Well ride #22 was "Sucky" again, fcuk I hate winter. I woke up this morning (which is in itself, a bonus) and it was a typical dreary winter's morn. No problems, I was being hounded to do some Army Reserve computer work so I spent the morning doing just that. About 1pm I'd finished and the sun was out, and even though the top temp forecast was 13 deg C, thought that a ride was in order.
I decided that the big Triumph was the ideal option today, there was a really strong northerly headwind, so unlike last weekend on the Sportster, I had the luxury of having a windshield to deflect the wind. I rode thru Wallan and turned left out to Romsey, but just before Romsey the skies got dark and it started to rain. I pulled up under the verandah of the old closed down Romsey Pub, and put my Army wet weather pants on. I rode thru Romsey and it was hammering down. I needed fuel so pulled into the little Shell gas station, rode under the awning, and there were 20-30 Harley riders cowering from the rain, definitely not dressed for the weather with open face helmets and no wet weather gear. It was so crowded I had to ask one guy to pull the hose out for me because his bike was between the pump and my bike. He looked at the 2300cc Triumph and said, "Which pump, you want, Diesel?" and we all laughed. I explained to him that I like Harleys, they make nice little bikes.
Anyhoo..... I went inside and paid, and made my way back thru the crowd who were all looking at the weather with dismay, bid them safe riding, and took off into the tempest. Like a man. I didn't stop to take any pics as I didn't want to take my gloves off, not that it mattered, I was wearing my 30 year old "Dry Riders" gloves which are about the least waterproof gloves I own, so were soaked, and my hands were ffreezing. The wet weather pants are fantastic, Goretex, but channelled lots of water into my crappy elastic sided workboots, which then just filled up like a couple of buckets. My triumph leather jacket was doing a pretty good job of keeping my top half dry, but not so much around the top pockets that I'd forgotten to fasten, and water ingressed there a little.
Riding thru the "Hidden Valley" was not anywhere near as much fun as it is when it's nice and dry and you can see where the potholes are, so I pretty much tip toed around all of the twisties today, thanking those tyre making God's at Avon for keeping the rubber firmly planted on the road. I turned right again and rode back to Kilmore and stopped at the chicken shop. I didn't want food, I just wanted to get off the road for awhile, and had a chat to the nice Indian man who runs the place. I spotted a box of of those cheap disposable plastic gloves behind the counter and he gave me a pair, which after having a cigarette, I put on under my soaking wet leather gloves, and while my hands froze on the 30 mile ride home, my feet felt much worse.
Rocket iii ride Saturday 24 June 2023 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I almost kissed the ground at the self storage place where I parked the Triumph, it was still raining, but I was alive, and uninjured.
Rocket iii ride Saturday 24 June 2023 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Rocket iii ride Saturday 24 June 2023 5 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Riding in the rain sucks balls, especially riding 80 or so of the 105 miles thru the twisty backroads I prefer most usually, but like we used to say when the Army used to make me jump out of perfectly good airplanes, "Any jump that you can walk away from is a good jump". Same goes for riding in sh1t weather. I got home, jumped straight into a hot shower, then made a coffee with a couple of shots of Chivas in it, and once I'd thawed out, wasn't too unhappy. I was driving home from the storage place when I saw this lovely rainbow coming out, so took a pic.
Rocket iii ride Saturday 24 June 2023 6 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
