It was an early start Saturday. We had a 9:00 appointment for service on the R Nine T, and by heading out early, I got a chance to ride the R Nine T a bit before the appointment.
Because our start was so early, the temps were still in the 60s—an absolutely perfect morning for riding. Bill headed out on the R Nine T while I would follow in the car. As I started driving, I saw a falcon atop a light post who then dived down into the bushes by someone’s front porch, and I took that as good omen on the day.
I arrived a few minutes before Bill at Adventure BMW, so I had the rare opportunity of watching him ride up on the beautiful motorcycle. I quickly geared up and took the bike into the same parking lot where I test rode the R 1250 GSA last week. I had a little trouble finding first gear, but I remembered to work the motorcycle forward and back to help it fall into gear, and that worked. My start was smooth with no jiggering and off I went. My ride was short-lived, however, as the mechanics soon showed up. Still, I managed some U-turns and S-turns and a shift into second before I had to stop my ride.
We checked out the inventory to find they had sold a few more motorcycles without getting any new ones in. In fact when I had arrived at the dealership, there was a gentleman from Maryland with a U-Haul trailer waiting to pick up his recently purchased motorcycle. I hope next week we see some more inventory; I would especially like to see an R 1250 GS in stock.
Once we left the dealership, we returned to the garage where I suited up to take out the Ducati Scrambler. The day was so cool, I was able to ride wearing the Alpinestars shirt under my jacket. I mostly cruised, but I did take some tight turns in the three gravel lots, having headed into the pool parking lot. I didn’t feel the heat much on my legs, so I tried to get the tight turn in the house gravel lot that I had to dab on last week. I was successful happily.
As I rode out from that parking lot, I encountered a bright yellow Canadian Tiger Swallowtail who almost collided with my helmet. Luckily, she flitted upward as I zipped by and we could both continue our day’s journeys. I later saw a Horace’s Duskywing as I headed back to the house. Definitely the butterflies as well as the motorcyclists prefer cooler weather for our fun.
Flutterby Biker 