I was beginning to lose faith that Spring would ever arrive, here in the mountains of northern NM. It's been four months! since I've ridden, but today, God must've figured He'd tested my patience long enough, cuz we have here a most magnificent Spring-like day, sunny and dry dry dry dry dry!, temps in the mid to upper 50's!

The muddy, soggy, rutted, at times impassable dirt road that I have to negotiate is also, finally!, DRY. So I moved my bike up to a neighbor's property for parking under my BikeBarn, and this alone will eliminate the absolute worst parts of this road, and today - who could've believed it just a few short days ago - I got to ride.

The battery had, finally, died after four months of no use and no charging, and cold outdoor storage, so I brought it indoors a few days ago and charged it up, then put it on the battery tender for a couple more days, then left it unplugged over night to make sure it was holding its charge. Put it back into the Swing this morning and vrrrrrrrooooom! it cranked right into that purrrr we like so much.

Cleaned up the bike, checked and filled the tires, listened for any untoward noises (none to be heard), and off I went, just like winter had never happened.

Rode the nice and easy 30 miles into town, went to the gym, and rode on back, cruising through this gorgeous day with a bit of a smile on my face, but more than that, a nice warm feeling of being, literally, "back in the saddle again".

The bike performed just like it has been Spring all along, never missed a beat, never complained, happy to be out on the road, viewing those still-snow-covered mountains in the distance.
Halleluia!

So today is officially Spring here in my neighborhood, regardless of what the calendar says. Riding season has begun! Of course, it can snow in June around here, and the next couple of months are still iffy, but I've been given the gift of the ride. It almost does seem like winter never happened.

What!??? Am I Crazy!???...............................................

Yep, it's springtime in Texas too!

Right/Ride On!

It will be at least the first week in April before anyone is riding around here .
We are expecting more snow today . You are lucky ,I have not ridden since
September . I am happy for you

Wow. Sounds like you get to ride only about 5 months of the year. Ouch.
Makes me count my blessings.

Stay warm anyway, and remember, April is now just around the corner!

We get about five months here ,and then we sometimes do a month in Florida Feb or March.We can usually ride here into Nov so
it is not as bad as it sounds at first glance.
We plan on a week next Nov buy towing south until it is warm enough to ride . In your logo it says insole pads in gloves .What do you mean buy that ?

It's for vibration reduction. I got the idea from someone else on this, or another forum, and it's the inexpensive option to buying gel pad gloves, and it works really well too:

buy the cheapest shoe insole pads you can find (like the generic version of Dr. Scholl's), and cut roundish pieces that will fit nicely inside your riding gloves in the palm area - get the right size and placement for you before you glue them in - then glue them in there. I think I used just a common glue stick and it's worked fine.
You want to leave the lined side of the pad against your hand, of course.

It really helps reduce hand vibration from the bike, and in combination with something like grip puppies virtually eliminates any troubling effects.

I'm glad to hear that you get to ride more than I thought.
And best thoughts and prayers for your speedy recovery from your upcoming surgery.

Thanks for the idea Bill, even though I didn't remember it was yours.

The best thing that I found to eliminate hand fatigue is electronic cruise control
It is beyond a doubt the best add on there is for me any way .

Matthew,

It is nice to ride for those of you that can't during the winter. Since I moved to California about 14 years ago I have gotten used to riding all year around. Here is a picture of our last group ride a week ago.

Hey JeffR

Having lived in California - in and around Santa Cruz - for about 9 years before coming to NM 20 years ago, those rolling green hills in the picture seem familiar. I'm only a little jealous of your year round riding, and this winter especially has been the wettest and most difficult in the past 18 years around here. Since I only took up riding three years ago, this has been my third winter, and by far the worst.
Last two winters I could ride most of the time, even if it was cold, but not this year.

Ride safe.

Was able to get a short 160 mile ride in today. Kim on her SilverWing and two bikes joined us. It was brisk, but tolerable. Tomorrow will be warmer by a few degrees, but I have too much work to dao after church so will have to pass on riding tomorrow.

The ride today was more a pretext to wash the bikes and get them ready for the season. Glad to have the bath out of the way.

Hey Dale

You folks don't have winter down there in AL do you? But I see you DO have identical Swings. Ride safe.

Now I've ridden three days in a row, so if I had any doubt about Spring actually having sprung here, I guess I can feel more confident now. Yes, we'll get some more cold weather, and probably some more snow too, but I'm thinking it's all bluster at this point, without a whole lot of umph. (May it be so!)

Hey Jeff I think I reconize that pull off in the picture. What road is that on.