Summertime Blues

Photo by Creative Riding

So, you’re shin-deep in snow, you haven’t ridden in a couple months, and sitting in the garage crying on your bike just isn’t cutting it anymore. To top that off,  just a few days ago here in the Northern Hemisphere, a ground hog predicted that there would be six more weeks of winter.
Even here in Southern California the unrelenting rain has left some of us in the dumps as we wait to dry out. Many SoCal dirt bikers aren’t even venturing into the hills due to deep washouts, flooding and landslides caused by the recent heavy precipitation.

Photo by Paul Smith

For those of you here in SoCal lucky enough to have gotten out in January while the weather was warm, you enjoyed cool events like the Long Beach Swap Meet, the MotoLady’s Women’s Motorcycle show at Lucky Wheels Garage, or the Hell on Wheels TT event.

Honorary field producer and regular stand-up guy Bri Viffer attended the Biltwell swap meet early in January and scored some radical pics.

Photo by Paul Smith

Come the end of January and the beginning of February however, and the rains have descended upon California. Coupled with the wildfires that normally plague the Southland at the end of each summer and the severe drought that the state has been in for many years, the rains have brought flooding and landslides to many parts of the state.
SoCal is not the only victim of the foul weather. The northern parts of the state are also being washed away or are suffering massive landslides and traffic congestion as roadways are either inaccessible or crowded with commuters seeking alternate routes.

Photo by Creative Riding

Enough crying and whining about the rain in California. We know that the rest of you have your toes in the snows as we are writing this. It’s raining here as this is being typed, so we can empathize with your pain of not being able to ride.

Photo by Chris Dewhurst

That’s why we’re going to head across the oceans and meridians to the Southern Hemisphere where it’s summer.
A listener of the show shared some really cool pics and vids of a recent ride that he took.

Aussie Chris (so named because he is Australian and his name is Chris) sent us some documentation of his adventures.
It started out a few weeks ago with some beautiful weather and a couple of weeks of vacation.
He used a Rhino Seal Doctor similar to the one in the link to fix his forks up before his ride out.

Photo by Chris Dewhurst

He supplied us with the following video and and I added some tunes to it. I don’t know if the area that he sent in is considered to be the outback or the backyard, but whatever it is, it looks like a lot of fun to ride.

Here’s one last shot from his venture into the Australian wilds:

Photo by Chris Dewhurst

Another down-under friend of the show is Dan Michael from www.DailyBikers.com. He’s also been enjoying the weather down under on his GS and aboard his new Grom.

Hopefully the weather will get better soon for all of us here, and we can look forward to some sunny and bright roads. In the meantime, enjoy the pics from warmer climes and warmer times until the sun comes out again.

P.S. Punxatawney Phil must be a witch!
Video by Paul Smith

-Cheers!