On The Pegs December 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 12 | Page 33

On The Pegs
Vol. 3 Issue 12 - December 2018
P 33
(Reality check: given that I live in Indiana, it was more like shaking my head at the
33-degree-freezing-rain, which is actually worse than snow, if such a thing is pos-
sible). However, most riders aren’t going to be as lucky as I am. So, in the spirit of
Christmas giving and so that all my years of winter suffering are not wasted, I’m
going to share with you my best winter survival tips to get you through until spring:
1) Grab some buddies and drive south for a weekend. New Year’s is a great time
for this, and a few degrees of longitude can meet the difference between 3ft of
snow and no snow, or frozen ground versus not frozen ground.
2) If you can’t go south, put studs and elephant ears on your bike, suck it up,
and ride. Fingers and toes aren’t that important anyway.
3) Spend time with the family you have neglected the other 9 months out of the
year.
4) Reading magazines about motorcycles is the next best thing to actually rid-
ing them. Might I suggest On The Pegs? I hear it’s pretty good.
5) Hit the gym. Your future dirt bike-riding self will thank you at the first race.
6) Work lots of overtime. Again, future dirt bike self will thank you when you can
afford to trick out your bike in the spring.
7) Find a Christmas tree display and arrow a sick single-track section through
the fake pines. It’s mischievously fun, usually security won’t bother to kick you out
(unless you actually start riding your new section in the middle of Macy’s), and
as a nice bonus, you’re basically leaving a secret message for your fellow sad and
frustrated local riders.
8) Go do something in the garage. Surely there’s some chore you’ve been put-
ting off you can get done, and the garage has this special ability to suck the all
the free time out of your life like nothing else. You walk out in mid-December
planning to sort out your spare parts bin, and the next thing you know it’s July.
9) Most of all, be grateful that even though you can’t ride right now, someone
introduced you to dirt bikes, and made your life so much better because of it! n