The season has started

Lord knows I don't subscribe to the idea of biking season. If the roads are anything but icy or snowy, the bike comes out, no matter how cold it is.
But this winter - I daren't say "past" yet - delivered a lot of icy and snowy, and in the past two months the Beast and I were lucky to drive a hundred kilometers.
There was no passing up the sun and 6° C today offered. We covered about 60 kilometers out to Einsiedeln and back, and afterward the Beast was relieved of a complete winter's dirt and salt.

The scaredy-cat stripes on the tire edges might as well be neon orange in these pictures, they show up so well. I can't wait for the snow to disappear and the roads to be dry again.

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.

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."

Christmas lights

Pretty, isn't it? Beni installed the engine lighting last Thursday. One light per side and one in the airbox cover. I'm missing the Angel Eyes, or another light in the Pegasus of the flyscreen. It needs another touch of light in front.
The Beast is looking purtier and specialler all the time.

Bug grave

The other day I asked Löchen to mount the tinted glass on my Shoei Hornet helmet. My eyes have been giving me a lot of trouble lately, and on the last drive with UB I was practically blind toward the end, with my right contact bothering me as if it were made of wood and the sun shining directly in my face.

To mount the glass Löchen had to take off the visor. He handed me the aeration duct and said, "Clean it."

I'll say.

Future commute

Last Saturday was too beautiful not to spend it driving. I wanted to finally get some pictures of my chalet - that is to say, the chalet that will soon be mine. I advertised my plans in the UB forum, and Damian said he'd like to come along. It's nice that I'm not the only one who'll the autobahn for an hour in order to ride the curves.
The tour lasted a good four hours in a warm wind, dry roads, and a Scorpion front tire that after 6000 km is slowly but surely losing its profile. It was a pretty comfortable ride.
On the Schwägalp I could take my pictures. Contrary to my expectations, there was no snow up there. Well, almost none.
Afterwards we mounted our machines, which had been able to take a short rest on my parking lot

and headed back down into the valley. We parted ways in Wil, and on the way home I discovered the Hülftegg and some new roads in the Töss valley. Unfortunately, both were wet, but it didn't rain.

Upon arrival back in Adliswil the Beastie got a well-earned and long overdue bath.

Like an animal

For three days, until yesterday morning, I ignored the Beast. I didn't forget it, of course; i just left it in the garage. It doesn't like that at all.
Rainy weather, wet roads, and study vacation are all to blame for the fact that I haven't driven even 100 km this week. Yesterday, however, the Bonnie was due at the mechanic's for a tire change and a couple small repairs (or so I thought, but more on that farther down) and so in order to get to the last hours of the repetition class for the basics course in real estate management, I got out the Beast.
It always starts just fine, but I was adjusting my helmet strap when the engine burbled lethargically and then died. I started it again, and the same thing would have happened if I hadn't grabbed the gas. I had to keep it between 2500 and 3000 rpm for several minutes to properly wake it up; the exhaust was smoking like the Hagenholz trash burning facility.
On the drive to Baar, the Beast was fussy, as if it had to learn to roll all over again. The ventilator only whirred on in Baar; not five minutes after starting like it usually does. Pete's sakes, it was in the garage for three days, not three months!
Machine indeed. It's an animal that needs daily exercise.

About the Bonnie: I asked Herr Dutli put on the winter tires, replace the stabilizers up front and see if he could figure out what the occasional screeching noise came from up front.
Stabilizers - no problem. Tire change - he said the wheels are in bad shape because of their age and they had to scrub off the rust so the tires would hold properly. Screeching noise - the front brakes are through.
Gulp. I asked what this session would cost and he apologetically guessed between twelve and fourteen hundred franks.
And here I was hoping this stop at the mechanics would cost less than last time's episode with the drive belt.
Oh well, can't be helped. It'd be a pity to let the Bonnie go to wrack and ruin as it is a very faithful car, and I really don't want to buy a pickup now. I would like for my savings account to stay full past the end of the year, see.