Failing to plan...

Iam in a lucky position to own heated kit to keep me warm and snug from head to toe, no matter how cold it gets. On top of that I have waterproofs to keep me dry. So in theory there are no excuses to not ride all-year round. But even with all the right kit, the reality of arctic temperatures, greasy roads and road crud that covers your visor in minutes, it doesn’t take that long until you start wondering what else you could be doing instead of riding.

These very thoughts were going through my head as I was riding along in late January, in 5degC temperature, on roads that looked more suited for off-roading than touring. I was warm and dry, but then again I was wearing six layers of clothing, one of which was heated. Still, it wasn’t the best time I’ve ever had on a bike.

As I got home I decided that this time of year what I really should be doing was to give my Suzuki DR350 a little service so I could take it out for a bit of green laning (I know that would be cold, wet and muddy too, but in a more purposeful way).

Changing the oil and oil filter, and either cleaning or replacing the air filter should be enough to keep the old work horse going, I thought. Simple to do, I thought.

‘‘ Riding along in late January, I was warm and dry, but then again I was wearing six layers of clothing

I’ll go into more detail in a future issue of Motorcycle Sport & Leisure, but suffice to say that not only did this job keep me warm and dry, but it also raised my blood pressure, triggered a bout of Tourettes, and left me asking the same old question: why on earth am I doing this again?

In the end I got the job done, and felt the warm glow of satisfaction having achieved something, but it also made me realise that I’m much more suited to riding bikes than tinkering with them. So the six layers went back on and I headed out into the cold. It was lovely!