First ride of 2016 (February 20, 2016)

 Finally! On February 20, the temperature got into the high 60s close to 70 in fact. Got my bike out and took to the roads. Headed through Richmond and down Highway 5. Five is one of my favorite roads, which goes South past a number of plantations, battlefields (from the Civil War), farms, and the James River. Got to the Colonial Parkway and rode that beautiful road to Yorktown, VA. This is not snow in the photo..its sand for that is Yorktown Beach. It is nice because it is easy to get to and a fun place to hang out. Plus and this goes without saying or it should that it is a great ride.    

Stopped at the Yorktown Pub in Yorktown. While it is the off season there, there were a lot of people inside the Pub including a large number of motorcycles. The ones seen here are only a few. In fact you would almost guess it was a motorcycle rally in the town.
Did stop for a beverage and watched some of Nascar qualifying for the Daytona 500 (which was the following day) and the end of the Louisville/Duke game which Louisville won. Nice place with good food. I did not get any of that as they were slammed, but take my word for it. In fact there are a number of good places to eat in Yorktown.

 This is one of the very old houses (roof is not original) but the house dates to the 1700's I explored some of the beach area, some of the old buildings (some are recreations) and just generally sucked up just being there.
About midafternoon, I headed back down the road. This time via a different route skipping the Colonial Parkway. Ended up in Hampton and visited the NASA facility there (but did not go in but got a photo from the outside) and headed back toward Richmond via I-64. As usual, traffic was heavy with it being a parking lot heading back toward the beach. Luckily I was headed in the other direction.
Stopped for lunch in a little town (Burger King, and did not try the new hot dogs they have but will before the year is out. Nice ride, and did make a quick stop.
One of my favorite places in Richmond is the Virginia Aviation Museum which is on the grounds of the Richmond International Airport. They used to have an SR-71 outside there, but that has been moved to the Science Museum where it will be displayed. I did get this photo of the F-14 Tomcat at the museum and of course, my ride.
It was a really fantastic day. At the end of it, which was actually around 11:30 PM as I went out with some friends for a few hours before riding home, had traveled a bit over 180 miles.
Nice good start to the riding season though sure to be some cold weather still before Spring really pops. This is still winter and there are a few more days of official winter to go. I also took a few more photos and some of the those will be on my Racing with the Wind blog page.

Downtime Thoughts (February 14, 2016)

Havent been riding for a while, In fact the last ride was December when I moved the motorcycle from the apartment to the house. Since then it has been sitting in the little house. Reasons? Salt/sand from the snow(s) of late, rain and cold.A far cry from last December..but signs of Spring abound.
Sadly this is Velocity. Great motorcycle shop in Richmond and was open for 15 years. I dropped in there on February 13 just about cleaned out.Told the owner "did not want to put any more money in it. Great work and fair prices, it will be greatly missed.

I also went by Scoot Richmond. Started out as a Scooter shop, added Moto Guzzi, Zero motorcycles (electric) and Triumph. What you see here in a new 2016 Triumph Street Twin. Its the only one in (yet) of the new Bonneville line. That line will have three engines...a 900cc high torque engine (which is what is in the Street Twin, a 1200 High Torque (which will be in the T120 models) and a 1200cc High Power which will be in the Thruxton models. And yes, that is a radiator-all the engines are water cooled (though read the air fins on this motor are also functional). From my impression a sharp and well made motorcycle and a very interesting addition to the Triumph line. It is a bike that looks both to the past and to the future. While not in the market right now it is a motorcycle I could look at in the future.

We got some snow this morning, but the temperature is going UP tonight from the deep freeze of the past few days. Plus getting some rain which will wash a lot of the crap off the streets and it is possible that for the first time in a long time I may get to ride this weekend when the temperature is due to hit....61. Hopefully anyhow. Have been starting it and moving it and so far so good. A ride would sure be wonderful :)