A Ride of Two Minds

Miserably fantastic, terrifically bad, horribly great, wonderfully awful—these oxymorons best describe this weekend’s ride.  My battle with the heat of the Ducati Scrambler distracted from the wonderful ride.  So even as I did fantastically with the figure eights and tight circle drills, I was miserable through most of the ride.

            First let me explain why I was on the Scrambler again and not the BMW G310.  Early Saturday we had storms move through wetting the roads, so Bill couldn’t ride the 310 over to my parents’ house.  In fact our ride was delayed as we waited for the roads to dry out which also contributed to my heat-induced misery as we rode later in the day.  Instead of an early start and a ride in the 70s, we were under the full afternoon sun with the high temperature of the day (85) and the full humidity.

            Added to the day’s heat, I had the not-so-brilliant idea to wear a pair of bike shorts under my motorcycle jeans to prevent thigh burn.  Since I was overheated by the ride, I never even got to the blind turning drill that burned my thighs last week.  Instead, the shorts only held more heat in and left me miserable.

            I still appreciated the beautiful day noting the pop of crape myrtle blossoms so heavy on their trees that they are beginning to fall.  And I still saw magnolia blossoms among some of the trees.  The Canadian geese were near just about every road we went down.  And I again saw multiple butterflies including a cabbage white, a spicebush swallowtail, a little wood-satyr, what I think was a meadow fritillary, and a monarch.

            My ride went really well, the motorcycling part.  As we worked on our figure eights, I played with the idea of accelerating and decelerating at the turn.  My stops went smoothly and I really enjoyed riding the twisty roads.  To give myself a break from the heat underneath me, I rode standing at several points to allow the cool northeasterly breeze to wash over me.

            But when we arrived at our parking lot for the straighten up and stop drills, I parked my bike in the shade and sat down.  Bill rode over to check on me, and I told him to go ahead and practice; I just needed to be away from the heat of the motorcycle.

            I had no ride on the R Nine T as the fields were super muddy after the morning rain.  When we take that bike in for its 600-mile service, we’ll put new road tires on it and I’ll be able to ride in parking lots and the roads.  Currently, the motorcycle has 50/50 tires for on and off-road riding that Bill feels are too lumpy for me and my riding skills.

            I’m not sure how next weekend will go.  The temperature will be great—low 80s—but rain is again in the forecast.  I’m hoping the showers will be of the afternoon kind, so we can get the 310 over for my rides.  The Ducati is a great cold weather bike; the engine works like a heated seat.  But I want to enjoy my remaining summer and early autumn rides fully, so I need to get back on my little G310.

            A further note on the Ducati’s heat.  As we were taking off our riding gear in the garage at the end of our ride, my mother, who knows nothing about motorcycles, came out to speak with me.  She stood beside the Ducati for a moment and remarked on the intense heat coming off the bike and looked at me as though I was crazy for riding it.  I suppose we motorcyclists are a little crazy, but it’s crazy in a good way.