Thursday, January 21, 2010

Snow and tractor tires

In comparison to other motorcycle tires, the Pirelli Scorpion Syncs are semi-tractor tires. Yesterday, and generally in the winter, I wish the profile rills were twice as deep.
The drives to the office in the morning and to the Säumerstrasse midday were as usual, though on my way to Rüschlikon I did notice some lazy snowflakes floating around in the sky.
After work at Opa's I went to Regina's for two hours to help her out. When I left her apartment at twenty after eight, it was snowing thickly and the road was slowly but surely turning white.
Well, it couldn't be helped. I started the Beast, pulled on gloves and my helmet and we headed off home as fast as we could, which, considering the circumstances, wasn't very fast at all. Especially since I was driving with an open visor because I can't see through the tinted glass in the dark.
To get home from Regina's I have to go over the Gattikon hill and up to the Langenberg, and the altitude changes were obvious.
Going through Gattikon worked all right, though the road was already completely brushed with a thin layer of white. The Albisstrasse, on the other hand, was the limit for parading a fat back tire. Luckily I had no one behind me; I drove the whole stretch in first gear.
One car driver was so kind as to alert me by flashing his brights to the fact that motorcycles really don't belong on the roads in these conditions. As if I didn't notice.
Finally I could set the blinker and turn into the Vögelistrasse. Ever since that useless road renovation got done we have a sharp bump between the main road and our "driveway" so you have to exit the main road very slowly if you're on two wheels. Well, we got off the Albisstrasse but then the snow was really too thick, and the back wheel kept breaking out at the slightest touch of the gas.
So I turned off the Beast and called Löchen.
He and Joshua both came jogging and pushed the bike into the garage for me, where it still stands, hoping, like me, for a quick disappearance of the white blanket.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Best customer

My birthday's in ten days. I'm thinking about taking the day off since I'm going to pick Kris up from the airport in the morning anyway. I haven't a clue what I want to do to make the day special. Go somewhere, do something, but what?
I think I'd be a lot less lethargic if this darn snow would ever disappear. Poor Beastie's getting entirely ignored and I can tell my, what's it called, psychological balance is going off kilter, not being able to drive.
For further bother, I realized today that the Love Ride is on May 2, which means I'll be missing Craig Jones there after already missing his show in Milan. I'm ticked; I told him several times I'd see him in Dübendorf. I'm going to write to him and hope he's got an Italian show in April or May that I can go to despite our 11-day Corsica/Sardinia tour.
Now the reason for the post's title.
Wednesday morning Michi called me and said he'd stumbled over a couple boxes of original parts that evidently belonged to me.
I thought I'd fetched everything in August, but I guess not. So on my way to Opa's midday I swung by the Müllerstrasse and picked the stuff up. First Ralf, one of their German mechanics came out; then Beni dropped was he was doing and came out to shake my hand and thank me for the cakes I brought them before Christmas. He asked after my health and I said aside from the snow I was doing all right, and why didn't they stock spiked tires for winter? He said it was for my own protection, so that I didn't blame them for potential damage... Can't argue with the danger of potential damage. Then Michi and Fabio both came down from an upper story. Michi went to go find the boxes while Fabio told me I could bring the car in.
They still had a seat and some cowling parts from me. I never realized I was missing those. We talked for a couple minutes, and Fabio let the comment fall that I was their best customer, marking up kilometers and always coming in for another service. "Or a new bike, though I haven't wrecked the last one yet," I added.
He quickly said he hadn't meant it that way, and then added thoughtfully, "But if you're going to, you better hurry, because we're about out of Buells."