So yesterday I put the bike to sleep for the winter. A hibernation during the cold snowy winter New England winter.

I drove the 10 miles to get some fuel stablizer stuff that monring. It was 40 deg F, and I bundled up with 5 different layers for my torso, and two for my legs: thermal underwear, tee shirt (short & long sleeve), jacket liner, long wool skiing socks, etc. I wore my thin leather gloves rather then my thick heavy duty Army winter gloves. My fingers were fine. I didn’t wear my face mask – I didn’t really feel like I needed it. Sure, my eyes watered a bit, and my cheeks got a bit red, but I like the feeling of the crisp air. I passed one other biker on my way that morning: it looked like the red saddlebags guy, but I couldn’t really  tell. He didn’t have his usual full face mask on if it was him. But the bike looked like his.

My tank was almost empty, so I filled her up and mixed in the required fuel stablizer. Later that afternoon I rode her down to my friend’s house to put her in his garage.  The ride down was nice, it was in the high 40s and not cold with my layers on. It was fun passing through the clouds of leaves, riding some small localized gusts of wind, making a live snow globe with fall colors.

This one road down to his house is all twists and curves: a little two lane back road, that luckily for me didn’t have much traffic. I leaned into the corners as hard as I could, with a huge grin on my face the entire time. Enjoying the last ride of the season.