220: The Weather's Awful Funny

Actually, it's just a rainy, late fall day, with temperatures currently about 45 degrees at 10:41 AM, with a supposed high to be around 52.
Myself, I wouldn't mind if it were rainy, cloudy, and around 50 all winter long.
We have had winters like that in the past twenty years.
In fact, there were some winters around 1990 where people would comment about how we weren't getting any snow like we would ten years before that.
If we were to relive that this winter, that's fine with me. :)

As you can probably notice, the reason I ain't been describing any Pachaug rock pile rides on my WR-250FY firebreather is because I ain't been going for any the past two weeks.
The weather is basically turning too cold for my trail riding liking as of late, and even though I could physically still get out there and do it, the real topic of the subject is:
Would I still enjoy it?
As I get older, I like the cold weather less and less, and so far this cold weather season, I wish the cold would stay far, far away.

At least the WR-250FY is already washed spotlessly clean and is (as always) in top shape, so, if I decide to skip even the ice riding out on the frozen pond (that's still a toss-up) this winter, storing it for the winter means merely having to drain the straight gasoline out of the fuel tank and carburetor, pour in some Stabil-treated gas, running the bike for a few minutes, and removing the battery and putting that on my battery charger.

I went for a ride on my WR-250XX for about an hour yesterday afternoon.
Temperature was around 42, which was only normal for December 11th, but compared to the conditions of the week previous, it felt almost warmish.
The bike was only OK in performance, seeing how it's still 100% stock and loaded with lots of performance-robbing EPA parts and features on it.
By the time March gets here and I roll it out for the first ride of the 2011 season, it will basically be a mirror image of the WR-250RX I rode for the year before as far as modifications go, and I expect it to feel mucho better than it does now.
Right now, the throttle response feels lean and doggy, not sharp and immediate.
The gearing is super-tall, not intended for acceleration and performance, but for keeping noise down by keeping engine RPM down.
The air inlet is plugged-up, as is the muffler.
All to supposedly help the environment while making the bike run relatively poorly.
The hilarious thing is that once the mods are done to make it run very well, it still runs cleanly (cleaner than Al Gore's private jet, I'll bet) and is still quiet enough for me, and I do dislike loud motorcycles for street or trail use.
So, the EPA Nazis can kiss the part of my body that meets the chair I'm sitting on. ;)

Off to the garage for some enjoyable jerk,
-John