Ha ha - the "winter bike" sounds like the old days, you probably don't remember, when "flocking" was in? A lot of daring souls "flocked" their cars and bikes, remember? You covered the vehicle with glue and then shot it with flocking material - made the entire surface look like velvet? The old Aeronca Air Knockers had the inside panels all flocked, if you'll recall.
But come on down here next Daytona Bike Week, and you'll see how real serious we Redneck Rebs are about our biking and triking and such. The actual City of Daytona Beach only has a population of 75,000 people, but during bike week, a couple of weeks ago, there were some 788,000 bikers there with their machines, and each biker spent an average of $1500 on Florida shunshine.
Of course we Crackers don't allow helmet laws and mandatory insurance on our machines here in Florida, and that's another big plus - in our opinion - for Florida living and biking.
Come on down!
Gene
Heck, I have too many vehicles to be able to put ten thousand miles a year on any one of them.
Dave
Ha ha - what a curse, Dave! You own too many vehicles - I wish I had that curse! And I dearly love your Olympia, Washington!
But I didn't mean I put that many miles on each vehicle each year. I trade too often for that. I'm down to only three vehicles just now (if you don't count my unicycle). But I did also manage to log 100,000 miles on my Maule MX-7 (airplane) last year, which - for a little 225 hp rag plane - if a fair piece.
But, seriously, though travel here in Florida is not nearly as splendid as where most of you dudes live, apparently in the Northwest, it is a lot easier. Plus our prison ministry has taken me back and forth through 44 countries, on 5 continents, in the last three decades, so travel is pretty much what I do.
Best wishes!
Gene
But where is the challenge in riding in perfect weather every day? Long, long ago I was stationed in Perl Harbor for three years. Had a BMW R60 to ride around on. My choices where either ride over to the other side of the island and back or ride 3/4 of the way around the island and back (at that time the roads did not go all the way around Oahu.) Every day was "just another day in paradise" (sigh.)
Now up here in NH I have the added adventures of not only weather; (in it's normal order) Winter, Spring, Fall, Spring, Mud season, Summer, Fall and back to Winter. I also have Moose standing in the middle of the road dimly wondering what the hell what all the fuss is about. Tourist in huge RV's stopped in the middle of the road, just around a curve all pointing at that Moose standing in the middle of the road dimly wondering what the hell all the fuss is about.
But when all is said and done, I sort of like it that way. I an most likely up and riding long before the local “look at me and my shiny bike and bad biker image ™" crowd has thought about getting it out of heated storage. And I am riding long after they have put it back in storage to prevent wet leaves from leaving water spots on the chrome. I just love riding.
Bob Stock
You're exactly right, Bob!
I've been there also.
My wife and kids and I lived for two years in teeny Hana, on Maui. And then we also lived two years in the tiny fishing village of Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, in the Inner Hebrides, in the Highlands of Scotland. Talk about island fever!
But yes! Riding is fun wherever you find it!
And I'm taking off right now for a day's ride up to Tallahassee and back!
Later . . . .
Gene
