More Motorcycle Photography from the end of the season...

Winter's never an easy season for a motorcyclist, and even less so in Canada where riding in it is a near impossibility.  Soon enough we'll be buried in snow and minus double digit temperatures, but I'm not feeling the weight of it like I normally do.  A positive change in my working life, an old-bike project in the workshop and a good year of riding have me in a positive place as this riding season draws to a close.  I saw a bit of prose by Milne recently that hit the target:

"Yes, I can face the winter with calm.

I suppose I had forgotten what it was really like

I had been thinking of the winter as a horrid wet, dreary time.

Now I can see other things—crisp and sparkling days, long pleasant evenings, cheery fires.

Good work shall be done this winter.

Life shall be lived well.

The end of the summer is not the end of the world."

- A.A. Milne

I got a lot of miles in on both bikes this year, but the Tiger takes it for a couple of reasons.  FIrst of all, after some satisfying maintenance over the winter, it's better than it's ever been with new sprockets getting me close to 60mpg and the ultrasonically cleaned fuel injectors that have completely resolved the stalling issues from last year.  When the Concours got a flat just before the biggest ride of the summer, the Tiger stepped up and took on that cross province trip without missing a beat.  Love that bike!

This is why the Tiger still adorns the header on the blog even though several bikes have come and gone in the meantime.

Dreamtime Begins

You tend to see a lot more Photoshop post
production during Dreamtime.

The end of riding season means it's the beginning of Dreamtime.  I shift from what I'm doing on a motorcycle to what I wish I were doing but can't.  Things get fictional and funky.  Instead of generating footage and photography I'm looking over what I got from the past season and wondering about what I'd like to do in the next one.  If I lived further south I'd keep stealing rides when I could get them.  If  I lived somewhere where feet of snow don't regularly happen I'd brave the 'winter' (what we'd call fall).

I also find I have time to fettle instead of ride so the Concours ZG1000 Fury project will finally start moving at a steady pace.  My goal is to have both bikes on the road in the spring.

It's difficult not to wish for riding season to return but there is value in this change of season, I just need to change my mind.