This is my third winter as a year round rider. The cold, wind, and rain fade into the background if you have good winter gear. I actually prefer the bike over the car, and given the choice of riding or taking my wife’s car I gear up 100% of the time. My wife does not share this view of the weather, so sometimes I am forced to endure the confines of a Subaru Legacy GT. Don’t get me wrong, I owe my life to a Subaru, and the Legacy has some nice features. Heated seats, satellite radio, cup holders, reverse…you know, all the same stuff as a Honda Goldwing.
I bring this up because I had to drive yesterday. The rain was fairly steady from Concord to Fremont, and since it was a weekend, I didn’t have to deal with the commuter traffic. We listened to the comedy channel on the satellite radio, there was Starbucks in the cup holders, and at risk of talking too much about my behind, the heated seats were functioning flawlessly. Once we got to our destination my wife brought up an interesting point…
40 minutes or so on the freeway, in the rain, and not once did I hit the switch for the wipers. I shrugged it off but paid more attention to it on the way home. George Carlin? Check. Peppermint Mocha? Check. Warm rump? Check. The wipers, however, remained off. Although it was quite dark in the car because of the rain and glass tinting. I have recently done window tinting (more at Dalo Auto Tinting website) and haven’t got used to it yet. I guess I prefer the way the world looks through my visor, and yesterday this was the best I could do.
my girlfriend bought a satellite radio but most of the time we do not use it ‘
there are great programs on satellite radio too in the same way we have great programs on terrestial radio`-~
i am not a fan of Satellite Radio but i guess it would become more popular as years go by.:”
I recall one of the ISDE riders who lived in New Hampshire (or some god-forsaken place) saying he liked to drive around in his car and never used wipers. Because, “It’s great practice for enduros.”
Same same here. I often don’t turn ’em on and people in the car start in with the “It’s raining! Turn your wipers on!” chant. :-)
Cool. I’m not the only one who’s wife tells them to use the windshield wipers when I don’t need to.
dude, you summed it up so perfectly! people who don’t ride simply don’t understand it. melissa doesn’t even understand it. melissa will make comments that i should have the wipers on…but i never even noticed that they weren’t on!
great post, man! it’s the little things that make such a big difference sometimes. *thumbup*
I have exactly what info I want. Check, please. Wait, it’s free? Awesome!