OK, were gettin' close now! The weather here in Central Virginia is starting to warm up nicely and we just finished a pretty nice weekend with temps in the mid-60s. For those of you in this part of the country.... it's time to start riding.
With that in mind, I thought this would be a good time to remind you of some the things you need to consider before hopping on your bike and heading out to explore those first few warm days of Spring.
Let's talk about the bike first. Hopefully, you were diligent in the care of your battery and kept it topped off with fluids and on a trickle charger throughout the winter. I use a small, inexpensive charger that does a nice job of reading the charge level on the battery and administering a charge only when it needs it. I've used the same one for years and it seems to do a great job of keeping the battery in good shape. Your battery is one of those things that will take care of you only as well as you have taken care of it. If it ever runs all the way down, it's probably time to get a new battery as this has a terrible effect on its ability to hold a charge in the future.
One of the other very important things is to check the air pressure in your tires. I know that it gets talked about a lot at the beginning of each riding season, but it's something that I will "blow off" sometimes if the weather is nice and I am eager to get out there. DON'T blow it off! It's critical to the performance of your bike and can make a huge difference in the safety and handling. I remember going out for a ride one time after the bike had been sitting through a month or two of cold weather. I didn't take the time to look the bike over and just jumped on and took off. It was in that first fast corner that I felt like the bike was going to slide right off the road! After returning home it turned out that both tires had a mere fraction of the air pressure that was recommended in them and I felt like an idiot for not checking. I could have easily had an accident that would have been ALL my fault. So please, check your tires before you head out.
The other maintenance thing that is a must for me, assuming that you have been good about regular services on the bike, is the oil. No matter how long it's been or how many miles I've ridden during the Winter and Fall, I always do a Spring oil change. It's kind of like starting off the new season on the right foot. Your bike has been sitting there collecting dust in a cold garage and the oil has gone through many temperature fluctuations and probably gotten a little gunky, so think of it as giving your ride a fresh start for the season. It'll pay off in the long run.
The last thing that I would caution you about are the roads. In this area they use a lot of sand and salt when it snows and we did have a couple of good snows this year. That sand, and usually some gravel from people plowing their driveways, will end up in the road and oftentimes right in the corners! SO, until we get a couple of really good rains and the roads get cleaned off a bit, I would enter every corner with the anticipation that there might be something slippery there. When we lived in Connecticut, where it snows quite a bit and I used to ride a sport bike, there was another hazard that I should remind you of... the melt and refreeze. In the Northeast there are these rocky walls along the roads that leak water during the day and freeze at night. If you got an early start on a Spring ride, even if it was quite warm, there was always a good chance that you would encounter some ice on a shadowed road along the way.
Those are the most important things to remember before starting out on your first ride of the season. I'm sure there a lot more that I didn't mention, but these few are the critical ones in my mind.
It's warm enough to be comfortable and cool enough to make your leather jacket and your gloves feel like your best friends. The bike runs great at the cooler temps and the bugs aren't too thick. In my mind this is the perfect time to ride.
So get out there and start enjoying the weather and your motorcycle... and I'll see you on the road!
MotoRush
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