It’s been a long winter and it’s felt especially long since I’ve barely ridden at all these past few months as compared to years past.
“The tears are welling up in my eyes again
I need twenty big buckets to catch them in
Twenty pretty girls to carry them down
Twenty deep holes to bury them in”
That song was running through my head earlier this afternoon while gearing up to go on a few errands on the bike… you’ve got to love Nick Cave.
The promise of spring is here and I’ve broken out my new black suede shoes just for the occasion! I’m walking around in a t-shirt and signs of spring are all over Brooklyn right now… cars rolling by with their windows down bumping Biggie (nothing reminds me more of summer in the city than hearing Brooklyn’s own spit hot fire out of passing cars), people driving way too fast and are literally all over the road – in the span of just a few blocks, I witnessed 1 accident and 3 near accidents, one of the near misses ended up driving down a crowded sidewalk in order to avoid the collision. And one last reminder that spring is around the bend? Hearing popo’s sing song call of “WHOOP WHOOP!!” everywhere I go.
As I pull up to my local motorcycle shop this afternoon, I was a bit surprised to find several riders milling about. Apparently they thought it was spring too. I was there to get my bike “inspected” since my sticker is now out of date. I say inspected with quotes because this particular shop isn’t very diligent when it comes to inspecting the bike. As long as your brake and head lights work, you’ll get your sticker. I find this to be very convenient.
While waiting for my inspection guy to wrap up the paperwork, my bike drew a small crowd of homeboys wondering exactly what kind of bike my bike was. I guess they didn’t know that Honda once produced a liter sized twin sportbike bike before. As I told them about it, they all jumped backed when I started it because they didn’t expect quite as loud of a bark from the rumbling exhaust. Blown away by the exhaust note (literally and figuratively), they went into the dealer to inquire about buying one. Sorry gents, Honda cut the RC from their line up a few model years ago. You can find them used online but chrome will cost you extra 
But back to that Nick Cave song “Hallelujah”… as morbid as the lyrics are, I can’t help but think somewhere in my head I found it appropriate because dammit, HALLELUJAH!! SPRING IS HERE!!
“As long as your brake and head lights work, you’ll get your sticker.” Not so sure you even need that.
Uni – True. I was shocked when he tried my horn. All told though, my inspection from start to finish was under 1 minute. Seriously.
I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday. You can smell the spring.