I’ve neglected putting up the final post from last year’s riding season. In October, the weather had been cold and rainy but I was convinced that I was still going to get some riding in. But after two weeks of nothing fun and the forecast looking even worse, I submitted to the inevitable. Really wanted to ride the bike the 100 miles to the dealer, but couldn’t find an afternoon that was going to work. Finally settled for a couple of hours riding around town in the cold and wind before dropping it off at the pick-up point. October 27th that was.

And of course we had some absolutely gorgeous weather in November. Not ever going to put her away again before December 1st. You should have heard me whine about “I should be riding.”

When I bought the bike I expected to ride it only one season before trading up to something bigger. Maybe a Street Bob or a Heritage Softail. Well life has thrown me a few curveballs (pelted me is more like it), and it looks unlikely that I will be able to do that this year. So I had reconciled myself to tweaking the Sporty and making her mine. Well, the curveballs just kept coming, so the only thing I was able to do this winter is get the 5,000-mile service done. I’m still hoping to manage saddlebags early in the season, but beyond that I’m not counting on much. Handlebars would be next, but it seems the ones I wanted don’t fit my bike. Of course, that shouldn’t stop me. But without cash to make it happen, I’m just biding my time on that one.

The days are now starting to get longer and we finally got above freezing this week. It’s certainly not yet riding season here, but the local bike show is in a couple of weeks and it won’t be too long after that. Having spent a week in California in early February, I really started to get the itch for riding again. And the weekly drives to my grad class would be a fun little “stretch of the legs” on the bike. I’m betting that the semester will be over before I’ll be able to make that ride though. 🙁

I have to admit that I’m already looking forward to Sturgis too. Just this week, my cousins sent some snapshots of our time there last year. Jeez, did THAT get me going. Got some advice too on where to camp at The Buffalo Chip, which I hope I can make sense of once I’m there. Any new job I get is going to have to accommodate that week off – paid or unpaid.

Well, hopefully the posts will be picking up soon. I’m thinking riding season is a little over a month away. The bike’s been in storage for 130 days now and Sturgis is 155 days away. I want both those numbers to go down.