Getting ready

Your fingers burn with pain, your lips dry and crack, the amount of time and energy it takes just to lift your leg to apply the brake, Leaves and sand on the road, not to mention those patches of ice, give us pause for thought, but we ride. That time of year grows closer everyday. Some of us will park the bike for the winter not finding it enjoyable to ride, others of us ride on because riding is life and must go on.

So we put on our chaps, thermals, helmets, face masks, heavy leather jackets, jacket liners, sweatshirts, thick socks, winter gloves, neck protectors or scarves, lip balm (see Paul), and goggles. Still the cold soaks through. That engine sitting beneath you producing all that heat in the summer seems to forget how in the winter. We can't move, we can't bend. but we can ride.

Some of us have heated gear because we have found that without heated gear everything is harder to do, slower to accomplish, and more painful. So we get all dressed up and plug into the bike turn up the heat to 90 degrees and we ride. It's 15 degrees out, the wind is blowing and we are toasty warm, the only reminder of the thermometer is our uncovered faces, so we ride...warm and toasty, our muscles work, are reflexes are quick, so we ride.... our faces are numb...but we ride... smiling...cracked bleeding lips are of no importance...we are riding.