Brrrrrr......

 With a good covering of snow on the mountain, the temp. has dropped
accordingly. On the way to work a couple of days ago there was frost on
the sides of the road  with the occasional slippery patch where the road
was shiny. Only a ten minute ride (on the main road) and I was shivering
and my fingers numb (time to get my winter gloves out!), still, by the
time I got off the bike I had that "I'm alive" feeling that only
motorcycles can give. It turns out there were 9 crashes (no-one
seriously injured) that morning, between 6 and 9am, involving black ice
and cars. The 'I'm invincible' feeling that sitting in a car gives some
people just doesn't cut it when they don't take notice of the weather
conditions.

Piked out on a ride yesterday and spent the time cleaning my bike
instead...well overdue! I had the hose running a spray onto the radiator
for about half an hour before the 'road works' cement(?) softened enough
to be gently brushed away. The inside of the front sprocket cover was a
mess of chain lube and dirt/dust/sand paste and I really must get some
kind of 'tear-off' covering for the underside of the rear guard if I
keep doing burnouts. The rubber sticks like the proverbial shit to a
blanket!......and all over the shock. Looks like I will have to get a
new dish-washing brush as that was all I had at hand to get into some of
the trickier places.

The plastic coating on the brake lever is coming off.....dead bugs must
be corrosive? The chain looks like new and I'm going to take the rear
wheel off today, to get at the inside of the swingarm and clean the rest
of the shock.

Then, it will be off to work in the rain tomorrow and it will look like
shit again........  :)