Apr 2, 2021

In Celebration of the 2021 Riding Season - Issue #11

By Adam Chandler • Issue #11 • View online

Can 2021 just follow our traditions instead of being a repeat of 2020?

Porter has been with me since I started riding. He knows riding season is coming

It’s almost serendipitous how traditions are formed, you realize that this year is like last year and the year before and while COVID-19 had a life-changing impact on all of us, around this time last year, I was still going through the motions.

January - maintenance month
February - BMW Dealer month when MaxBMW picked up my bikes and looked them over for issues, recalls, computer updates
March - the building of my rally calendar and renewing my club memberships
April - that’s when riding season starts and I realize how fat I’ve gotten since November

The bike and I got out this year on March 31st, later than I hoped but earlier than most. As is tradition, I looked at the calendar and it has been 143 days since my last ride in November. Riding in December sometimes happens but after my last ride on November 8th, we had a snow storm then another.

Like tradition dictates, I spent about 3 hours on Rosie Red traversing our back roads and stopping to look at turkey and ducks and other birds and admiring the rock walls that are now appearing along these forgotten roads.

I rode about 20 miles total on a mix of pavement and goopy mud, my ankles felt a bit strained from 6 months of inactivity and I had to keep muttering in my helmet, “loose shoulders | loose wrists” so that I could allow that 670 pound motorcycle beneath me to move with the direction of the mud.

…and just like last year, I ended up at Starbucks with my matching license plate. Heather dropped by and snapped a photo before we headed home.

Remembering tradition, I woke up today with my GS covered in snow. It’s a reminder that April of 2021 just like April of 2020 isn’t guaranteed. Unlike 2020, I think we have a very good chance of a fantastic riding season. We had better or I’m going to lose my damn mind.

I’m thinking of all of my friends today. There are some of you who we lost in 2020 and some of you who feel like lost friends after a year of not riding together. I’m very hopeful that we’ll get back to the traditions that were put on hold in 2020 and that we’ll do it safely. I’m going to go run on the treadmill while the snow melts.

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By Adam Chandler

These are my ramblings about motorcycling. For the most part, these will be editorials you will have seen in regional and national motorcycle publications or longer posts and ride-reports as seen on ADVRider.com. Occasionally, I will post content here that is exclusive to paid subscribers and eventually be made free for all. Thank you.

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Central NH/VT, USA