Last night at about 10pm, 7+ hours into a 2 hour ride, it hit me that my ass didn't hurt.
That made me happy. I could forget about having to find $300 for a Corbin seat! I was also pretty happy with the CBR250’s headlight, it really is pretty good. No big need to spend money improving this part of the bike since I don’t plan on doing much riding at night!
That still left me tired. And a little cold. My Cortech jacket’s liner zipper had grabbed a piece of cloth and jammed half way closed at the last gas stop. My arthritic shoulders were so pissed at that point that I couldn't free it and that was letting in a little bit of a draft.
My new Bell RS-1's fog free shield was fogging even though the vent had been wide open from the start. So much for test reports saying it had great ventilation! So much for Bell’s “vaunted Velocity Flow Ventilation system providing cool comfort”. Bastards!
My hands were pretty numb but they'd been that way for the last 5 hours and weren't getting any worse. That wasn't surprising though since I was wearing summer gloves and the temp was in the low 40's.
But, I was a only a half hour away from home so things were actually pretty good considering, considering that my stupidity had gotten me into this situation.
It's been gray, cold and rainy for the last week or so here in western NY so when the rain quit yesterday I decided to slide over the border into PA for a couple of hours of play.
I'd scoped out a route of PA back roads on Google Map that looked good, a circle route with what looked like a lot of slower turns. It was in the middle 40’s when I left but no rain made it worthwhile. Heck, I was only going to be out there for a couple of hours! This would be fun! So I left. Full tank of gas, freshly lubed chain, no GPS, no map but who cared. I knew where I was going!
About 2 hours later I realized something was wrong. I’d been having fun running alone for an hour or so on a rural two-lane through the woods, tight turns, short straights, up and down the big hills in that area. I’d caught up with a train of a few cars with a couple of sport bikes trapped in the middle. Got bored and passed them all one by one figuring that I was unlikely to get caught on the wrong side of the double yellow by a cop.
Then it hit me, I was still heading south on Rt. 44 and should have hit the intersection that would have had me heading back north. Maybe I didn’t know where I was going. Heck, I didn’t even know for sure where I was! And it was going to be dark in an hour or so.
Of course I should have turned around. Of course I didn’t. That turn around point was just up the road, right?
Three hours later I was headed in the right direction. I’d finally gotten back into civilization. Ate some food. Found a gas station that had a map and someone who knew where they were after stopping at a station which had no maps. I headed back north on more substantial roads.
I was about an hour from home when I came to a detour. Bummer, off onto the in-the-woods back roads I went again. They started out as really bad roads. Then really bad dirt roads. Then one lane dirt roads when which is when I realized that I must of gotten off the detour route. And once again had no f’ing idea of where I was.
About the time I started trying to remember what bears do at night I noticed that I only had one bar of gas left and had no idea of when it went from two to one. Hmmm, low on gas, dark, in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere and no idea of which way to go. Couldn’t get any worse, right?
Actually, right it was. I finally landed back on the right road. It didn’t bother me that I’d probably spent an hour in the woods and was maybe 5 miles closer to home that I had been at the start of the detour. I was on my way home again.
Made it home 8 hours after I’d left. Bike was OK, I was OK, wife was pissed, dogs couldn’t care less, cats, as always, met me hollering for food.
BTW, I’m ordering some marine 12v outlets and will install my GPS.
That made me happy. I could forget about having to find $300 for a Corbin seat! I was also pretty happy with the CBR250’s headlight, it really is pretty good. No big need to spend money improving this part of the bike since I don’t plan on doing much riding at night!
That still left me tired. And a little cold. My Cortech jacket’s liner zipper had grabbed a piece of cloth and jammed half way closed at the last gas stop. My arthritic shoulders were so pissed at that point that I couldn't free it and that was letting in a little bit of a draft.
My new Bell RS-1's fog free shield was fogging even though the vent had been wide open from the start. So much for test reports saying it had great ventilation! So much for Bell’s “vaunted Velocity Flow Ventilation system providing cool comfort”. Bastards!
My hands were pretty numb but they'd been that way for the last 5 hours and weren't getting any worse. That wasn't surprising though since I was wearing summer gloves and the temp was in the low 40's.
But, I was a only a half hour away from home so things were actually pretty good considering, considering that my stupidity had gotten me into this situation.
It's been gray, cold and rainy for the last week or so here in western NY so when the rain quit yesterday I decided to slide over the border into PA for a couple of hours of play.
I'd scoped out a route of PA back roads on Google Map that looked good, a circle route with what looked like a lot of slower turns. It was in the middle 40’s when I left but no rain made it worthwhile. Heck, I was only going to be out there for a couple of hours! This would be fun! So I left. Full tank of gas, freshly lubed chain, no GPS, no map but who cared. I knew where I was going!
About 2 hours later I realized something was wrong. I’d been having fun running alone for an hour or so on a rural two-lane through the woods, tight turns, short straights, up and down the big hills in that area. I’d caught up with a train of a few cars with a couple of sport bikes trapped in the middle. Got bored and passed them all one by one figuring that I was unlikely to get caught on the wrong side of the double yellow by a cop.
Then it hit me, I was still heading south on Rt. 44 and should have hit the intersection that would have had me heading back north. Maybe I didn’t know where I was going. Heck, I didn’t even know for sure where I was! And it was going to be dark in an hour or so.
Of course I should have turned around. Of course I didn’t. That turn around point was just up the road, right?
Three hours later I was headed in the right direction. I’d finally gotten back into civilization. Ate some food. Found a gas station that had a map and someone who knew where they were after stopping at a station which had no maps. I headed back north on more substantial roads.
I was about an hour from home when I came to a detour. Bummer, off onto the in-the-woods back roads I went again. They started out as really bad roads. Then really bad dirt roads. Then one lane dirt roads when which is when I realized that I must of gotten off the detour route. And once again had no f’ing idea of where I was.
About the time I started trying to remember what bears do at night I noticed that I only had one bar of gas left and had no idea of when it went from two to one. Hmmm, low on gas, dark, in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere and no idea of which way to go. Couldn’t get any worse, right?
Actually, right it was. I finally landed back on the right road. It didn’t bother me that I’d probably spent an hour in the woods and was maybe 5 miles closer to home that I had been at the start of the detour. I was on my way home again.
Made it home 8 hours after I’d left. Bike was OK, I was OK, wife was pissed, dogs couldn’t care less, cats, as always, met me hollering for food.
BTW, I’m ordering some marine 12v outlets and will install my GPS.
