Coop's Corner: Riding.....March 10.......in Minnesota.....

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Riding.....March 10.......in Minnesota.....

And it was NICE!!!!

Started the day early with a visit to Diamond's for coffee, usual cast of characters there. Everyone was mostly still inside when I left but my guess is that it didn't take long before many moved out onto the sidewalk to enjoy their brews. It was great to see Nick and Taylor there, hope they can return on their rides now that the season is starting.

Mid-60's, lovely sun, it was unbelievably nice today. Only recently have most of the machines in the garage been made ready for the new riding season, the Helix is up on the lift right now with only minor maintenance needed.

So, I started the riding today with the TW200, making a very nice 35 mile loop. The winds were very strong, especially up on top, out of the valleys and the Yamaha struggled with highway speeds when aimed directly into the wind. Adapting to conditions (wasn't the first time), the bike was aimed into the wind on the county roads, then the return loop followed the big highway.

Putting that one away, stuck the new magnetic Nelson Rigg tankbag on the Hyosung GT250R, heading south along the river. Stopped in Nelson for a Rum Cherry cone, then went around the Lake Pepin Loop counterclockwise, seeing more than a few riders out, mostly HD's. The tankbag worked well and is definitely a keeper. The nicest 80 mile, March 10th ride I've ever taken.

Noticing overflowing carb trouble last fall with the little '62 Honda Trail 55, it was disassembled a few weeks ago and the float was full of gas. A new one was ordered online from Thailand and when I returned from the Pepin Loop, the USPS had delivered my package with the cool, elephant stamp. Making quick work of putting things back together and a few kicks brought the little red bike back to non-leaking life. 4 big miles, some of it even in 3rd gear at a wound-out 20MPH. I had forgotten how truly low geared 1st is with the big 72 tooth sprocket.

So, 4 miles on the Honda, 35 miles on the Yamaha and 80 on the Hyo........a very nice March day. It's going to be a very good riding year!

2 comments:

Erik RMarch 10, 2012 at 7:44 PM
It was a great day up here in Cable too. I didn't get to go for a ride, my driveway is still too icy. The 3/4 mile road out to the main county road is still icy too. If we get a few more days of near 60 degrees, I'll be able to get the bikes out. I can't wait.

Erik.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayMarch 10, 2012 at 7:50 PM
I wasn't even going to go out, should have been working on some other projects but it was just too nice. Heard it was 55 up in Intl. Falls even! We've got, or had, snow yet on the north-facing slopes, imagine you've got a bunch yet in the woods.
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"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)