Summer is not my favorite season to ride. Heat, sweat, and abundant vehicles on the road just makes me tired. Mentally and physically. Judging by the number of motorcycles and scooters out this time of year I suspect my dis-embrace of summer puts me in the riding minority.
Photographically I’ve always found clear sunny days difficult to connect with. I stopped to make this picture because it reflected my ideas of summer being devoid of mystery. The camera gains weight when the temperature rising above 80F making it difficult to pick up and use.
A ride to Bellefonte to have breakfast with a friend feels ordinary. The passing clouds, beautiful in themselves, don’t trigger the same reactions as rain, fog, cold or a heavy, gray landscape. I should learn to be grateful for the day I suppose regardless of the package it arrives in.
But I just feel tired. Too tired to get the hammock out of the attic for a nap in the backyard.
Maybe if I were more social summer would be different. Stopping after work at the neighborhood chocolate store I consider the riders sitting outside at Duffy’s Tavern. They don’t look tired. I make a note and move on to purchase something to accompany my evening tea.
A stop at the grocery store on the way home from work. It’s hot and I have more groceries than I can easily pack in and on the Vespa. There is a whole roasted chicken in a big plastic container. Had to have that. And four more bags. I’m hot and I’m tired as I begin to solve the packing puzzle.
The roads are packed with students and their families as they move into town for fall semester. With cars everywhere I realize tired is not the best state of mind for a rider. Pushing open the visor the rush of air loosens my eyes and stiffens the spine. Mentally the rider dial turns to high and at least for the ride home any feelings of being tired evaporate.
At home, sitting in the garden, watching the sky through the tops of tall fir trees I dream of cooler weather and for me, the start of the riding season.
Sounds like the “Dog Days of Summer” have arrived. Soon the cool breezes of fall will take their place.
I’m with you, summer is my least favorite time of the year.
Wow…seems you and I both posted blogs within a short time of each other with titles which seem to hint at similar content, but could not possibly have diverged further afield from each other.
Nice.
I agree with you Steve – hot weather and sunny skies are not photo inducing ingredients. I spent the last couple of days working on the coast and kept thinking I can’t wait for stormy weather. That’s probably not normal but oh well.
I think towards the end of each season I find myself looking forward to the next one. Nice post!
I don’t mind sunny days and blue skies, but don’t like the heat either. However, having experienced Alberta winters (very much so from October to May) I prefer summer heat over fall/winter/spring snow.
It has been a corker of a summer here too. Extended weeks of extremely high umidity and hot weather.
Global warming is coming to a spot near you. So how does Junior enjoy the warm weather?
Dear Steve:
My riding season never got started at all this summer. It was just too damn hot to strap on all the body armor. There was one great cool day this month, and I missed it. It is 73º outside at the moment, but it is also raining, and my heart is not beating in the garage.
And for me, simple problems are compounded into cursing and swearing events by the heat. (I have a minor cooling system problem that will be resolved by a 20-minute visit to the shop tomorrow. Yet I do not want to run the risk of overheating somewhere.) I can understand your frustration with having to pack four bags of groceries on a scooter. (At least three would stow easily on the K-75.)
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
I can relate with your comments on the heat. Folks are out riding in t-shirts, shorts, and without helmets, but I don’t roll that way. Helmet, leathers, and boots are not optional accessories for me.
With the temperature in the mid-90s and humidity in the 80% range, riding has been out of the question for weeks, if not all season. Bring on the cold and damp! Riding season is just about to begin!
— Patefermente
I have to agree riding in summer is hard especially when you are travelling in the North west of Wertern Australia on a 200kg plus (440lbs) Sports tourer motorcycle in temperatures above 50 degrees celcius (122F). Makes for some interesting photography though, the rocks, heat shimmers, cloudless skys, barren landscapes it is surreal. The icy cold beer at the end of the day makes it worth while 🙂
I’m with you….I discovered this summer, my first with my Buddy 125, that I really don’t like the feeling of riding through a blast furnace. This summer has been particularly nasty here in Virginia, with weeks of 100+ degree temps and ridiculous humidity. Alas, true fall won’t really arrive until October, if we’re lucky, so I guess I’d better get used to a month or more of warm weather before it really starts to get nice.
Cheers!
Christine
I recommend listening to ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” while riding during summer. It will change your whole attitude 🙂
Here, if this doesn’t put you in the mood for summer riding, nothing will:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un8bas0Q9CY
Karen: I think those dog days have been here for a couple months. More than once I remember looking down at the ambient temperature readout on the Vespa I saw over 100 degrees. Granted the reading is near the pavement but still, too hot!
Bring on those cool fall breezes.
Robert: Is that Japanese garden in the header of your Web site your place? Very nice either way.
Paul: Maybe there is a convergence in the universe and it’s making us tired. Sounds like you have a lot more reason to be exhausted though. I’m just lazy….
Mike: I understand about being at the ocean and hoping for stormy weather. Brings those big heavy waves and a greyness that reminds a person how insignificant they are. It is a humbling place.
Sonja: Alberta would be rough in the winter. The past few years I have found I am not as hearty in cold weather as I used to be. In your part of Canada I would be struggling to stay positive in the winter. Especially with far fewer opportunities to ride…
Bryce: We are working on an article for Penn State Ag Science Magazine about how micro-climate changes affect the ability of malaria transmitting mosquitoes to survive further north. There is some warming at that level.
Junior doesn’t seem to be affected by the heat. Maybe that thick black coat insulates well. All I know is that when I touch him when he has been out in the sun he is a real hot dog.
Jack: I thought packing groceries on a BMW was some sort of BMWMOA violation that would bring about repossession of your motorcycle.
Hope you find some cooling relief soon and get that bike fixed.
Loughton: I have to confess I have softened my ATGATT policy this summer. On really hot days I have made the choice to ride in jeans alone rather than putting on the Tourmaster Overpants. Still have everything else but more than once I have thought it wasn’t a good idea.
Leather would be really hot I bet. At least the stuff I wear is vented or mesh…
Christine: 100+ and high humidity. Ugh. Thankfully there have been a few cooler days to ride. And in the evening or at night it is a pleasure to feel chilly.
anonymous from Australia: Reading your comment and description of the heat made that icy beer sound fantastic. And I don’t even like beer that much.
Rick: That advertisement for the Honda SuperCub is fantastic. Makes me want to go for a ride right now.
Next time I complain about the weather remind me of this video!
Steve:
Your comments hit home with me. Lately it has been so hot that gearing up for riding seems overly protective and I too relaxed my rules and tried jeans and running shoes on a recent bike gathering. Somehow it just didn’t feel right.
Heat saps your energy. Luckily the past few days it has cooled off and made for great riding weather. Our rainy season will be here soon enough so we have to enjoy the sun while we can
bob
Wet Coast Scootin
Hi Steve! Living down here in high heat and high humidity, that came a month early this year, we are just waiting for Autumn. With our luck it will be as long as Spring: one week. But it will be a reprieve! Hope your weather starts cooperating soon. Love the image of the bike under the tree. Color is fantastic. -Lori
It was not actually an advertisement, just made to look like one. Rob Reilly, an American teaching English in Japan, made it with his personal Super Cub.
He has lots more motorcycling and Super Cub-themed videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJcl_fTBRx0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VMo-gpyoR0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6djv-ExZ2nM
I can relate. For me there are different levels of tiredness. I prefer the kind that actually dissipates when you get on the bike, as if riding eraces it and you perk up and all is well, at least for the time being. Then there’s another kind, that no amount of riding or resting can resolve. It’s a mental, physical, perhaps even a spirituall fatigue that makes life a challenge at best. I’m just coming off a nasty chronic fatigue problem that has made me long for the former kind of tired as it would be a huge improvement.
Hope the launch of your ride season is a fun and safe one.
did you ever read about the guy who rode his scooter from Italy to the UK? that would’ve been a stunning journey.
https://www.scooter.co.uk/scooter-roadtrip-italy-to-uk.html
I wonder if these two guys could get together and ride SUPER FAST around Europe, haha!
https://www.scooter.co.uk/scooter-flames-thesun.html
—
http://www.mopeds.co.uk/50cc-moped-ninja.html
http://www.mopeds.co.uk/50cc-mopeds.html
It is a nice post and this post having nice collection of scooter’s pictures.There are many sites that deals online shoping of scooters.The best way is instead of going outside search scooters online so you must be able to buy good scooter.