Get on Your Bikes and Ride!

I'm having an excellent day...
After about a week of feeling uninspired and discouraged with painting, I had a great painting session last night and another this morning. I got a lot accomplished on several pieces and I'm excited about where they are going...
Did a little yard work after that, and then took the bike covers off the scooters.
I'm normally a year round, foul weather rider, but in late November I laid Jes's Sprint over on some black ice. I was going pretty slow so there wasn't much damage, but both right side signals got crunched and the gear selector got misaligned. Just fixed that yesterday, but flooded the scoot when trying to start it.
Today, I swapped the single saddle it came with for a new Corsa that has been waiting to go my P200 while I finish the paint.
I got it started right up and took a couple of short rides around the neighborhood. Great first rides of the year. Being able to stretch out (I'm 6') improved the riding experience significantly. The weather was lovely, and the backroads smelled like Spring. Of course you also have to understand my neighborhood IS backroads, and looks like this:

The road we live on is really just a long drive way shared by six houses. The scene directly above is about two city blocks down the main road from us. One of the most southern tendrils of Puget Sound, the aptly named, Mud Bay.


The rest of these are about 3/4 of a mile from that first photo, at another finger of Mud Bay.

The stretch of road North-West from my house (the opposite direction from the areas in the photos... but whacha gonna do? They're all from last Summer too, but you get the idea,) is full of nice twisties and rolling hills, as well as scenic shore line. So those little "runs around the Block" while testing out tuning are generally a blast.

It looks like Crystal over at Girlbike was in a similar position today. After her first ride of the season, she posted some tips on Spring riding and things to keep an eye out for. Worth checking out whether you've been stuck in a cage since November like yours truly, or scootin' it hardcore all winter long.

Shadows - I rode through some beautiful back roads that are normally stress-free, but this time of year, on a sunny day, when the trees don’t have their leaves yet, it looked like the road was covered in zebra stripes. This was pretty disconcerting since it made it difficult to focus on the road or see hazards like sticks or rocks.

I experienced the same thing on my backroad ride. I also went through a few patches of road dust with petals which were hard to distinguish from gravel. Also if your bike has been stored for a month or two, be sure to check your tires for wear and proper pressure.

But most of all have fun.

I'll see you out there.

heads up on the Girlbike story from 2StrokeBuzz