Last Updated on: July 29, 2018
It’s been about two months now since I parked the MC. Have no room in the garage so it was sent on winter storage. Much MUCH too soon. With one of the mildest November months and early December perhaps ever, at least in my lifetime, it feels all wrong.
However one explains (away) climatic change, signs, weather and trends, whilst seen in a multi-decade perspective one thing is clear. Winters are fading away, at least where I live.
Anyhow, the MC dealer offered a decent winter storage package. One can pick up the two-wheeler sometime in the spring, serviced, checked and ready to go. That is the upside, the downside being one cannot simply go and fetch it on a whim, take a ride and deliver it again. Below the last I saw of my silvery MC friend, early in October.
We had a cold period and it felt like the right thing to do. The season was over… it seemed. Could not have been more wrong. A couple of weeks later the weather and average temperature changed dramatically. Almost like the return of spring. Out and about I observed a lot of MC folks taking advantage of the exceptionally mild weather.
Lesson learned. Now high on the the to do list for 2016 is a shed in the garden. Large enough to house miscellaneous stuff and…. most importantly, 1 MC. Been contemplating on getting a second one, a cheap, older Funduro style bike. Something that quickly can be rolled out of a shed, used for shorter, local fun trips. Something like… this.
It (re)started in May 2015
Or more correctly, it actually started one year before. A friend and die-hard MC’er inspired me, thoughts of getting back in the saddle quickly grew strong. Late May 2015 I bought my first MC in over 30 years. An older Honda NT650 Deauville. Nicknamed “Dullsville” it’s regarded a boring but reliable machine to ride.
For the first weeks and month while getting used to riding again, this machine did it for me. Made sense to get something sturdy, not too big and not too powerful. During summer and after a few longer trips however it became clear that in the case heading down through Europe, on longer adventures, the Honda would not be suitable.
I am a pretty tall guy and sitting position/angle is critical. The Deauville is a big bike for being only a 650 but sitting position is too low for me. And it lacked grunt. Still, at the time of trade-in I’d clocked some 6000 kilometers with it. Certainly gave bang for the bucks!
Early august I traded it in for a BMW R1150RTwith fairly low mileage.
The transition to the BMW RT was huge and significant, on so many levels. A different world in all respects. Despite being more than 50kg heavier than the Honda the “beemer” is much more nimble and sporty to ride. Plus surprisingly free of vibration for a two cylinder. And you can pack a lot more luggage.
The keen observer will notice location similarities in two of the above pictures. Both taken in a small village called Lyngdal, where some folks clearly have an interest in agricultural machines slightly above “the average”. And as agricultural machines go I’d anticipate the average interest to be moderate, at best.
In any event, in this part of the countries there are a lot of interesting roads to ride on. In fact, during spring/summer and fall of 2015 I’ve never in my life done mileage to the same extent on smaller roads.
Come 2016 there will be more, a lot more. Meanwhile I long for spring and miss my bike.