I know, i know: Global warming is a bad thing, right? Sure it is. if you believe experts, it’s likely to melt all the ice in the arctic anywhere between next Tuesday and 100 years from now, flooding large parts of the earth in the process. It could turn much of the United States into a desert, and I don’t just mean culturally (that happened years ago). But maybe, just maybe it has an upside.

Actually, that might sound callous, but today when I look out the window I can’t help but think I should be out there, buzzing backroads on my Daytona. You see, I’m located in Toronto and several weeks ago now, I put my bikes away. I’m fortunate to be good friends with a chap called Nick who also writes for this site in that in the past couple of years, I’ve stored my bikes in his basement – first at his condo and now in the downstairs apartment of his house. This makes my job much easier – firstly, clean the bike, secondly remove the battery and thirdly top up the gas tank with fuel and stabilizer. In fact, I left Nick to do the third step for me (thanks, Nick). True, we left it late this year and ended up trying to get a 675, light as it is, down a snowy slope to the back if his house. We only dropped it twice, but fortunately there was no damage.

On the days it hits -30C with windchill and the doors on my garage rattle that seemed like a great idea. However, like the rest of the world, winter seems to have become bipolar in nature. Last Friday it was -18C and I was out pushing a snowblower up and down the driveway – the closest I’ve been to a single cylinder engine since August, regrettably. Today, it is +8C. Tomorrow, it’s back to -10C.

I’ve been here nearly ten years now, but learned to ride in the UK, and like most British bikers, I used to ride year round. At least, I never put my bike “away” and that is the source of my regret: Now, if I am lucky, I ride seven or eight months of the year. Sure, part of me doesn’t like the the cold and part of me doesn’t want the engine block to rot away after a year due to the excessive amounts of salt used on the roads, but I do miss my riding.

The RideMonkeys and I keep saying we’ll book a tour for next winter, but we probably never will and that is the real problem: For a lot of us, we make an excuse not to get out. The weather is not quite right or Johnny can’t make it or anything else and I’m going to nix that this year. This year, I am going to get out more and not just weekend biking either. This site is designed to help me do that. To meet new bikers and to find new destinations. You might say I plan to Eat, Sleep and Ride and that is all. Well, not quite all but this year, I will go further than last year at least. After all, summer is short and you can’t trust the weather…

Tags: No Comments