Good morning Saint Paul!

7:45 AM, 52F
Pre-rain atmosphere changing over to light rain.
Fresh rain smell.
Short cruise through Lillydale.
Triumph ran well.
Legs and arms stayed dry.

- Ride North

Asking a lot and expecting too much

More than just the carrot at the end of a long slog, looking towards a ride for restoration and clarity. Please wipe the slate clean and let me proceed with a clear mind and sharp sense of reality brought forth from being thrust into a world of twist, go, wind, cold, cars, trucks, gravel, trees, lakes, and air. To move forward with the force of many cylinders. Without motion there is no stability. Without thrust there is no maneuvering. There is no motorcycle without forward motion. It can not stand on its own. It can not go backwards. A rolling stone is not a stone. It is proto-soil, in moving forth from the mountain it becomes life.

Focused and obsessive, transportation is allowed to compete with loved ones for our attention and affection. Resting on the idea that salvation is at gloved hand. The helmet is a bucket for our thoughts, intervening in the process of appreciating the sharp edges and soft earth of our worlds.

The complexities of life make us do silly things and think silly thoughts, all very real and imposing in their time. A moving body seeks to stay grounded. A grounded body longs to move.

Thus concludes our creative writing session for today. May the wind rise to meet you and bring with it balance and perspective.

- Ride North

One fine February day

Sixty degrees in February! (remember February?)

If I had half a mind, I'd put the battery in the Triumph and go for a ride. Being the half-brained biker that I am, that's just what I did. The roads north of Stillwater have been on my mind ever since taking the scenic route home from the Pumpkin Express train ride in Osceola, Wisconsin.

That guy was carrying a hockey stick. Love Minnesota.

The Ice Road at Bay Port, MN

Making tracks in February!

The cat likes the way I smell after a ride.

Found an unpublished post from this winter. I'm publishing to a.) brag about riding in winter and b.) remind my self why the Triumph is so filthy. It really needs a bath.

- Ride North

Good morning Saint Paul!

It's been a wile since the Yamaha has stretched its legs, maybe five months. It eagerly fired up this morning, ready for a foggy ride into work. It was a damp 38 degrees and the mist was dancing off Pickerel Lake in little wisps of fog. I stopped at the canoe launch to get a better look and take in this quiet little St Paul spot. There were geese honking from the far edge, wood ducks and mallards overhead, and a little muskrat hopped in after I got too close.

An all together excellent start to the day, made better by a hot cup of coffee as I sat down to work.

Riding season is back!

- Ride North

Time to take down the thin ice sign. 

I was greeted to a little extra smoke while the bike warmed up. 

A couple turns of the wrench on the crossover's clamp had it mostly taken care of. I can still get the muffler gaskets but the mufflers have been screwed onto the headers for almost 40 years and I'd rather not break that streak.