Winter Rides

For you riders who don’t have the privilege of living in South Florida, I know that this is the season where most of you have to store your bikes for winter while we here continue with the fun. However it can still feel pretty cold down here in the sunshine state during winter. If you’re used to winter temperatures in the teens you may not think that riding in 50 degree weather is a big deal, but for us it is.

You see our 50 degrees feels more like your 40’s. This is due to all the moisture in the air. (Remember we’re surrounded by water). Add to the fact that when you ride, it feels at least 10 degrees lower. So if you ride in Miami while the temperature is about 60 degrees, it can easily feel like its 40 degrees.

This may still not seem like a big deal to snow-birds, but consider also the fact that most of us aren’t prepared for winter weather since it only lasts sporadically for about 2 months. Our houses aren’t built with a lot of cold weather insulation either (I don’t even own a heater), and we don’t buy much winter clothing, so we’re not use to (or prepared) to ride in the winter.

This weekend the weather ran between 57 degrees in the morning to the mid- 70’s in the afternoon, then coming back down into the lower 60’s at sunset. My wife & I decided to do some riding with friends this weekend and we all found ourselves huddling close to our pipes at each stop. What started out as a few local stops at nearby watering holes became a weekend of over 250 miles of riding.

Friday night my wife & I picked up our bike and rode to her sister’s house for dinner. It had been cold all day long and now the temperature had dropped to the mid-50’s. We both had on leather jackets and gloves, but nothing to cover our faces. I personally don’t like full-face helmets and my wife feels extremely claustrophobic in them. It felt really cold but we managed to travel the 7 miles to and from her sister’s house without suffering too much.

The next morning the weather was about 57 degrees and we rode over to Palmetto Motorsports to check out some bike luggage. Recently I removed my saddle bags ‘cause I didn’t like the way they looked on our bike, and thought that maybe luggage racks would be better. I wound up liking the Tourmaster Sissybar Bags, but I decided to wait a while before buying them.

So we headed down south to meet-up with friends who were going to ride to Deli Lane Café for breakfast. This is a really nice place in trendy Coral Gables. You can either eat inside or out by the side-walk and the food is excellent. I ordered the eggs Benedict with coffee and a Mimosa (Champaign & orange juice) and it was great.

After breakfast six of us rode up to North Miami to the annual Latin American Motorcycle Association (LAMA) street party. The LAMA’s are a much respected bike organization with charters all over the U.S. and are known for their work and contribution in raising funds for children’ charities.  At the party they had tents set up with various vendors, Latin foods, drinks, live band and a Harley Davidson raffle.

We were having a good time but my mind kept thinking about the luggage bags. “Should I get them or not”? I finally decided “what the heck”, I’ll get em’. We were only about 3 miles away from the store, so I told my friends to hang out at the street party while the wife & I went to buy the luggage bag. My wife & I got onto our bike, rode back to the store, picked up the bags, loaded it onto the bike and were back at the street party in less than an hour.

After a while a few of us decided to head down about 33 miles to Gusto’s Bar & Grill in Florida City. Most of the folks from the LAMA street party were planning to go there afterwards, but we wanted to get there before it got too crowded. By this time (around 1:30pm) the weather was really nice. It had gone up to the low- 70’s and most of the ride took us through the turnpike where there was hardly any traffic. At Gusto’s we sat outside had some beer and Buffalo wings and basically sat around shooting the breeze for a few hours.

Someone then decided that we should head on over to Black Point Marina where apparently there were 7 bands playing for some kind of benefit. So we saddled up and headed out. The ride to Black Point is really a lot of fun because it has a lot of curves and not much traffic at all. When we got there, the place was rockin’. We quickly found a table out by the dock and ordered some drinks and a few appetizers. I had an amazing lobster bisk that was to die for.

Little by little more bikers started to get word about the party at Black Point, and before you knew it the place was packed. By night time the weather had dropped down to the low 60’s, which normally ain’t too bad except that we were sitting only 10 yards from the water. The waitress must have noticed how we were all bunched up together trying to stay warm so she brought out one of the patio heaters and put it next to our table.

Although the place was jammin’ by 9:30pm my wife & I were tired. We had been up since 7am and riding all day, so we decided to head home. Two other friends decided to join us on our way out which was a good thing because I didn’t know how to get back onto the main highway. The ride home felt really long for us. It was probably due to the fact that we weren’t use to riding in such cold weather and that we were a good 35 miles away from home. But either way we made it nice and safe.

SUNDAY BRUNCH….

Sunday the wife & I decided to stay in bed a little longer, but at about 9am our friend Jorge called to say that about 12 riders were meeting at La Carreta on Bird Road for breakfast then heading down to Key Largo to watch the Dolphin vs Patriot game at a sports bar. So without wasting anytime we got dressed and headed down south.

By 10:30am nine of us were having a traditional Cuban breakfast of eggs, cafe con leche (Cuban coffee with milk) and buttered Cuban toast.

Breakfast at La Carreta

We then headed south to Florida City where we would again stop at Gusto’s to hook up with a few more friends. So by the time we headed down to Key Largo there were about 20 bikes and the weather was a nice 72 degrees.

We finally arrived at The Big Chill in Key Largo. What a great place. When you first walk up to the patio you see this huge bar facing the ocean. Beyond that, there is a deck that’s been decorated with very comfortable rattan sofas with Tiki lamps all over the place. Inside there is a nice restaurant which also offers outside dining. Further inside there is a sports bar with TV all over the place.

As we sat over-looking the water, another group of friends rolled in and joined us by the deck and bar. There was supposed to be a bikini contest that unfortunately for us guys was canceled, but still, The Big Chill has a great atmosphere.

On the deck of The Big Chill

The Dolphins were doing pretty well by the 2^nd quarter, but most of us were getting anxious to ride some more. That’s when someone decided that we should ride further south to the Tiki Bar in Islamorada. And so we did. About 15 of us rode the extra 20 miles south to the Tiki bar where we celebrated two fellow riders birthday. Yes someone actually brought a cake in their saddle-bags (good thing it was in a box).

Our original group of 9 riders decided to head back home at about 5:00pm. As the sun went down, so did the temperature. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring along my jacket, but I did have a neoprene face mask that although it made me look like a terrorist, it kept my face from freezing off.

The ride home took about 45 minutes and a good 17 miles of that is through an area that has no stops and my wife needed to use the bathroom badly. By the time we reached Florida City, we all pulled into the first gas station and hauled butt into the rest-rooms. Everyone was freezing, yet it looked like nobody really wanted the night to end. So we all decided to head over to Black Point again.

The ride home

This time however there was only one band playing, but they were incredibly good. (wish I could remember their name). We hanged out for about an hour then we all decided to actually go home. We headed back north on the turnpike and 1 by 1 each bike pulled off to it’s corresponding exits. My wife and I being the ones that live the furthest north, found ourselves alone on the highway by 9:30pm. It was cold and we were tired, but what an incredibly great riding experience we had this weekend.