How Late is Late?

As early March turned into mid-March I became more and more anxious to get out and begin the 2019 motorcycling season. The prior two months had produced some impressive, if not quite record breaking, amounts of snow. The March temperatures were not doing much to melt it all and the riding season got shorter by the minute. It was not until March 21st that I was able to get out on my 2011 BMW R1200 GSA for a ride. I put on 150 cold and windy miles, but at least I was riding again.

In the next few days I commented to a few people that it was the latest I had gotten out in quite some time. Their disinterest in my observation was quite obvious, but I began to wonder if what I felt was really true. Fortunately, I have a trove of riding data that I could examine.

At Christmas in 2000 a friend gave me a leather bound Harley Davidson Hog Log. The book features photographs from the Harley Davidson archives, maps and pages for logging anything you want about your motorcycle and riding it. My first entry is from April 4, 2001, and describes putting in the battery and taking it out for a short ride. The last sentence of the entry is one that shows up often in the next seventeen years: "It was cold".

I have kept a journal of my riding adventures ever since April 2001. There were years when I would miss a few weeks of notes and then try to catch up. But after reading through them all again recently I get a flavor of what each summer was like. Those years took me through job changes, beginning retirement, the passing of my parents and a new bike or two. Around the beginning of 2013 I had filled the Hog Log. I went on a search for a new one, but they were only made for a short period of time and are long out of print. Any that are still in new condition bring a premium price, so I began using a small spiral bound notebook.

Even though there may have been some gaps in my notes through a particular season, I was particular about noting when I began riding each season and when I took the last ride. So I thought it would be interesting to find out if in fact I was out later this year than other years. I went through each of the log books beginning in 2001 and all the way through to the spring of this year. Armed with this data I built a spreadsheet to include beginning date, ending date and miles ridden.

The results of my examination showed that while I was out a little later than recent years, there is a likely explanation for it. First, I can say that 61% of the time my first ride was later than this year and was, in fact, in April 40% of the time. Further analysis shows that of the seven years that I rode earlier than March 21st, four of them have come since I retired in 2014. When I was working I usually had to wait for a weekend riding opportunity, but in the last few years I have been able to ride whenever the weather allows it.

So it is true that the weather prevented me from getting out as early as recent years. I recall those last years of my work life, watching motorcycles rumble by on the first decent day of the spring. I often thought that soon I would be out there too, and I am happy that I have been taking advantage of any early riding opportunities.