There is something equal parts humbling and depressing about walking into your garage and finding literal cobwebs draped across your motorcycle. That was the sight that greeted me when I finally - finally - got out for my first ride of 2026. I had pressure-washed both of them before putting them away. Shiny, spotless, ready to roll. And yet, there were the cobwebs. That right there tells you everything you need to know about how long this winter has been. This post is going to cover that first ride of 2026, what the roads were like, what I've been up to during the off-season, and what's on the horizon for riding season. Grab a coffee. Let's get into it. https://youtu.be/LlvCnrXBdVI A Winter That Did Not Want to Let GoThe First Ride of 2026: High 50s and Rough RoadsWhat I've Been Up to: Smoke and Steel Cigar PodcastWhat's Coming: Group Rides and Riding SeasonGood to Be BackRide With Us A Winter That Did Not Want to Let Go Let me put some context around just how bad this past winter has been. A friend mentioned that Pennsylvania reportedly had its coldest winter since the 1930s. I believe it. We had days that hit several degrees below zero with the wind chill factored in. We got a couple of smaller snow events throughout the season. An inch here, two or three inches there, and then we got absolutely hammered at the end. The storm before last was supposed to drop about a foot of snow. We ended up getting 8 to 10 inches, which honestly felt like dodging a bullet at the time. Then, a week and a half later, another storm rolled through with forecasts calling for 12 to 16 inches. Down in Philadelphia, they got something like 14 inches. Other areas saw close to two feet. Up here, we caught a break and got maybe four inches. The remnants of that storm were still scattered all around on the day I finally got out to ride. And it wasn't just the winter, either. Last summer was rough too. Pennsylvania was wet, really wet. When it wasn't raining, it was just oppressively hot. I kept trying to line up my schedule with a decent weather window and kept striking out. A couple thousand miles across both bikes at the most, no real significant rides to speak of. That hurts to type out. Normally summer and fall are packed with riding. Last year, not so much. The First Ride of 2026: High 50s and Rough Roads My usual personal goal is to ride until Christmas. That's kind of my unofficial finish line. If I can make it to Christmas, I'm happy. Anything after that, between Christmas and spring, is a bonus. This year, I'm pretty sure I didn't even make it to Christmas. So when the last day of February handed me a free afternoon and temperatures in the high 50s, I was not going to waste it. I took out the Kawasaki Ninja 400 for this one. There's just something about that bike that feels right for shaking the rust off. But I went in with realistic expectations. Late February in Pennsylvania means the back roads are in rough shape. We're talking runoff everywhere. Gravel, road salt, cinders, sand, and some genuinely nasty potholes that looked like they had been forcefully extracted from the earth. I'd seen some of these roads from the car in the days before and they were atrocious. So yeah, the ride was about getting back out there, not about pushing pace. I kept it careful and just enjoyed the feeling of being on the bike again. At one point I realized I had zero idea where I was, which is actually a pretty good sign - it means you're just riding and not overthinking it. I got my bearings again a few minutes later. Happens to the best of us. The Yamaha MT-09 SP is also sitting in the garage, ready to go. Both bikes got their cobwebs cleared off and I'm looking forward to getting more miles on each of them as the season really opens up. If you ride two bikes, you know the guilt of neglecting one of them. I owe the MT-09 some time. What I've Been Up to: Smoke and Steel Cigar Podcast So if I've barely been riding, what have I been doing? The honest answer is I've been pouring a lot of time and energy into something I briefly mentioned in my last video. Back around August, a group of friends and I decided to start a podcast. We all hang out together pretty regularly, usually once or twice a week. We were all at our local social club one night, smoking cigars, laughing about something, and one of the guys, Eric, threw out a comment — "we should make this a podcast." He probably didn't think much of it in the moment. But that one offhand comment turned into the Smoke and Steel Cigar Podcast. The core cast is me, Eric, Mark, and Jim. Jim has been smoking cigars for 50 years, so the man brings serious credibility to the table. Mark is a more reserved guy and I genuinely wasn't sure he'd be into it, but he showed up and held his own from the jump. We record in person, no remote setups, no phoning it in. We wanted to take advantage of actually being in the same room together and I think that comes through in the episodes. Since we started, a bunch of other friends have joined in as guests. Rob, Eric the Elder, Preston, Mike, Eddie on the streets, Sergeant Major Mike, Bruce, Glenn, Matt, Chase — the list keeps growing. We all got to know each other through a local cigar lounge and the friendships just kind of snowballed from there. As Jim likes to say, we're friends before anything else. The cigar is really just the vehicle for the conversation. Lots of ball busting, lots of laughs, and some genuinely good cigar talk mixed in. It has been way more work than I expected, but honestly it's been a blast. The channel saw our shorts absolutely catch fire for a while — we were pulling around 110,000 views a month across Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, which is wild for a channel that had under 150 subscribers at the time. We're sitting around 250 subscribers now. The shorts reach took a hit when Meta and YouTube tightened up their policies around tobacco content. They don't ban it outright, but they stop pushing it to new audiences, which stings when you're trying to grow. We've adapted. Watch time and episode views have been climbing steadily and I'm genuinely proud of what the crew has built. It feels like the podcast is just starting to hit its stride right now. What's Coming: Group Rides and Riding Season Let me be honest - this first ride of 2026 was a freak day. High 50s at the end of February in PA is not "riding season is here." It's more like riding season sent a preview and I was absolutely going to take it. Real riding weather is close, though. And I cannot wait. One thing I want to say out loud: I enjoy group riding more than I enjoy solo riding. I love having the comms on, cruising down the road, and just talking with the guys. It makes a good ride great. The crew from the WaltInPA Discord gets together for group rides throughout the season and we also do a winter lunch meetup every year since riding together usually isn't an option. This year, that lunch got postponed because of one of those snowstorms I mentioned. We rescheduled for the following week and I'm genuinely looking forward to it. Getting together in person, even without the bikes, always fires up the stoke for the season ahead. My goal this year is simple: ride more. Last year's combination of a wet summer, oppressive heat, and a brutal winter made that nearly impossible. I'm not going to make excuses for the year ahead. When the weather cooperates, I'm going. When it's a little sketchy, I'll assess and probably still go. I don't want to be looking at cobwebs again next February. Good to Be Back That first ride of 2026 was short. The roads were rough and I wasn't about to push my luck on cold blacktop covered in road grit. But it didn't matter. Getting back on the Ninja 400 after months off, feeling the engine come alive, and just being out there again — that's what this is all about. Sometimes the best rides aren't the longest or the fastest. Sometimes the best ride is just the one that reminds you why you started. Spring is coming. The bikes are ready. And after the winter we just survived, I think we've all earned it. Ride With Us If you want to follow along for ride videos, vlogs, and everything in between, hit that subscribe button over on the WaltInPA YouTube channel. And if you want to hang out with a solid group of riders, talk bikes, and plan group rides, come join us in the WaltInPA Discord. We'd love to have you. Ride safe out there. I'll catch you in the next one.
