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.

The End is Nigh

I rode in to work this morning in near zero temperatures.  It was sunny but cool.  The ride home was in the mid-single digits and sunny.  Winter gloves handled 8°C with ease, they were streteched a near zero.  Tomorrow might be my last 2 wheeled commute of the season.  I threw the 360Fly on the front for the ride, these are screen grabs of the video:

It's amazing what you can get away with thanks to grip heaters and an extendable windshield.  -5°C might be a bit more than I'm willing to put up with on the ride in to work, but if it's clear I might just steal one more before the snows fly.

There are still some autumn colours hanging on, but the trees are starting to look skeletal.

For these shots the camera was suction cupped near the bottom of the windshield and aimed forward.