| Angel’s with dirty faces
by Lori "Angel" Minor Some of the best things in life are eating the horseradish straight out of the jar on a cracker right along with a fresh steamed clam, or that first sip of a cold beer at 5o’clock on Friday afternoon, or the feeling you get when all the laundry is done (you know that’s something you can never catch up on). Well, one of the best things about my life is the location of it. Ok, I won’ t emphasize the fact that I get to ride all year without having to take any special care in the winter or how close I live to Daytona and the beaches. What I do want to ponder is why people endlessly spit shine their bikes week after week, month after month, year after year? I can’t even remember the last time I washed my bike with soap. Ooops, I bet some of you are going to get offended here. But I am a firm believer that my bike looks just fine when she’s dirty. Who even looks that closely at any rate? My bike runs fine and she gets me where I’m going so why waste all that precious time and all those hours washing and waxing. Ok, I do occasionally wipe it down or hose her down with water and then I wipe with a clean rag...but soap? If you look close enough you can see the neighborhood cats footprints all over the gas tank and fenders, maybe even one or two toes on that dorky headlight hood. What do they call that thing, a nacelle? People around here KNOW me for having a dirty bike or shall I say, for not spending much time cleaning my bike. In fact, last week someone said, “you’ve got new pipes”. I said no, I just hosed them off. Yes, I occasionally have to use naval jelly on a few parts, you know, to excavate the rust and eat some of the metal away. My Harley resides outside in her shanty, year round. It’s covered, there are walls, and there are a few wild animals to keep her company, an abundance of fresh air. She likes it out there. But it is damp and it is Florida and I’m about five to ten miles inland so the air is salty and you know what that does. But I don’t want to wash her. Does it sound like I’m grumbling yet? OK, last year, or was it the year before when I actually did use soap...I took a bucket of dishwashing liquid and water and really washed it... Oh, wait, that was before the new paint job. God, I hope Will doesn’t read this. He’s the one who painted her and told me I should wash her weekly and wax her every six months, at least. Sorry, but I don’t have any extra time to do the minor stuff. It’s enough that I work full time, single-handedly raise my five year old daughter and keep my bike in good running order. Who has time for backyard posing with the T-5000 spray, or whatever you call it, for Christ sakes. I do run a quick wipe over my headlight and mirrors and then I’m off, out the door, on the road. Oh, and now to top it all off, we have the dreaded
LoveBugs. Have you all heard of them? They are a chemically charged mutant creature of some sort. They
LOVE the steamy roadways and hot asphalt and they fly in packs...swarms really. They are around for two weeks in April and then again for another two
weeks in October. They adhere to anything they come in contact with and they
do NOT come off effortlessly. You have to use some kind of miracle wash to get
them off. I’ve heard people say they use all kinds of tricks like Pam spray and
Rain-X to prep their vehicles in order to keep their nice paint jobs. (I wouldn’t
advise using either of those products unless getting advice from a professional
first). You see, these “love bugs” will damage the paint no matter what you try.
I advocate staying off the roads for the whole Love Bug duration. I know that’s Due to the heat in the summer, the 90-95 degree + days, we have awful thunderstorms. Yes, it looks sunny and beautiful when you head out in the morning, but anytime, the sky WILL open up and you WILL get soaked. I don’t mind riding in the rain, but what bothers me is cagers just don’t see you in the rain or is it that they just don’t think. Those are just a few of the small details, the bad things about Florida. Come on, we get to ride in the scorching heat under the brilliant sun for the most part of the year. You know how hot it is wearing a leather vest and jeans on this heat? Then you see these idiots on their crotch rockets wearing flip flops and shorts. Imbeciles. Anyway, enough whining from me about Florida and what it’s like riding in the heat. I’m still not gonna spend all day (or any part of it) washing my bike. I don’t even wash my car. I know I should, it’s a nice black mustang. Ok it’s not black anymore, it’s gray and brown, but I KNOW that color is just temporary, next thunderstorm and that car WILL be black again. You got it, I’m praying for rain. Angel...
ItsBadAngel
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