Looks Like Spring Has Sprung

We've had several good days the last couple of weeks and in my opinion, not that tough of a winter here in Oklahoma.  Sure, we had some cold weather and some freezing stuff fall once in a while but no major snowstorms and even in the coldest of weeks, an occasional warmer day appeared.

It's amazing how my 2012 R1200 RT is pretty comfortable to ride in colder weather.  As long as the roads don't have any slick stuff on them, you can can ride it and while it may not be pleasant, you can stay warm enough not to suffer if you dress right.  It also has heated grips and seat that are nice to have.  Speaking of the RT, she's coming up on her 2nd birthday and rapidly approaching the 53, 000 mile mark.  I've got a service appointment on the 22nd to get new tires and oil change.  I was going to start  doing my own basic maintenance but since she needs tires too, I'll get all of it done at the dealer this time.  The more I ride this bike, the more I like it, if they make a more comfortable touring bike that is as fun to ride as it is, I don't know what it would be.  The new 2014 model RT is water cooled and pretty tempting but I promised myself I would try to ride this one for at least 100K miles before getting another one.

Speaking of other ones, my 2014 F800 GS Adventure is for sale.  I've listed it a couple of places and am in no big hurry to sell it but I've realized that my style of riding is better suited by the RT and I'll probably never use the GS to it's fullest potential anyway.  I like the bike and it is fun to ride, especially since I put a California Scientific wind screen on it that solved by buffeting problem.  My loss will be someone's gain since I'm taking quite a hit on it versus what I paid for it 2405 miles ago.  Here is a pic of how it's set up and it's priced at $14,750, if you know anyone looking for one, I'd appreciate it if you send them my way.

I've managed to get it quite a bit of riding the last couple of weeks and making several of the bonus locations for the Big Money Rally . As I mentioned last post, the first list of locations includes a list of libraries and courthouses.  The courthouses are those where the county name is the same as a former President.  Here I am in front of the Garfield county one in Enid, OK.

Motorcycle riding in Oklahoma, as well as a lot of other places, involves a lot of riding in strong wind.  This week's rides have been no exception with winds ranging from 10 mph or so and gusting up to 40 mph.  Ron, Mark, Tom, Chris and I rode Tuesday and the wind was really tough riding west across to Medford from Perry.  I can usually just lean the bike into it a bit and ride but when it starts jerking your head around that ceases to be fun pretty quickly.  But the good news is I've gotten pretty used to riding in the wind and if I waited for a calm day, I'd get about 10 rides in a year.
It won't be long before March rides out like a lamb and hopefully we'll have some April showers to end the drought here in Oklahoma.  With my new Michelin PR3 tires I'm getting next week and good rain gear, I'll be ready to ride.  There's no better smell on a motorcycle than just after a rain on a ride in the country.

As I've mentioned before, I am somewhat of a gadget geek.  One new thing I've been using lately is an iPhone app called SWConnect .  This app allows you to track the route you ride and then review or share it from Spotwalla .  It also allows you to post different messages along the route so someone can follow along and see how you're doing.  It doesn't offer the emergency help message sending like a Spot device does but it's a pretty nice way to track your rides and it's free in the app store. As an example, here is a 306 mile ride that Ron and I took yesterday.

So it looks like spring has sprung and I hope you get some good riding in, I certainly plan to take advantage of the warmer weather.