Sunday, September 7, 2008

September 7, 2008



Last night, hurricane Hannah came through. My wife was up late and said that it rained hard. I slept through it. This morning, I went out for an early morning ride to check out the high waters. The first place I found was where the Blackstone River was bridged by Route 122. I stopped at a restaurant that went out of business, called The Riverside and observed high water flowing under the 122 bridge. I rode around finding many roads littered with debris from trees. Some roads were rather treacherous and extra caution was needed just to keep the wheel from slipping out from under me! One place was covered with wet old pine needles, that had puddled in the storm, which was extremely slippery. I had a little difficulty traversing it; perhaps if my tires were a little more aggressive, perhaps if I were traveling at a higher rate of speed, there might not have been an issue, but my tires are what they are and the road did not allow for a higher speed, so a quick stomp on the ground kept my bike from getting it's first scratches. I will chalk this up to inexperience and learn from my mistake. I should have had no problems, but I suppose that comes with the miles on the bike. Otherwise, the F650 performed great! I was a little hesitant, at first, when coming upon the sticks and small logs that were knocked down from the wind, but after unavoidably hitting some stuff, I found the bike to take the rough stuff well.