2020 Honda Monkey in Pear Glittering Blue (Photos by Mark Tuttle)

Happy birthday, pandemic! It?s been a long, strange year since the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading like wildfire and the world went into lockdown. With vaccinations rolling out, there?s light at the end of the tunnel. But this time last year" Not so much.

Days before the initial lockdown in California, Honda had delivered a couple of new motorcycles to us. One was a Monkey in a new color, Pearl Glittering Blue. My original plans for it were nebulous at best. Honestly, I just loved the color, and I figured the story would come to me when it was ready. As it turned out, I was right, in an unexpected way.

The streets in my neighborhood were eerily empty. Shops and restaurants were closed, so there was nowhere to go even if you wanted to. Even the beach was off-limits. There wasn?t a lot of smiling going on, as we all tried to find our footing in this suddenly off-balance world. When I looked at the Monkey it brought back fond memories of the press launch event, held what felt like a millennium ago on Catalina Island. Wherever we rode, people mirrored our smiles. The cute little Monkey bike is impossible to frown at.
?That?s what we really need now,? I remember thinking one day last April. ?A reason to smile.?

So I grabbed my open-face helmet and headed out for a ride. You?ll never ride far on a Monkey, but around town, topping out around 35 or 40, it?s the bees? knees. I stuck to resi...