any of my fellow /26ers ride through the winter? and by winter, i mean snow and ice. you jerks south of the rust belt can get bent

what sort of gear do you wear? any special prep to your bike?

i have some heated glove and jacket liners that i use. my pinlok visor starts to lose effectiveness at around 30F so i'm thinking about picking up a heated snowmobile visor for my hjc helmet.

we haven't had any snow yet in central IL, but here's a picture from last year.

 

My friend's dad does. He has a full compliment of electric heated gear, but I'm not sure what brand.

There are actually a lot of people on svrider that do winter riding. They say, besides grip warmers, the most helpful thing for keeping your hands warm is bark busters to block the wind. I had never thought about that, but it makes sense.

The only cool weather gear I have is a Newenough balaclava(or however its spelled) and some Tour Master glove liners for my Held Phantoms.

 

You are on crack haha. My bikes in the basement for the winter. Wearing latex gloves under your leather gloves helps.

 

+1, if your palms starts to sweat due to aggressive riding, you want to keep the inside of your winter gloves dry so hands can stay warm.

I've done a whole bunch in the past... Nowadays, as long as the pavement is dry, I ride.

 

For those riding in places where they use salt how is that affecting the bike? Do you have to wash it a lot?

I am thinking of riding my also in the cold weather.

Shawn

 

Beastly.

 

the salt has oxidized pretty much everything on my WR. the aluminum has oxidation and most of the the steel fasteners are discolored. it's not really terrible, but once you get within a couple feet of the bike you can start to see where things are not in as-new condition anymore. i don't wash it because we will go weeks at a time without getting much above freezing. plus i have enough trouble as it is keeping my gas cap lock and and ignition lock freed-up.

good thing it's a yammy-ha, otherwise i'd actually care about it

 

I had a holeshot header completely ruined by road salt on my old 1200 Bandit.

I dont winter ride anymore. It is just no fun freezing your *** off. If it gets above 35 though I will ride. I dont have my VFR on insurance right now though.

 

got about 5 inches of wet snow overnight. temps in the high 20s/low 30s. time to go out for a ride :D

 

Aren't you worried about hitting a patch of ice somewhere and biffing it? Or is it going to melt?

 

that's always a possibility. i'm never really going much more than 40mph when im out riding though, so it's not really a huge deal if i do fall over.

 

wish i had that attitude. i don't care how fast or slow i'm going. it's always a huge deal.

 

i've fallen enough that i'm used to it now, plus there's no expensive plastics to replace.

 

I ate **** last year on my scooter when I was parking it. Low sided on a patch of ice. No damage though.

 

ouch...that would blow

I'm still waiting for the oil slick at a light that i keep hearing about. I'm sure it'll happen when I forget about it.

 

the ice ****ing sucks. i try to avoid it like the plague, but when i can't i just go very slow. when i don't know it's there i just hold on and gas it

 

Just stay out of the center of the lanes at intersections, Where all the cages tend to leak their fluids.

 

i ride year round. i went out today to charge the battery up for about a 20 mile ride, it was 30 degrees when i left.

since i picked a car up i havent been riding nearly as much as i used too. i made the mistake of riding in the melted snow/salt mix and its such a pita to clean off a completely black bike so its not happening this year !!

im probally going to stick with riding 40 degrees and up, for some reason i just dont care, lol.

ive become an expert over the years on having the proper gear for these temps, but my problem is still cold hands. ill have to get heated grips if i plan on doing any serious trips over the winter...

 

Have you tried latex or nitriles gloves inside your winter gloves?

 

55 degrees and up for me, haha. Ive been driving my car around with the heat blasting lately, I couldnt imagine being on the bike right now.

 

When I was younger I was more gung-ho about it. Now I just put them away and drive my winter beater. I really wish I could have had my scooter here with me this week though. Temps were in the 40's, it seemed balmy haha.

 

since i havent done much riding and im broke i dropped the full coverage yesterday and went down to liability.

so ill save some cash over the winter and just keep the bike locked up in the garage. its only coming out if we get some decent weekends over 40 degrees.

 

Still trying to sell it?

 

riding through snow is the best. i have a '73 cb100 with dirt bike tires, and its a pretty good time. my only problem is that i have to keep it outside in a tent shed, and the battery is always dead.

 

trickle charge it