I broke one of the plastic tabs off of my right plastic side cover on my motorcycle today. I was trying to remove it so it wouldn’t meet the same fate as my left plastic. It still should be able to stay on but its annoying that one of the three tabs is now very much broken. Perhaps this is a sign that I need to build my own side covers to make the bike more awesome. When Jaime’s dad saw my bike in the Starbucks parking lot today, he couldn’t figure out what sort of bike it was until I told him. I sort of like the stealth bike appeal.
Taking a friend to Salem through the heavy fog
Today I went on a ride with Jaime up to Salem. Her father met us at a Starbucks just north of downtown. She took her bike to Portland with him this afternoon for winter storage.
The air temperature never went above 50 the entire ride and in fact in some places was probably closer to 40. A thick layer of fog that alternated between hugging the ground and hovering about 15 feet above the ground stayed with us all the way from Corvallis to Salem and back again. I added an extra layer of pants and an extra layer of long sleeve shirt today compared to what I had on Friday. It helped quite a bit. My only real problems were the periodic fogging up of my visor on the inside and the periodic moisture buildup on the outside of the visor.
On the return trip I was alone and was able to bomb back quite quickly. It seemed that the fog made traffic go more quickly than normal. The ride was about 80 miles total.
I took on fuel in Corvallis at 86.6 miles on the odometer before I left town. I paid $3.99 total getting 1.814 gallons. My fuel economy was somewhere around 47 mpg. This cold air seems to make it run a bit more rich than in the summer.
Fall Colors From the Seat of a Motorcycle
This evening Jaime and I rode our motorcycles west and south of Corvallis over the hills on Decker Road down to the Bellfountain Highway to Bellfountain. We stopped in the little hamlet to take a few photos in front of the church on our motorcycles. All of the trees are fully ablaze in color. Every corner we turned, ever hill we crested presented us with a fresh vista full of Fall.
On the ride back, the air temperature dropped with the setting sun. By the time we hit Corvallis, both Jaime and I were a bit chilled. Next time I go out riding, I will have to wear a thermal layer or two. The colder weather has arrived.
In related ride news, my oil level remains fine. There is no evidence of burning oil.
I also purchased gas today. 1.55 gallons for 72.3 miles which works out to 46.6 gallons. That would be the second worst fuel economy I have had to date. The worst was from the maintenance ride I had to do a few months back.
In total, my ride was about 54 miles. Jamie’s ride would be about 51 miles.