I will ride year round. I don't care much for the rain but as long as the temp peaks in the upper 50s during the day I'm willing to brave the elements and take a ride.
Here's an interesting cold ridin story.
I had a speedmaster about 6 mos before I got the America. I had gotten it in december of 05 and put over 7000 miles on it before I totalled it in late june of 06.
I was riding it to work on one of those 40degree mornings. Beautiful sunny morning in late winter. My job is only 30 miles from home so I do okay on the cold mornings. The sun was warming my black leather jacket while the engine kept some heat on my legs. The scarf around my neck kept my throat from being blasted with cold air while keeping the air flow into the bottom side of my helmet to a minimun.
About 3/4 the way into the trip, I was riding right into the sun. My face was warming up pretty good as the air inside my full face fulmer began to heat up from the sun. Suddenly I felt something moving around on top of my head. It moved a little at first, but the farther I traveled the more active the little bugger became. I was beginning to become concerned but rush hour traffic on Hwy 49 coming into hattiesburg, ms can be pretty hairy so I decided against trying to stop. Instead I decided to just continue on to work. It was just a few more miles down the road and I began to suspect what had occured.
Once I parked my bike at work, I removed my helmet and to my surprise out scrambled a little green lizard. He was young, about half the size of an adult and quite agitated at that point. He jumped to the ground and began to scramble toward a parked car. I didn't want him to end up in the car so I chased him down. Once capturing the little beast, I took him to a shrub at the edge of the parking lot and released him. Apparently he had moved into my helmet and gone to sleep for the winter. To his surprise and mine, that little country lizard moved to the city. Needless to say, I didn't take him back home that night.
