April 2016 – Mechanical Sympathy

A bit of paint and I can now tell the
ignition key from the nearly
identical pannier key.

Regularly riding is a nice thing in mid-April up here. It rained yesterday, so I commuted in the box, but today has dawned foggy and damp but with no rain in the forecast, so it’s off I go again on two wheels, hopefully with the actioncam on video this time.

Getting to work after a ride in is invigorating. Instead of a tedious trundle in a car you’re full of oxygen. You’ve smelled everything on the way in and you’re switched on because you never ride a bike half aware.

The other morning I was at an all day meeting only five minutes from home, so rather than go straight there I shot past it and went for a ride along the river. I still ended up being one of the first to arrive, and I was cold but lit up in the way that only a bike ride can do.

At the end of a day of meeting about something I get the sense has already been decided (but we had to talk about it all day anyway – yes, it was tedious), instead of going home I took the bike down the Grand River to the covered bridge and then came back on the north shore. Even a short, twenty minute ride like that put the spring back in my step and cleared away the Kafkaesque cobwebs in my head from that day of soul sucking, meaningless blah blah.

The foggy and damp ride in this morning. The smell of earth and new shoots filled the heavy air as the Tiger purred to work…

When you want to start riding in April in Canada
you need to take precautions!

Today saw a 150km round trip down to Ancaster and back; the first ride of the season. It was 2°C when I left at 7:15am this morning. No frost, but a cold ride to start.

I stopped in Kirkwall, by the kirk, for a stretch and to remove the balaclava. By the time I got down to Ancaster for an educational conference it was warming up nicely.

I was out of the conference about 2pm. By that time the temperature was pretty much perfect for a ride. I took the main road into Ancaster and then up Sulfur Springs and Mineral Springs Roads, doing a loop before heading back north.

A cold start.

The Tiger was fantastic, feeling more powerful than the Concours with a much more relaxed riding position. At first the higher riding position felt a bit awkward, but I quickly discovered that the Metzeler tires and taut suspension, even though it’s long, could handle any corners I threw at them. Any cornering awkwardness had at least as much to do with me being rusty from a winter in boxes as it did with the bike’s geometry.

There were dozens of other bikes out and about in the warm weather. The Tiger got a lot of double takes. I know it shouldn’t matter but in a couple of days of riding I’ve already had more compliments than I did in a year of riding on the Concours. Halfway home I was thinking I could leave for Ushuaia immediately on this fine machine.

Once home I checked over the fluids. The Tiger barely used any gas, and the oil and coolant was right where I’d left them. I’ve got an air filter on hand (the previous owner said, “air filter?” when I asked if it had been done recently), but I don’t want to miss a ride while I’m doing it now that the weather’s good. I’m hoping a mid-week after work change will give me the time to get it done. To do the air filter means pulling the gas tank – it’s not as easy as it’s been on previous bikes.