Winter Slowdown

Just an observation and maybe a silly one, but man, what a change in traffic on this site when the snow flies. Are the greater portion of XJ riders in northern areas? Or are us snow people the only ones crazy enough to own and maintain them?

From where I sit, my great plans for cleaning and other projects like the pulsating low beam conversion have become a lot less appealing with the work/storage area at -20C (-4F).

The weather man says we will see above-freezing temps Christmas Day, so I'll start her up then and dream a few Christmas presents to myself.

 

I want to get out and ride now that I am on Christmas Break (senior in college), but here in Boulder, we've gotten about 10 inches of snow over the past 7-10 days.

I live in an alley (at the very end actually) and the entire alley is covered in tracks from where cars drove down the alley. Because of that, and the 50 degree weather the past 2 days, it has turned to ice. So even though it is 50 degrees out, I can't get my bike out of the alley safely (theres a hill going down, and its really ice to walk on, even today I couldn't walk up the alley hill).

But I did go outside today and start her up just to make sure it still ran. I actually just miss the sound of her! So I let her run for a couple of minutes and revved the engine to get things moving, rocked her back and forth to spin the wheels and parkd her in a different spot (so tires don't get weak spots).

Oh, and I filled up the gas tank and put some fuel stabilizer in it, since I leave town on Friday and probably won't be able to ride her until a week or two into January when I get back.

However, I have been using this time to search for parts online! I am definitely removing the front fairing, and giving her a nice Naked look, maybe even a streetfighter...depends on what I decide. The dual headlights I am looking at are expensive, but have a nice windscreen.