putting the bikes away for the winter

The Harley and the Naked Goldwing are not quite tucked away yet because it has been such a mild winter so far. Christmas Day was so nice I had to take the naked Goldwing out and then the Harley Street Bob as well. On Monday my youngest son and his wife came for a late Christmas so he and I took the bikes out for a ride. AMH rode the 2012 Harley and I rode my naked 75 Goldwing.

But now it's time to get serious about putting them away.

Gasoline. I already filled the tanks up and put in the Stabill.

Oil. I took my Harley in for the famous 1,000 mile checkup just a few miles back so it has fresh oil in it. So now I need to change the oil in my Goldwing even though I have only put about 1500 miles on it this year. No need to let old dirty oil sit there all winter long.

Wax. I try not to let my bikes get dirty so I never really wash them, only use something like Wizards Mist and Shine about a thousand times throughout the riding season. The guys who painted my bike gave me that bit of advice.

Carburators. I ran my naked wing up into the garage and turned off the petcock to let it run out of gas. I don't like the noises it makes as it is dying but I suppose it's okay. I will probably run it a few times during the winter so I suppose I don't really need to do all that.

Battery. My battery in the Goldwing is somewhat suspect so I'm not too optimistic about how good it will be next year. I will trade the battery tender back and forth between the naked wing and the Street Bob all winter long. My brother brings his battery into the house for the winter but I'm sure if I did that I would spill battery acid on the carpeting.

Covers. I know a guy who shrink wraps his hobby vehicle during the winter but all I do is throw a bedspread or sheet over the bikes. That seems sufficient.

But then if it's nice on New Year's Day I might take them out for a spin after church.

My December Greeting

I am aware that many have switched over to Happy Holidays in December out of a desire to be politically correct or sensitive to others.

However, I got to thinking...

I doubt if Christians have a problem with Christ, that accounts for 2.1 billion people

worldwide.

• I doubt if Muslims have a problem with Christ since they consider him to be virgin born and sinless; add another 1.5 billion.

I doubt if Hindus have a problem with Christ since Ghandi thought a lot of Jesus and Hindus believe that we are all gods anyway. Some Hindus pray to Jesus along with other gods; so that accounts for another billion people.


• Buddhists don't have much to say about Jesus but the Buddhist I used to live by decorated his house for Christmas and Buddhists are supposed to eliminate all desire from their life so I don't think they would have a preference one way or the other about Jesus. That's another 400 million people.


• The numbers are stacking up here.


• There are people in animistic and folk religions in remote parts of the earth but they probably don't have the internet yet.


• So I'm going to go out on a limb and say what I love to say in December;

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.