I had plenty of motorcycle adventures following the Father's Day Ride in 2017. Unfortunately, some of those included riding around drowned Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey on my KTM 1290. I followed that up with a surprise open-heart surgery which included some painful post-surgical complications. Put all of that together and I didn't ride much beyond commuting for the last three months of the year.
I did, however, do two noteworthy things.
As much as I liked my new 2017 Harley Road Glide, there were a couple of things about it that I didn't much appreciate. Ridiculous little things but things that drove me nuts. Irritating little things like the suspension and my inability to see the speedometer for much of the day. I found it impossible to find a setting on the suspension preload to replicate the ride on my old Limited. And I found in necessary to always keep the GPS on which I used as the speedometer. Try as I might, after 16000 miles, those two things drove me nuts.
So, when I brought it in to get two new tires, I left it behind and rode home on a 2017 Ultra Classic Limited. Financially, not the best move in the world but I'm at the age where I'm free to do stupid things when they mattered. That mattered, so I did it.
I did do a bit of a test ride between Christmas and New Year's. I want to do a "Ride Around Texas Insanity Gold" ride in 2018. Basically a 3200 mile ride around the periphery of Texas in 70 hours or less. I would love to do that on the KTM but it isn't nearly as comfortable as the Harley so the Harley it is.
I have a few other rides on the horizon for 2018. All of them involve riding east or north. One is going to be with a small group of friends out to Washington, DC for the Memorial weekend "Rolling Thunder Rally." I haven't done a long ride with a group in years - I've pretty much settled into riding solo all of the time - but this one sounds worth it. I also want to take a break on riding west this year - except for a trip to Big Bend in November.
The one thing I know is that my heart surgery changed my thinking on a few things. For one, I sold my little dual sport Suzuki. Falling down on trails didn't sound fun anymore. I decided that I would limit my falling down to the KTM on trails. For another, as much as I love my job, I also love to get away and ride. So I'm going to make sure and take every day possible to do just that.
2018 will be a great year.
