I hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon
Riding in the rain sucks!
After my motorcycle ride yesterday, I had checked my drive chain since I had thought it might be a bit loose. The recommended range of slack was 13/16" to 1 3/16", and mine was nearly 1 1/2 inches. So, right after lunch, I drove up to the motorcycle dealership where I bought my bike and dropped it off to have the chain tightened. Last time I did that (for an oil change) I stayed there in their very small waiting room. That was boring as heck. This time around I decided to just walk around the major road the dealership was on (lots of shops along it). Just as I was leaving the dealership it had started to snow. Festive!
I love walking so killing time doing that was fun, and I even stopped off at a hobby store to browse around. I think I might have briefly scared the cashier at the store because I had been wearing a full pull-over ski hat/mask, which only left my eyes uncovered (and carrying my motorcycle helmet). Right inside the entrance, it took me a few seconds to pull off the hat, which in immediate retrospect, I realized could have been interpreted as making sure I was fully covered before trying to rob the place. Oops. What was even more amusing was when I first walked in, there was one cop (in marked car) outside giving what I thought was a parking ticket to a car. By the time I left the store there were two more patrol cars parked right outside the store (the store was in a big outdoor strip mall). I hope they weren't there because of me :/.
By the time I got back to the dealership, the snow was still falling but was closer to rain by then, and the streets were wet. This was the first time I rode on wet streets, much less in the rain. Both new experiences sucked, especially the rain. People that have only driven cars in the rain have no idea of how nice windshield wipers really are. Droplets of rain stuck to the outside of my visor, and the inside slightly fogged up, even though normally the inside fogging dissipates once I get up to speed. I rode at a somewhat slower speed and gave myself much more distance to slow down at stop lights. Knowing that I was going to walk around while the shop worked on my bike, I didn't wear my riding pants over my regular jeans, so my jeans got wet on the ride home, adding to my misery.
The one bright spot of all this was the new heated riding gloves my sister got me. Both driving up to the dealership and on the way back, my fingers stayed nice and warm despite outside temperatures around 40 degrees and traveling at 40-50mph. Each glove could have its heat setting set independently, so I set the left one at 75% and the right at 100% (the hand that gets cold easily). I was a bit doubtful that the gloves would work this well, since I had read reviews of (other?) heated gloves where the people were very disappointed with the heat produced.
I am now home, dry, warm, and filled up on leftover chocolate birthday cake. Life is good again.
After my motorcycle ride yesterday, I had checked my drive chain since I had thought it might be a bit loose. The recommended range of slack was 13/16" to 1 3/16", and mine was nearly 1 1/2 inches. So, right after lunch, I drove up to the motorcycle dealership where I bought my bike and dropped it off to have the chain tightened. Last time I did that (for an oil change) I stayed there in their very small waiting room. That was boring as heck. This time around I decided to just walk around the major road the dealership was on (lots of shops along it). Just as I was leaving the dealership it had started to snow. Festive!
I love walking so killing time doing that was fun, and I even stopped off at a hobby store to browse around. I think I might have briefly scared the cashier at the store because I had been wearing a full pull-over ski hat/mask, which only left my eyes uncovered (and carrying my motorcycle helmet). Right inside the entrance, it took me a few seconds to pull off the hat, which in immediate retrospect, I realized could have been interpreted as making sure I was fully covered before trying to rob the place. Oops. What was even more amusing was when I first walked in, there was one cop (in marked car) outside giving what I thought was a parking ticket to a car. By the time I left the store there were two more patrol cars parked right outside the store (the store was in a big outdoor strip mall). I hope they weren't there because of me :/.
By the time I got back to the dealership, the snow was still falling but was closer to rain by then, and the streets were wet. This was the first time I rode on wet streets, much less in the rain. Both new experiences sucked, especially the rain. People that have only driven cars in the rain have no idea of how nice windshield wipers really are. Droplets of rain stuck to the outside of my visor, and the inside slightly fogged up, even though normally the inside fogging dissipates once I get up to speed. I rode at a somewhat slower speed and gave myself much more distance to slow down at stop lights. Knowing that I was going to walk around while the shop worked on my bike, I didn't wear my riding pants over my regular jeans, so my jeans got wet on the ride home, adding to my misery.
The one bright spot of all this was the new heated riding gloves my sister got me. Both driving up to the dealership and on the way back, my fingers stayed nice and warm despite outside temperatures around 40 degrees and traveling at 40-50mph. Each glove could have its heat setting set independently, so I set the left one at 75% and the right at 100% (the hand that gets cold easily). I was a bit doubtful that the gloves would work this well, since I had read reviews of (other?) heated gloves where the people were very disappointed with the heat produced.
I am now home, dry, warm, and filled up on leftover chocolate birthday cake. Life is good again.