There is nothing like it

There is absolutely nothing like riding in the cold, it is invigorating. You get up early, put on your chaps, jacket, gloves, and some sort of thermal head wear (helmet, hat, whatever). If you are fortunate enough to have heated gear you throw that on, if not, you add thermals, upper and lower, maybe a couple shirts, some thick pants, heavy socks, and winter gloves. You may even add a face mask. You head to your bike, walking like the Pillsbury Doughboy, if you have it in a garage, good for you, especially if it is heated. If you are like me your bike is not in a heated area, it is in shed. You unlock the padlock and force the door open. The ground is frozen and because it is the door does not clear the ground, it scrapes it's way across it. Throw on the battery switch, hit the run switch, wait for the light to go out, then hit the start switch. The bike turns over slow, and louder than normal, it is as if it is telling you to leave it alone. It fires to life. You fight your clothing to throw your leg over the seat, start pushing back, moving the bike outside, up hill.

Outside you let it warm up, it doesn't want to be here, the oil is like mud, so it sits idling, getting warmer, and as it does you get colder. You squeeze the clutch, drop it in first, it goes in with a loud bang (Harley). You let the clutch out and start moving. The cold air blast past you, you feel alive, the cold hits you around your glasses. You stop at a light and the glasses fog up, As the fogged glow turns green you hit the throttle, pull the glasses away from your face to get air to flow around them, slowly, the fog disappears. The air is crisp and sharp, the sky is clear, it is beautiful. You are alive, there is nothing like it, and my day was nothing like that.

I drove the cage, Hey, it was 22 degrees with a wind chill of -3, WITHOUT being on a bike. You think I'm nuts?

klay