Motorcycling seems to be good for my health. Riding negates stress and I always like to have something in my future that excites me; planning this trip has me feeling very inspired, which is great for my general state of mind.
Last night, I felt more like riding than drinking, so I rode to West 33rd St in Manhattan for my friend Jeff's birthday get-together. Instead of the five or six drinks and late night that this normally would have meant for me, I had a Guinness and a ginger ale and hung out for a couple hours and headed home at 10:25. My friends Marni and Alex, who live a couple doors up from me, left about 25 minutes before me and took the subway home. I rode home in a moderate snow shower and was putting the cover on my bike when they walked past me on 2nd St.
Riding in the snow wasn't a problem. The streets were wet but no snow or ice accumulated on them. Each time I stopped, I tried to put both feet down at the same time with the bike standing up perfectly straight and the wheel centered. At some point I'll get boots specifically made for motorcycling, which will have better traction than the ones I'm wearing now.
The hardest thing was keeping my face shield clear of snow and water. My ski gloves have absorbent goggle-wiping pads on the thumbs, but they're small and don't hold much water; once they're saturated, using them is like trying to dry something with a soaking towel. When I rode with the shield pushed up, I got a lot of snow in my eyes (go figure). I ended up having the best luck keeping the shield about halfway open, just far enough that I could see ender its bottom edge. It blocked some of the snow that way, without me having to look through it.
Maybe I will buy a chamois cloth to keep in a jacket pocket while riding in the rain or snow in the future.
Next destination: Queens. Hopefully next weekend.
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