Winter Opportunities

© Ken Bingenheimer / RumBum.com

A bike covered in snow can be a sad thing, but it can also be an opportunity.

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Here in Denver, show is falling now and it is supposed to continue through tomorrow evening. There will be no motorcycle riding today. That’s OK, there will be riding on other days. The calendar says it’s still fall, but Mother Nature says it’s winter. Winter is the season to be opportunistic.

A lot of riders put their bikes away for the winter. I’m not one of those bikes. Way, way back when I bought my first motorcycle I promised myself that I would ride that bike at least once every single month for as long as I owned it. I still own that bike and in more than 20 years I have never missed a month. When I bought a second bike that just meant I had two bikes that had to be ridden at least once every month.

Much of the year, of course, that’s no problem. You roll the bike out and go. Winter is different. Fortunately, here in Colorado, the snow falls and then it melts. We don’t have the roads icing over in December and asphalt never showing through again until April. That said, there are certainly periods when the roads are impassable, even on four wheels. That’s why you have to be opportunistic.

Usually, being opportunistic means that if it’s partly cloudy today, with temperatures in the 30s, you don’t want to be fooled by the forecast of sunny skies and temps in the 40s tomorrow. You ride today because you can, and then when the blizzard hits tomorrow you get to feel smug that you knew not to trust the weather man.

Sometimes, however, you have to make your own opportunities. January of 2007 was one of those times.

The snow fell heavily in December 2006, so when January came the roads were not rideable. And it kept on coming. Every week for six straight weeks we had snowstorms, and the temperatures stayed cold. The city doesn’t plow residential streets so even on those occasions when the main streets were clear, you had to be able to get out of your neighborhood. For cars, that meant sliding your way down the trenches everyone together had carved into the foot of snow and ice that covered the street. For motorcycles it meant sitting in the garage.

But the month was passing and I hadn’t gotten out on either bike. As February drew near it was getting serious. Something had to give, but what? How?

Finally, toward the end of the month, the storms stopped and the weather got warmer, but in this race against time it wasn’t going to be enough. It takes time for that much ice to melt off the street. I started looking at the sidewalk. 

Everyone on the block had shoveled their walks, but melting snow had formed ice here and there, and cars parked on the streets kept some places from getting sunlight. Mostly it was clear, though. On Jan. 28 I got up and saw the sun shining and immediately went out with sand and salt and checked out all the trouble spots. A little later I went back with a spade and scraped and chipped as much away from the trouble spots as I could. Then I sanded and salted them again. Then I came back with the shovel an hour later. One more sanding and salting and once more with the shovel and by about 1 p.m. my way was clear. There were still 15 feet of snow and ice to cross to get to dry pavement down at the cross street but that was manageable.

I suited up and rode down the sidewalk. My wife helped me carefully walk the bike across the ice and I was on my way. She thought I was crazy and suicidal. But I had a nice ride and came back and took the other bike down and did it again. Then we walked the bikes back across the ice and I rode them home up the sidewalk. I’m sure my neighbors thought it was a little odd but I had done it!

Sometimes you grab the opportunities. Other times you just have to make your own.