Traveling on a narrow gravel road southwest of town brings me past a pumpkin patch. This one definitely won’t be visited by Charlie Brown’s Great Pumpkin. Only the dregs remain – all the good pumpkins are loaded on a wagon just down the road. As a kid I loved this time of year best, at least until Christmas rolled around.
Riding is superb in late fall. The temperature drops far enough where I am not reminded every time I stop of the protective gear I’m wearing. And the light often is muted by a fall haze and slightly overcast skies making things easy on the eyes not to mention the emerging natural palette of reds, yellows, and oranges. No matter how great I think this time of year is for riding I know it’s not a universally held belief. This evening I listened to another rider planning battery tenders, fuel stabilizer, and the exact placement of his motorcycle in the garage. Any suggestion on my part of continuing to ride was met with the same incredulous look that accompanies a suggestion to keep the community pool past Labor Day. It’s just not done.
If owning a scooter or motorcycle means certain rules, customs, and standards are expected to be followed someone failed to send me the paperwork. I ride farther into the season because it makes sense. And over time the whole year has become riding season.
The coming weeks will bring dramatic changes to the landscape. The kind of changes that are interesting to see on two wheels. There’s nothing wrong with winterizing now if that makes sense but I have to wonder if some kind of mass hypnosis has taken hold of the riding community when it comes to this particular decision. Surrender to the weather seems to happen too easily.
Whatever a rider decides is right for them is all that matters. What works for me may be a terrible choice for someone else. The important thing is to make a choice yourself based on your own situation. This is one of those situations where tradition and custom fails.
Choices and decisions. That’s what Pumpkin Riding is all about.
I used to live on a sailboat in Northern California and each year on memorial Day weekend familes would air out their boats in the marina to mark the start of sailing season.Conversely on labor day there they would be putting their boats away. It was a habit that made for peaceful winter sails on an empty Monterey Bay. I continue to be grateful to people who do like to think for themsevles.
May Linus The Great Pumpkin reward you with a fantastic season of colorful Fall color pictures. The Fall season brings the kid out of me and specially watching the Charlie Brown Halloween special. I have very few colors in my neck of the woods in SoCal.
Steve:
Signs of the turn of the seasons;
maybe an orange GT250? With black stripes for the season?
A good friend of mine has just purchased a loaded GT250 here in Canada. C$9000.00 out the door including taxes. Bright yellow! He
brought it to coffee this Saturday morning October 20. One of the interesting factors to me is the loading factor, extremely high!
My friend shall be using this machine on his daily 35 kilometre commute. he also has a pair of Honda C90 step throughs, an Indian Enfield with 69,000 kilometres on it from new, as well as two Jawa
motorcycles purchased from new (over 30 years ago) one with the
required sidecar. He rides literally all year or until the roads are so bad he can’t drive due to ice and snow.
I had thought, after seeing your ride that maybe a Vespa or something else imported to Canada by Paiggio (sp?) might fit me.
My friend is long legged, still
about four inches short
of my 6’9″. So I sat on the Vespa.
No way will those handlebars ever turn more than ten degrees! My knees were above the height of the
handlebars even when I sat back on
the upholstered seat! Granted no
other current production scooter
or motorcycle will fit me either!!
I dwarf anything currently in production. Granted my 26 year old Goldwing has a solo seat and much
wider handlebars. Oh well, it just a thought given the high loading factor of the GT250.
And, too the build on the machine is superb!
In Ontario any machine above 49cc
is considered a motorcycle and must carry full liability insurance and a motorcycle plate. My friend added
the Vespa to his insurance, and it went up $462.00! Motorcycle insurance here is VERY expensive.
And very few companies will insure a motorcycle. A new Goldwing for example is about C$2500 per annum.
Still it was a nice thought!
Wow, my family and I went to the pumpkin patch last Sunday, and it too was picked clean. But they had a big corn maze, and all kinds of kid related events, so it made for a fun day. (Great kettle corn too.)
This whole thing about putting up the helmet and parking the bike for the season has caught on here too. Even the local riding club riders are driving to meetings now. Geez…they forgot to send me the paperwork too. Guess I’ll just keep on riding.
Have fun,
Bill
Today in Seattle the skies were gray and the temperature chilly, and there will probably be more of the same tomorrow, but about 25 of us are going on a group ride to sites of various paranormal phenomena. Assuming nobody wimps out…
__Orin
Scootin’ Old Skool
We are in South Florida and waiting for great riding weather. Fall is GREEN here! I do miss the colors of Fall. We just bought two LX 150 Vespas and insured them both for $312 for the year. We thought that was a real deal. After reading what bryce said about insurance in Canada, we feel pretty lucky. Steve thanks for another wonderful story and pictures. Lea in Fort Lauderdale
I don’t put my bike away for the season. I am getting a little soft though. I don’t ride to work if it’s raining when it’s time to leave, I don’t care about the trip home. And I don’t ride if the temp is below 35 degrees. So those restrictions barely affect my riding here in western Oregon.
I feel for our Canadian brothers having to pay so much for insurance. I pay $92.00 a year with a high deductible.