Summertime is Riding Time

So a few weeks back I finally dusted off Doc and took my venerable F650GS Dakar out for a long deserved cruise. Southern California isn’t the most favorable environment to be riding a dual-sport motorcycle—the urban areas, that is. But just a short hour or two ride and you can find great mountain riding, beautiful desert (though better in the winter, spring and fall).

So I rolled Doc out of the garage and chuckled as I looked at the speedometer; there are nearly 75,000 miles on my bike and I’ll bet less than 5% are on freeways. Don’t get me wrong. Doc gets started up and a quick ride down to the coffee shop or gas station. Sometimes I’ll just blast up and down route 1 for a spin by the beach. But that’s not riding, is it?

To be sure, we got a good ride in and instead of parking Doc back in the garage, I parked my trusty steed on the side of my cottage. After a few more days I decided it was time to go for another short cruise. This time instead of brushing the dust off my BMW, I had to brush the purple blossoms of the Jacaranda tree that hangs wistfully above. I thought I’d share with you the photo of Doc in peace under that stunning tree. I especially like the way the blossoms create a lavender blanket over the tarmac. Nice.