I'm happy to report that I have survived my first year of riding motorcycles. I took over a 20 year hiatus while my sons were growing up and last April I started riding again.

After a year, I've ridden well over 5,000 miles and with a small exception I enjoyed every single one of them.

The only miles that I didn't enjoy were the ones traversing the Capital beltway in the rain. It was only about 42 degrees, I was nice and dry and warm but the beltway is my least favorite highway in the country. There are many lanes, the surface is uneven and you are surrounded by the scum that thrive on the cesspool of Washington DC. Not that everybody associated with our federal government is scum, I'm sure there are one or two really great people who happen to work for the government, so I do not mean to offend that person.

I survived that soggy ride to get to the train station to hop a ride on the auto train. This was part of our move to Sarasota, a saga that only lasted about three months but is thankfully over. I'll pound out another blog entry with some details but this one is about riding and not companies with questionable ethical boundaries...

The bike above has been changed a bit since that picture was snapped. It's got some extra chrome bits, heated grips, a new exhaust and a heavy breather air intake. I need to get a more recent picture. The new exhaust and air cleaner when combined with the "race" tuning ended up providing me with an extra 13 HP and a nice bump in torque. My only complaint is that the new pipes get really, really hot, hot enough to melt my leather riding pants. Other than that the boost in power and the pleasing exhaust note make the bike even more of a joy to ride.