After hours of clearing sidewalks around my neighborhood, I couldn’t resist. I went for a brief ride, just long enough to run down to the Capitol and pose for a quick shot.

Yes, I got a lot of surprised stares and double-takes from people in their cars. I’m actually not the most hardcore winter motorcyclist out there; this was a novelty trip for me. I’ve seen other people out over the winter with studded tires on their bikes, clearly running errands or going to work. Now THAT is hardcore.

Knobby tires don’t give much traction in the really messy snow found on roads that aren’t plowed. Most of the roads I took, however, had been plowed and offered sufficient traction. After taking my little joy ride and snapping a couple of pictures with my cell phone, I figured I’d been fortunate enough and skated back to the safety of my nice, warm Garage Majal.