With the arrival of November there’s a heavy thought on my mind. It’s time to put the bike away.
On Friday November 6th I rode my bike up to Caledon to get ready to store for the winter. It was a cold night and I was sad. The old girl rode well all the way to Caledon and about a block from my parents house when the timing started to get funky. I was frozen with the temperature hitting a low of 4 degrees Celsius and the night air whipping through me there was even a tiny bit of what I thought might have been snow. I forgot how dark Caledon’s roads can get and just how uneven they are when trying to take my normal route of Heart Lake road in the pitch black. It became pretty scary with my dim headlight only illuminating about 10 feet ahead of me. Luckily I had a Lexus behind me with some really bright headlights for a little while. I turned on Old Base Line and headed to Highway 10 to continue up the mountain hoping for more light on a more busy road. About halfway up the hill my left shoulder started to cramp from the cold and my hands really started to hurt. The whole ride was plagued by various cramps and twinges due to the biting cold. By the time I got to my destination I was a shivering wreck.
Saturday I washed her. Every nook and cranny I could get to got cleaned and I changed her oil. It was needed. She was filthy from construction near my apartment and her oil was disgusting enough to make me feel quite ashamed.
Saturday and Sunday I took her out for some quick rides once to warm her up for the oil change and once to fill up with gas and add fuel stabilizer. The timing was off both times and she ran like crap. I’m unhappy to have put the bike away with problems that aren’t fixed. Luckily there’s a shop down the road from my parents place and I have plans to get it in there as soon as possible in the spring to get the problems sorted out.
I’d never really ridden in to the night before and I have to say that I did enjoy it. I’m glad I got off the major highways before dark though. The country roads are great to ride at night. Although I’d like a little better headlight next time.
Despite the freezing cold and the aches that still plague my back from that ride up to Caledon three days ago I have to say that there’s still not many places I’d rather be than on my bike.
Guess I’ll have to wait for next spring to get that feeling back that I love so much.
Tags: 1973, CB360t, Motorcycle storage