Two In A Row!

Today was a great day for riding. I think it was around 13C this morning when I left for work, and with just a few clouds, a light breeze, and not a lot of traffic, it was almost perfect. Except... I was late for work so I had to take the direct route in. Ah well.

It rained briefly early in the afternoon - just enough to make the air smell nice and make black KLRs look dirtier.

Got out of work late and when I got outside it was still around 26C (one of the electronic time/temperature signs on the street said 28C). I ran into Crash, MC, and D in the parking lot. We got to chatting about bikes - D is selling his and MC is getting to the point where she's looking for a bike so there was some test riding and gabbing about bike stuff. I managed to convince Crash and MC to test ride the KLR, they went for a short trip around the parking lot.

MC's evaluation? Sitting on the KLR felt like sitting on a couch. Heh.

After chatting for a while, we decided to get in a quick ride out to Headingley. Ended up riding down Inkster to the Perimeter and then to Portage to get to Headingley. It was a great ride - both Crash and D have bikes with vastly more power and acceleration than the KLR does, but they're polite enough about it to wait for me to catch up before turning onto another road.

I'm getting used to leaning again - with the water, ice, and sand/gravel on the streets, I was slowing way down for my turns. Now that they're gone, I'm trying to get back into the habit of taking turns at speeds approaching normal. I took one today at Sturgeon and Inkster where I could feel the rear wheel walking out a bit on me as I turned, I must have been taking it a little too fast. I put my faith in the bike, though, and it held on and all was well.

But where was I... oh, right - the ride through Headingley was great, as always. A few slight curves, not a lot of traffic, great scenery, and lots of good smells (unlike the dump yesterday, blugh). We rode straight in on Roblin and then went our separate ways.

I enjoy riding by myself a lot, but I also enjoy riding with friends - particularly those who aren't trying to turn it into a race or something like that. It's relaxing and fun to geek out about riding with them later on!

Safe riding!

Odometer reading now: 9742.7km

Distance since last fill: 181.5km