Bye bye, summer, bye bye...

....and with it comes the fall equinox or autumnal equinox.

Wednesday afternoon the winds picked up and it got cold. Sunday we have awaken to a little bit of rain, not enough to help the fire fighters with the area forest fires though.
It has not been terribly cold but it sure has me considering pulling out the warmer gear sooner than expected. We are preparing for winter by tackling the usual chores, we have our supply of pellets for our stove, I'll be buttoning up the house with weatherstripping and covering the foundation vents. The yard will need fall preparation of mulch, rose pruning, overseeding the lawn and coiling up all the hoses and rounding up the sprinklers soon.

This will be my first winter on the America, last year I had some protection from the cold with the fairing of the Sprint.





I've considered buying a winter commuter bike, possibly a KLR250 or KLR650, something that would handle a little rain, sleet or snow. Something that if I dropped it and broke a clutch lever or brake lever off I wouldn't be too upset.
Then I thought, how's that for setting myself up, actually expecting to drop it, mentally telling myself...to crash.
Fortunately, a sense of reason set in when Brandy saw the photo of the KLR250 I was looking at online and said "looks like you have to kick it". I already have a bike I have to kick that I never ride, my kz, which I have also considered riding through the winter.



Riding a 32 year old bike in the rain, cold and dark just does not appeal to me at all. Besides, the lights are poor, tires are bald and it is a torque monster, not something you want to be riding when frost forms on the highway. Steady as she goes.

The early models of the Yamaha FJR1300 that cooked the rider in the summer would make a great winter bike. A little out of my budget and too big for Brandy to practice. I could use something with a fairing, yet light and nimble to build confidence in a new rider. Oh yeah, with electric start, kick starting is soooo 20th century. Sounds like a Ninja 250 to me, how much trouble can I get into with one of these?

Of course, I could always put some frame sliders on it, you know, just in case 'somebody' drops it.