WHATCHATHINKIN'

We are deep into the winter at this point, with our sights pointed towards the return of the sun. I hope that you’ve used this time to make those upgrades and repairs to your rides, plot out your adventures and escapades for 2025 and, of course, booked your room for the Backroads Summer Soiree.

Marching through the month of February, I am already getting myself ready for the resetting of the clocks. While it’s been a couple of months since we had to visit this activity, I’m still finding places where the time is ahead/behind. The infrequently-used second bedroom, where things end up that should be put away or Spenser T Cat retreats in his ‘I want to be alone’ moments, has one of those clocks. It’s the place where you never really know what time it is.

I used to have one of those atomic clocks by my desk. I did a marvelous job of resetting itself twice a year, until it didn’t. I remember the first time it did that – we’d push the reset button and the damn thing just kept spinning and spinning. It was supposed to pick up a radio signal from the atomic clock radio station in Boulder, Colorado, which is operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, but I suppose they must have been off the air that day. Asking the WWW for some answer, it came back with ‘try moving your clock to a window facing Colorado overnight, when the signal is stonger’. I bought a regular clock the next day.

After the years of owning our Durango, I think we’ve finally gotten to remember the sequence to reset the time. It’s always a surprise when we do it, and we say to each other, ‘Well, that was easy to remember.’ The newer-to-us WRX STI, with a new radio installed, probably will always have two different times showing as we haven’t gotten to figuring that one out yet. Hey, we’ll be right half the time…

Regarding the motorcycles, it’s hit or miss that we’ll remember how to reset the clocks. My Honda 919, I believe, has been on the same time from the day it took residence in our home. While I surely know where and how to reset the clock, I VERY rarely actually put the setting to clock mode, as it’s switching from mileage to time, and mileage is much more important to me than time (ask me that again as the Grim Reaper is standing over my head).

As for the V-Strom, I never remember, without the owner’s manual, how to reset the clock. In the 8 years of ownership, I guess I’ve reset it a few times, but honestly, it’s easier to look at the time on my GPS than to figure out how to reset the clock on the bike. And sometimes it’s fun to arrive at a destination an hour ahead of when you really think you’ll get there.

I’m sure that Brian has a much better handle on the workings of his GS and Z and, with his penchant for setting thing correctly, he’ll make sure that the time is right.

Now the KLR is another story, as I believe there is no timepiece on that motorcycle. I think he put a separate little stick-on clock on it once, but that really never worked. What a joy to be riding without the constraints of being early/late for anything. And as the KLR has been dubbed ‘The End of The World Bike’ for its simplicity, come Armagedon there really won’t be any need to keep track of time.

The talk of getting rid of Daylight Saving Time is being bandied about once again. DST has been used for more than 100 years, having been implemented on March 19, 1918 by President Woodrow Wilson to help conserve energy during WWI. In our modern times, this is a moot point, as any energy saving is quite negligible. There are certainly more cons than pros, the biggest of which is disrupting one’s circadian rhythm. A simple one-hour change in the time will throw off a person’s sleep which can, in turn, result in tiredness which will lead to muddled thinking and can ultimately wreak havoc with riding, working and so many other actions in our lives.

I can certainly deal with it getting lighter in the AM and having a little less light during a long summer’s ride if it will rid me of changing EVERY SINGLE DAMN TIME PIECE IN MY LIFE. Let my life be timeless, thank you.