmother, Mor, would take Johnny, Kiki and me to the "Country" for the week, it would always be cold and snowy, we would ride our motorcycles in the snow, Mor would take pictures, and it was grand.  So I can say that, yes I have ridden in the winter and it was great.....

We even used to ride on New Year's Day, on our Chilli Chilly Ride.  But nothing has ever prepared me for the coldest ride I have ever been on.  I will say that it was not a long ride, maybe 20-25 miles, but I don't think that I have ever been so cold in my entire life, when I think about it now, still, it makes me cold.  So, here it is...I needed a rear tire on my 1984 HD Sportster XLX, yup that long ago, Anthony, my brother-in-law, had a tire from his bike that he did not need, because he put a fatter tire on his Wide Glide, Andrew and Anthony decided that the tire would work and that Anthony would put it on my bike.  We just needed to get my bike to him, so on a Saturday in December, I was to ride my bike from our house in New Jersey to Staten Island, not far, cross only one bridge, not far, not far at all.....Andrew would meet me there and we would go home together and pick up the bike when it was ready.  No worries...yeah no worries....   So on a very clear Saturday, with no chance of precipitation, tire was a bologna skin, I set off....I was dressed for this....or so I thought....  As I cruised up Route 535, then onto Route 9 North, I started to get a chill, then onto 440 I started to get cold, and by the time I was on the Outerbridge Crossing, I was freezing....I got off at Paige Avenue, cause I thought if I took the surface streets I would not be so cold, phew, yeah, right...nothing was right....it was wrong, wrong, wrong, plain and simple wrong....By the time I hit Cornelia Street on Hylan Blvd I had my hands practically on the exhaust pipes.  I was cold, too damn cold.

I finally understood, it hit me like a ton of bricks, I now knew why homeless people lit themselves on fire....  I was cold, cold, cold.  You can call me what you like, I never, ever, ever want to be that cold again.  I have not shied away from riding during the off season, but I cannot and will not ever subject myself to that again. 

So if I need to ride when it is a balmy 15 degrees out, I will put on the video of my ride on the Tail of the Dragon, put my helmet on, sit on my vanity chair, in the comforts of my family room in front of the computer and ride....nice, warm, and snugly....warm, maybe hot, yeah hot....

Hmmm......No Sleep till Brooklyn.......