Winter-Make it Stop, Make it Stop

[newf]

I'm not a big lover of winter but have come to accept it as a reality. In fact I kind of enter a state of disassociation in the winter. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but disassociation is a psychological term for when your mind seems to go on autopiolot, and you do things without realizing that your doing them. It's like when you drive somewhere and you get to your location but can't remember the drive. Winter is like that for me. I put the bike away, really don't think about it much (I know I can leave the forum now), and in the spring I realize it's time to go riding again.

Only thing is I seem to have awoken from this state earlier this year, and I'm in the mood to go riding, hell I even ordered a tank bag, and now I hear on the weather channel that we can expect another 6 weeks of winter like weather (it is technicly spring, or so they say). Then they show some guy from BC talking about how they deserve the good weather they have now because of the crappy weather they had in December and January. Only thing is the weather they showed didn't look that crappy. From the pictures I saw from December and January it didn't look like snow had even collecting on the ground.

Sorry for the vent, and no disrespect to anyone in BC, it's just that was the first time in awhile I felt like slapping someone I saw on TV.

Anyone else out there with snow? It's not just me right. I've still got a good 5-6 feet of the stuff.

[Rocking Couple]

28" in the bush still newf, so you're not alone. Altho you do have tons more than here (Central Ont) but you usually do have more than us and for longer into spring. Except for not biking, I don't mind the winter here. Good for working in the bush without mosquitos. It's tough to handle through Nov Dec and the better part of Jan while waiting for the sun to prevail on days after a storm. I miss the sun in winter seasons the most. When working in TO I hated the damp, windy, dirty, humid slop all the time, but mostly the cold humidity and wind. Here, it can be 20 deg colder than the city, and not feel nearly as bad.

I concur with you on your sensitivity towards the BC announcer's dilemna. They have it so friggin great out there most of the time, they don't really know about true hellish weather.

[Desert Rat]

yeah there's snow yet, but that's not what's buggin me, it's the salt. The streets of TO look like the Bonneville flats right now. I'm waiting on a couple of good rains before I pull the bike out the shed for the summer.

[KZDon]

Disassociation is more like removing yourself from a situation or reality. In this case, it would be something like sitting inside watching TV, and ignoring your reality of living in a place with five feet of snow outside - placing yourself outside of yourself is sometimes the way it's described. I think what you're describing is something more like automatism - doing things in a sleep-like or subconscious state.

Subconscious, asleep, or disassociated, there is still a nine foot snow bank at the end of my driveway, and the six foot fences around our back yard presently appear to be two-footers. Most years our kids do the Gravenhurst Easter parade and egg-hunt (you can see them featured on the Barrie A-Channel news!) in rainboots. This year it was -15C and the lady in the bunny suit (no, not that kind) had to be careful of where she was hiding the eggs so as not to lose them in snowbanks.

I too have started thinking about ordering bikey stuff, although it's more my Visa card than the weather that's preventing purchases. Weirder still are my thoughts of the semi-annual bike/snowblower spot-swap in the garage. Like, when, if ever, will it happen this year?

[John]

Apparently upriver from us there is a maple grove where the taps are set eight feet high on the trees. The owner is digging five feet down to them...

So there.

Yup, the battery tender is still plugged into the bike. Fresh gasoline in the blower.

John.

[Dirtybill]

Okay shoot me:p

The Husky has been insured since March 9 but I was riding it before that. Insured the Speed Triple last week. Still need the electric vest on most days and wearing summer gloves was not a good idea last week. My neighbour cut his grass on Saturday and we have crocuses and daffodils blooming in the garden.

Downsides? It's very expensive to live here, at least on the coast. Gas is $1.17/litre. House prices are ridiculous. The Greens are getting more power every day. They levied an "enviromental tax" on gasoline AGAIN. 18 murders so far in Metro Vancouver this year, most of them gangland style. And our Crown insurance company (ICBC) is a rip off. Cops are doing stepped up traffic enforcement again and the gov't has changed the penalty points system to further screw us.

Need a winter break? Flying to Spain from eastern Canada can't be that expensive? Some friends in England go here a couple of times a year. I haven't heard a bad thing about this company and one day I plan to do this.

http://www.andaluciantrailtours.com/

Also, Warren Thaxter does some winter riding tours around Las Vegas and down into Baja but you need your own bike. Last I heard, he's opened up the Vegas trip to street bikes too. I did the Vegas one a few years ago and had a great time but be warned. The off roaders that go there are hard core but the beauty of it is you're based out of the same hotel every day. You wanna go on a ride that day just be in the parking lot ready to go at 7am. If you want to take a day off, then sleep in and hang out by the pool, go gambling,shopping or just go for a blat in the desert.

[grog]

As I look out my office window and try hard not to concentrate on the work on my desk, I see snow whipping by with the odd wet flake or rain drop smacking into the window. Although the Weather Channel promises sun and above zero temps by the weekend in Southern Ontario, I'll believe it when I see it.

For me, it is less about dissociation, and more about addiction. I can quit cold turkey in mid to late November and be fine until the start of February. The bike shows are like a small hit that get me through. But then come the start of the WSBK and MotoGP seasons and Daytona. I start to shake and sweat. Withdrawal hits hard. I buy more bike mags and devour them. I start recording Motorcycle Experience 5 times per week. With each passing year, the withdrawal seems to come a bit earlier.

Sadly, the drift that blocks the door to my baby is still 3 feet deep. And growing. I need help.

[Malks]

Last fall Environment Canada was speculating that this winter would be a bad/good one depending on your perspective and certainly in the Ontario region, we got nailed. Now I am torn because I ski and ride so there are things I can do either way. Since riding seems a little way off yet, I am planning on going skiing tomorrow up in Collingwood.

Last year I rode out to Cobourg to pick up my ST on April 26th. With the amount of snow around here this year, I might still be skiing until mid-April this year!

[Sidecar Bob]

OK, I've had enough snow now.

There was only a couple of inches of snow in the parking lot when I came out of work at 6:00 on Tuesday, but there was almost as much sticking to every south facing vertical surface on the outfit.

The roads near work weren't too bad - a bit slippery but the cars weren't catching up to me - normal in slippery conditions. I wasn't going as fast as I felt the road would let me because the wet snow was building up on my visor and when I opened it the wet snow tried to build up on my face.

When I turned onto the road into our town there were hard drifts across the road. It had been plowed, but open fields + wind = heavy drifting. I didn't see the first one as I came around the corner (you try seeing something white on a white background through a windshield that's covered with snow and a visor that's fogged up) and when I hit it the sidecar wheel felt like I had hit a cement block. After that I was prepared and I slowed more and ran towards the middle of the road. Fortunately, there was only a couple of Km of that and the roads were a bit better in town.

[Dirtybill]

LOL!! Hats off to you Bob for being either brave or stupid enough to ride in that crap. If your bike is an Ural, you must have thought you were in Siberia.

And just for the people who moan about us west coasters, it snowed yesterday here! Didn't stick but it was enough to keep me in 4 wheels.

[Sidecar Bob]

I was on my CX650E based sidecar machine that I drive to work every day from late October to late April.

Even in that kind of stuff I would rather be on 3 wheels than 4. I wasn't kidding about cars not being able to keep up when the roads are slippery - I don't have to try to figure out if I'm on ice by feeling the road through steering linkages, gearboxes &c so I always know exactly what is under my tires and can drive accordingly. In a car you don't know for sure that you are on ice until you try to steer or brake. By the time you discover you're on ice it's too late.

At risk of offending a few west coasters: - You guys have been teasing us about how mild your winters are as far back as I can remember, so it's about time you had a real winter out there. Now you know why we moan every year ;-)

What really bugs me are the weather forecasters who have lived here all there lives but are still surprised by snow in November, the January thaw, spring flooding and the rest of the stuff that happens just about every year.
They are like the people who spout off about global warming but don't realize that the summers in the '30s & '40s were much hotter than we are having now. In 1936 there was a heat wave (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1936_North_American_heat_wave)that lasted several months with record highs all across North America. One account tells of someone frying eggs in a pan sitting on a sidewalk in New Jersey. It's only getting warmer every year now because it got colder every year from the mid '40s to the mid '70s.

[arnottski1]

I had a CX650 and can not imagine a better side car rig. With it's limited but torquey power and great shaft drive I can imagine the kind of feedback you would get from a sidecar. Just a question. I always felt like the bike needed another gear. I don't know how it felt with a sidecar but I always felt like it could use another gear. As for the west coast thing, I grew up in Ontario always feeling like it was all of Canada until I lived in other parts of Canada and the world. From that and moving to B.C. in 1982 I have come to realize that the west coast is the place to be if you really want to use your bike while minimizing the use of your electric vest. You are absolutely correct about the snow and we have had more than usual out here. But nothing compared to what you poor buggers have recieved this winter. Nobody deserves that.

[Sidecar Bob]

Just about every bike I have owned has felt like it needed another gear. This 650 isn't too bad - about 500 RPM for every 10 KM/h. I drove it once without the sidecar and it didn't feel too overgeared. With the sidecar it's fine.

Of all the bikes in the CX/GL500/650 family the CX650E is the one with the highest overall gearing. The models with 16" rear wheels run about 500RPM higher on the highway than those with 18" wheels and the 650 transmission &c is geared higher too.

At risk of getting the guys in Toronto upset (they may yet call in the army to shovel this year's snow), we didn't have it too bad here. There was a lot of snowfall, but it warmed up enough to melt most of it before more came almost every time. THe drift across our front lawn was only about 3' high this year, compared to so high I couldn't see over it in several past years.

[Dirtybill]

The 500 and 650's are called "Maggots" in England. If you have any kind of a fairing on them, then they're called "Plastic Maggotts". Thing is, they were the bike of choice for motorcycle couriers in the day.

I met a guy from Mexico on his Maggott, about 2 years ago at a restaurant in Vancouver. He was great!! He had no time plans, no particular destination and said he might stay in the Vancouver area until the rains hit.

I talked to him and said to myself that he had the real spirit of riding!

I'm going to try and get some of that spirti back this year. For some reason I've gotten bogged down in club/political BS for far too long.

[Sidecar Bob]

The 500 and 650's are called "Maggots" in England. If you have any kind of a fairing on them, then they're called "Plastic Maggotts".
Really? I've owned these bikes for a long time and the only ones I've ever heard referred to as "maggots" or "plastic maggots" are the original CX500A with the plastic faux headlight nacelle, and the guys on the CX/GL MCC UK forum hardly ever refer to even those as maggots.
http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/cx500/history/cx500z.jpg

The ones with the full touring package are called Interstates, just like the similarly equipped GoldWings. (They also made a naked SilverWing)
http://rhuss.cncfamily.com/Honda1.jpg

The sporting versions are called Eurosports (mine was originally a CX650E)
http://www.northwind-jp.com/honda/cat/cat12-00.jpg

The turbocharged ones are usually called "Hey! What was that??????"
http://www.classichondarestoration.com/images/CX500T/fs_cx500t.jpg

http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/cx500/history/


Thing is, they were the bike of choice for motorcycle couriers in the day.
I know at least one courier in the UK who is still using one.