End of Season Ride & Winter Plans

Eljahara said:

Craig,
Your “trying to snow” would bring the South East of the UK to a grinding halt!
Baz is right - we get it pretty lucky here, no really extreme conditions but lots of panic at the merest hint of ice/snow/cold

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yes , I'm familiar with that type of reaction , happens here every first snow of season , the "News" hypes the weather and gets everyone into panic mode , with no snow tires on etc. .... both our cars are AWD , I run mud/snow michelins year round on Jeep , all weather performance on TL .... fluids topped up last week , shovels out , scrappers & brushes in cars and ice melt by the door .... no reason to panic ,eh

How times have changed. 1968-70 the only transportation I had to get to and from college was a 1966 Triumph 500 with ET ignition. To make matters worst, I had no proper riding gear, not even a leather jacket. I lived in southern Illinois where snow and ice were common in the Winter. Snow was OK, but ice meant ride on the shoulder in the snow. Especially fun after dark - ET ignition bikes barely have anything you would call lights. The trip was about 10 miles each way. There was an 8 mile straight stretch where I had to make a decision: Ride fast and be very cold for less time or ride slow and be less cold but longer - never did figure out which was best!

Today, I cannot imagine riding any bike in those conditions and I certainly won't be taking my bikes out this Winter for more than a trip around the block on nice days. Fortunately, in Virginia, there are nice days in the Winter once in a while.

Brother in law reckons its the tropical south east compared to us pagan midlanders. So I understand why a flake of snow stops everything when you can't get anywhere even in good weather ! M25 car park and Dartford crossing. At least bikes are free to get through, but then I have to see the mother in law.

Back in early 80’s only way to work was on the Honda xl500 , chilly but with work provided rain gear and fresh knobbies no troubles other than cold face with my $20 open face helmet , during that time we were living in and restoring 100plus yr old Victorian home in downtown , only source of heat was wood furnace,with a wood stove in kitchen as well , used to go through 10 cords of firewood per winter ( which I cut, split myself & then paid for trucking) , think at some points that was only thing holding that old building up .... house is now on local Heritage protection list with Jo and I listed as restoring it .... great memories !

Ten cords split yerself. Im deeply impressed because Im experienced with similar.

Onder said:

Ten cords split yerself. Im deeply impressed because Im experienced with similar.

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Yup, cut hardwood tress down out on the mountain, snaked to roadside with my buddy’s Uncle’s gear , then cut into 8’ lengths , hired pulp trucker to pick up and deliver to my yard where I chunked up and split, then threw into basement , what I did in spare time when no money for house work , more than 20+ winters running chainsaw for a living .... summers spent running pipe crew or as my parents used to say “digging ditches” , which in their opinion was a waste of my education , I paid for my ed. and learned I liked to work outside with my hands , so stuck to that until ,was offered better opportunities ... can’t really stand up completely straight these days ... no regrets

Pushed it n rode it said:

The relatives in emu plains reckon they got an inch rain, nowhere near enough for the 5 year olds that have never seen it. Now I see bush fires on the news. We have a over abundance of the wet stuff if you want some. My old knocker is in bed for winter fettling now. Re shoeing the brumby. Gonna try the roadriders !

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Just over the boarder in NSW 150 house burned down and 3 deaths and people still missing from the bush fires, so not looking good, the bush is so dry and high wind not helping and not far from me up the coast are having big fires and over 2,000 people told to get out quick, so not looking good.

Ashley

You guys need some water, it's on our news at mo. Worse drought on record. Not rubbing it in, but it hasn't stopped p...sing down here for 8 hours. There are a lot of brits with relatives out in Oz so our thoughts are with you. £10 pommies who dream of a dry towel. Oily rag for me Nort though .

Wishing you and yours all the best of luck during this disaster Ashman , take care of what’s yours , your family and anyone that needs help , very dangerous for everyone in your area , pray for rain !!!!

After 5yrs in old house got it paid off , first thing I did was yank out old coal burning conversion that wasn’t used and install oil fired hot air furnace , cut the wood burning back to 4 cords per year and allowed us to go away overnight during heating season ....

Was a funny video on here a minute ago or so , tried to “like it” but site wouldn’t let me .... now it vanished !

Craig said:

After 5yrs in old house got it paid off , first thing I did was yank out old coal burning conversion that wasn’t used and install oil fired hot air furnace , cut the wood burning back to 4 cords per year and allowed us to go away overnight during heating season ....

Was a funny video on here a minute ago or so , tried to “like it” but site wouldn’t let me .... now it vanished !

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Hi Craig here it is I am sorry I thought I had made a mess of it.



it means roughly “doing our bit for the environment and CO2 emissions. Takes a bit longer but Gretha will be proud of us. And the boss can still go for a blast on his bike with a clear conscience.”

Martin

Craig said:

Wishing you and yours all the best of luck during this disaster Ashman , take care of what’s yours , your family and anyone that needs help , very dangerous for everyone in your area , pray for rain !!!!

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Northern suburbs of Brisbane and no bush lands around us so safe here but It only takes me 20 minutes ride to get out in the bush or country but living on the east coast is better than living out west.

We don't really get very much "too cold to ride" and/or snow in Texas, but now that we've moved 285 miles north, I'm sure I'll have 2-3 weeks less riding (due to cold/weather) than I did in Laredo. However, that MORE than balances out due to the fact that I'm retired now and there is good riding less than 10 minutes away (instead of 120 miles to get to it before). In the 4 or 5 months since I first started riding from this new house, I've already surpassed 2018's total miles, by a good bit!

Today is GLORIOUS weather, as was yesterday. We took the kids to lunch at a real nice place (the Oasis) overlooking Lake Travis; 30 minutes each direction through gorgeous hills with fall colors, extremely light traffic (almost zero), light windbreakers & gloves. PERFECT. The majority of winter here is similar...

It is nice there... If I feel the need to ride a hill or two I just search out the overpasses, but as yet have not figured a substitute for proper trees.

we hit 60F here today after a chilly start...…….I took the commando out for a brief 30 mile ride in bright sunshine bike ran great but my throttle hand fingers suffered even with thick gloves (any suggestions for reynauds syndrome appropriate gloves?) my next project for the bike is a dave taylor headsteady and valve adjust otherwise (knock wood) it could not perform better.

While I like my heated grips on both Italians along with the Klim goretex gloves ... I think heated gloves should work better , the entire hand gets the benefit of the heat , the grips it just heats your palms .... maybe borrow a pair to try if you can , like everything, not cheap , but you could use the heated gloves on all your bikes ....

alan hodge said:

we hit 60F here today after a chilly start...…….I took the commando out for a brief 30 mile ride in bright sunshine bike ran great but my throttle hand fingers suffered even with thick gloves (any suggestions for reynauds syndrome appropriate gloves?) my next project for the bike is a dave taylor headsteady and valve adjust otherwise (knock wood) it could not perform better.

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Alan,
You could try some non motorcycle heated gloves (jaylong) but you the lose the protection from the armour. Alternatively, Keis do a heated inner glove ( https://www.keisapparel.co.uk/produ...MIkPzFjdng5QIVC7TtCh3cUwk3EAAYASABEgLDl_D_BwE) - adds a layer as well as heat and is about a third the price of full heated gloves (£50/$63) otherwise as Craig says.....$$$ for dedicated heated gloves.
My daughter has raynauds and the inner glove was really good for her but....much smaller hands and not a motorcyclist
John

Speaking of heated gear, I've been running a Powerlet RapidFire jacket liner and also have their glove liners. I've mainly run it when on the bonneville but did try it a bit on the Norton...works OK once at cruising rpms.

These run off their "wireless" two-channel temp controller that pairs to a receiver in the jacket liner...means only one cable from jacket to bike and controller can sit up on handle bar or on top of MC reservoir cap like I have it...easy to reach and adjust while riding.




I just checked and the Powerlet Canada website still lists the special pricing on oversize XXXL liners....$89 CAD with controller instead of the standard $429 list price. Could not find that discount on the USA site.

http://www.powerlet.com/images/imag...ileName=PHG-901-L_p_707_webl.jpg&maxWidth=600

This is what I bought (and the same price I got) a few years go and just had a local tailor shop take it in to my sizing. There's plenty of stretchy lycra along side panels and under arm to gather in and the whole liner is in fact stretchy as well.

The glove liners were like $35 and connect up to the jacket sleeve cables. Work pretty well...but becareful not to turn 'em up full for too long, I've actually "cooked" back of hand once from them to the point of blistering :-0

Uhhh, it was 77F here today and has been for the last several weeks. California not ready for winter hibernation yet. Just stay out of the mountains.

Well the fires are just getting worst and my favorite mountain rides are all burning around them the winds are high and are blowing in all directions which don't help, more houses lost but we Aussies are a tough lot and we all help one another when things are down, yesterday there was 56 major fires in Queensland alone but today that has climbed to over 70 major out of control fires and NSW is in the same boat, one person on the news lost his house and shed full of motorcycles, he was wearing a Norton T shirt, at lease he got out safe.
Now the worst thing the pollies are playing the blame game and one pollie blaming the greens for not allowing winter burn offs, but no Mother nature is just angry and we have no control over her, the ground is dry we just need rain.

Ashley