I’ve been neglecting the motorcycle lately, which, if you believe machinery and the skills required to operate machinery work better if regularly used, is a bad thing.\u00a0 So I woke up this morning determined to ride, and even though it’s cloudy and wet, put on my gear and went for it.<\/p>\n
Okay, it was only a sixty-mile jaunt, a loop through southeastern Tucson and Vail, but I had the roads almost to myself and it was fun.\u00a0 I wore the helmet that’s wired for sound, so Garrison Keillor came along for the ride (really, can his show get much lamer?).\u00a0 Even though it rained, the cocoon provided by the Goldwing’s windshield and fairing kept me dry, and those heated handgrips?\u00a0 Best invention ever.<\/p>\n
In southern Arizona, unlike most of the rest of the country, late fall, winter, and early spring is riding season.\u00a0 Curvy two-lane roads lead from Tucson to Mount Lemon, Sonoita, Patagonia, Tombstone, Bisbee, Globe, Kitt Peak, and Arivaca, all half-day rides.\u00a0 If you have a full day, you can add Globe, Show Low, and the Chirachuas near Willcox to the list.\u00a0 If you’re willing to spend the night somewhere, you can open up all of Arizona: the Mogollon Rim, Flagstaff, Sedona, Prescott, all fantastic riding country . . . or head west to San Diego if you don’t mind spending six hours on the freeway.<\/p>\n
Ah, but if you ride to California, you have to bring your helmet.\u00a0 Now I do wear a helmet, but after two or three hours of steady riding I get hot spots.\u00a0 In Arizona you can take your helmet off if it starts to bother you . . . or ride without one altogether . . . but you can’t do that in California.\u00a0 To be perfectly frank, not having to wear a helmet is one of the main reasons Arizona is so popular with motorcyclists . . . as are New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah.\u00a0 I actually know motorcyclists who are so anti-helmet they won’t ride outside the four-state area.<\/p>\n
I’m pro-helmet, and not just for safety . . . I need to keep the sun off my head and face, so a helmet with a good anti-UV visor is a necessity.\u00a0 Now I just need a find one that fits perfectly.\u00a0 Most of my rides are of the three- to four-hour variety, so I’m fine with the helmet . . . I can stop for lunch halfway through and take the damn thing off for awhile.\u00a0 But when I ride all day, I confess to spending at least part of the day riding helmetless; I’m thankful I live in Arizona where I can legally do that. Risky?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 But so is motorcycling in general, with or without head protection.\u00a0 And slipping in bathtubs?\u00a0 Don’t even get me started!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been neglecting the motorcycle lately, which, if you believe machinery and the skills required to operate machinery work better if regularly used, is a bad thing.\u00a0 So I woke up this morning determined to ride, and even though it’s cloudy and wet, put on my gear and went for it. Okay, it was only […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-motorcycling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1273,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}