Great read, Caster. Now my turn.
Took my first ride of the new year today. 35 out.. not too bad at all. I layered up and took a test ride to the gas station to see if I was warm enough. After that, I made a 25 mile ride to meet a friend of mine that I haven't seen in about 3 years while he's on his way back to Jersey from Florida. It was really great seeing him, but that isn't the only thing.
This was my first trip to a destination other than school and what not, and I loved it. It was also the longest ride I took thus far. There were a few mild twisties (if they can even be called that) and some hills that I loved since it felt like a roller coaster at times. For the first time, I actually enjoyed riding country roads.. crazy for me to admit being the person I am (I hate this place). I discovered today that I really do love riding.
There's just one thing.. I need to invest in some heated gloves like you have Caster. I did the latex gloves under regular gloves thing and that only works up until about 50 MPH with the summer gloves I have. I tried throwing some extra gloves on top of what I had, but had bad throttle control. I wish I remembered the wind guards that came with the bike, but naturally I thought about them after the fact. They also make the bike look tacky.. which isn't cool because I wanted to show the bike off to my friend.
Anyways.. sorry to hijack your thread, but the idea of having multiple "my first ride of the new year" threads seems silly to me.