Monday, May 26, 2008

Cold Weather Motorcycle Riding

borrego springs highway s22 motorcycleAfter last weekend, with 100+ degree temperatures, this Memorial Day weekend was cold, and raining in some areas.

Three of us went riding last Thursday, and got rained on. It wasn't raining when I left home, and as long as it's not raining at my house, I'm good to go. But as we left the staging area, rain started to fall. So we high-tailed it to an irish pub in Fallbrook for chow, and then it really started pouring. We waited it out for awhile, and just when it stopped falling, we took off.

And no sooner than we took off, it started raining again.

Saturday, a few of us went riding. We headed out to Borrego Springs, a tiny town in the Colorado Desert area of Southern California. The main attraction is a road called, "S22", otherwise called, "Montezuma Valley Rd", which winds its way down a mountain into the desert floor. It's very twisty, but mostly with sweeping curves, and it snakes its way down like a sidewinder. It's an absolute joy to ride (if you're into that kind of motorcycle geekdom).


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Here's some photos of that ride...

http://picasaweb.google.com/cleardigital/BorregoSpringsRideMay242008

We liked it enough that after having lunch in Borrego Springs, we headed back up the S22, and then we rode it back down again.

While Borrego Springs was warm and sunny, it was cold and soupy out towards the coast. We had to ride back that way, but stopped at the Stone Brewery for some free beer. Can't beat that.

And then today, Memorial Day, there was another three of us that took a ride to Carlsbad, for some eats at the Harbor Fish Cafe, a cool little outdoor cafe by the beach. I tried to get some other people to ride, but nothing doing. One guy in our riding club said he couldn't go because he was having a BBQ at his place (I guess he must be having trouble calling me, because I didn't know about the BBQ until I called him this morning).

Again, it was cold and crapping when we left this morning, but we got out to the coast, it was warm and sunny. There were plenty of near-naked chicks laying out on the beach.

The moral of the story is that when it's supposed to rain, and when it looks like it's going to rain, there's a 2 out of 3 chance that it won't. You just get on your bike and find some nice weather.

Technical Note: I moved this blog to Blogger's server. I had previously had it on my server, and had Blogger upload the files and images via FTP. But these days, it seems Blogger's support for "FTP blogs" is sorely lacking, and was having trouble getting new articles and comments posted in a timely manner.

2 comments:

  1. I've certainly gotten good use out of my new leather jacket and chaps so far this Spring. I'm hoping I'm done with both of them now until the fall.

    That server move you made explains why the link on my blog to your blog suddenly didn't work anymore. For a little while, I thought maybe you just deleted your blog. I ended up clicking your comment on my blog to trace you back and found the URL was slightly changed. I've updated the link, but thought you'd want to know about it in case other bloggers who link to you may experience the same issue.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I ride a Burgman 650cc Maxi-Scooter in ALL kinds of weather. I don't own a car. To stay warm, I wear a water proof snow mobile suit (it fits into the under seat storage on the Burger). That suit is good down below freezing.

    Since suiting up can be awkward, I just picked up a long, winter coat. With a sweater, this coat is good down to the high 30s, then my legs start getting cold.

    When it's hot, dress accordingly. When it's cold, dress accordingly. You'll enjoy your ride more if you do.

    ReplyDelete

About Steve

A vagabond who hauls a motorcycle around the country in a toy hauler, earning a living as a website developer. Can often be found where there's free Wi-Fi, craft beer, and/or public nudity. (Read more...)