What Have You Being Doing With Your Non-triumph Today?

Don't go, you won't enjoy it

 

The last days the morning temperatures went down here in Austria. Today I had the first time 0 degrees celsius on my bike displayed this year. It was a great early morning ride to my office with a very big moon in the sky. The reflection of the sunlight looked like a big spotlight on the highway. In the afternoon the temperature will rise to 13 degrees with sunshine.

 

That sounds really lovely . I run and work a lot at night and those clear nights where the moon is so bright that it's almost daylight are magical. They remind me of being a small child as my Dad would take me for a walk as a treat when it was like that (and there was no school in the morning!!) and I used to think it was amazing!

 

A bit of Sunday evening workshop time so we're ready to face another week at school/work etc.

We managed to find the little lad a replacement cylinder with a fresh replate, best bit is we got it outright and not exchange, so now we have a spare. Other necessary bits purchased and assembly begins..... all ready for school (A levels) Monday morning.



Ticking over nicely with a slight jetting change and he's back in action.

 

Thursday is my Friday so yesterday evening Steve took me to dinner at one of our favorite places, The Keg. And our favorite way to get there is on our bikes. Now that the evenings are cool, it's delightful to ride at night. I really enjoy riding after the sun goes down, especially the ride home from diner when traffic is minimal and it feels so quiet and almost cocoon-ish. Plus in some ways I really feel like people see me more at night with my lights on than they do during the day. Oh yeah, and I wear the most reflective, neon orange vest you can imagine over the top of my riding jacket!





Pistachio crusted salmon for me and a steak for Steve.

 

The food looks good

 

Do you have loads of critters out there at night @Sandi T? I don't mind riding or driving at night, however locally there are so, so many deer that do like to leap out at you!!

 

It was absolutely delicious, @Eldon! We go to The Keg relatively frequently (maybe quarterly or so) and not once have we had a bad meal or even a mediocre one.

 

That's a great question, @Mrs Visor. We typically only ride in the city at night so don't really have much of an issue with critters. But if you get out on the edges of the city they definitely come out. Deer, javelina, coyotes, rabbits... I have family in rural Minnesota and it's really a problem there. We have arrived home from trips at dusk and are definitely on high alert then. And on a lot of the trips we do, we find ourselves riding through state and federal parks that are quite forested. Then we have to be on high alert no matter what time of day it is.

 

Just back from Tenerife (which went as well is it could have done). Anyway, some work planned for today including adding a Quadlock clamp mount, fitting an Optimate charging cable, adjusting the Option 719 footpegs and seeing if I can work out what’s wrong with the Healtech switchable servo buddy that been fitted (only two of the three valve adjustment options seems to be working).

 

Took full advantage of the lull in the weather - it’s been raining biblically the last few days and from the forecasted temperature I reckon the gritters will be out tonight. Today however was dry, sunny and the roads clear of leaves as they’ve all been blown/washed away. So this will be the last outing of the Fireblade this season. I’ll wait to SORN it at the end of the month (just in case something miraculous happens weather wise, but not holding my breath).
The Tiger I’ll keep road legal through the winter and hope for the odd decent day to get some miles in.



All cleaned and ready to put in to hibernation

 

The gritters were out here last night, I saw them when I was out and about for work.

 

There was a marriage proposal on today's Sunday group ride! No, not to me as I'm already very happily married, thank you. Our friends, Chris and Cassie, made it official. I do believe it was a surprise though I suspect Cassie was suspicious since a bunch of their other friends who don't typically ride with our group showed up at the gas station at the start of the ride. We rode over Gates Pass and out to Saguaro National Park to the Red Hills Visitor Center. We've had tons of rain the past few days so things green up quickly around the desert when that happens. Lots of sand on the roads, too. (That part is not so great.) Anyway, it was a fun day and nice to get to ride with the other guys that came on the ride, all of whom we know and most of whom work at the local Harley dealership.

Some of the group's bikes parked at the visitor center looking west across the desert



Chris and Cassie





Steve with our two bikes



We had a fairly big group of ten so thought we could squeak in for breakfast at a place not too far from the visitor center. Nope. They were packed and told us there'd be an hour plus wait. So after chatting a bit in the parking lot, our group splintered with about half the folks heading back home and the other half deciding on Denny's for breakfast.

The place we DIDN'T eat. It's called Sky Rider because it's at a small regional airport northwest of Tucson.





We have eaten here for breakfast in the past but for some reason I never noticed this bit of airplane art until this morning.



The "usual suspects" at breakfast at the local Denny's restaurant





I don't think the temperature got above 60ºF on our ride this morning so it was scarves and heated vests all 'round. Yep, lightweights......

 

Didn't get above 60, and you went for a heated vest, that's a heatwave over here.

 

LOLZ at heated vests

Lovely story, @Sandi T

 

Well, I did forget to add that I didn't turn it on today, @Bikerman. So it was just a regular old puffy vest. I do like to be prepared! "Just in case"

 

I'll let you off then.

 

That's crazy! However, I suppose when you're used to lovely baking hot weather it must seem very chilly. I recall when I lived in Belize that temperatures around that mark felt positively freezing!!

I love the view out over the desert and hope that Chris and Cassie have a very happy life together . You'll have to buy a hat!

 

Temperature is so relative -

I remember being in Massachusetts one September years ago (or somewhere up that way on a driving holiday!), walked into a store in my shorts and t-shirt and the woman said "Scottish, right?!"

Go to a hot place like Australia, New Zealand or Florida at the end of summer, the weather is still warm and sunny but the shops are full of woollen jumpers and winter coats!

 

Went for a run on the 175 Yamaha and it came home in a trailer