Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Sat, 03 Dec 2005

Ok, that was nothing short of incredible. I just took a ride on
the sidecar rig from my house up to Jesse's and back (about 10 minutes on the freeway in each direction), and I'm not cold.

The outside thermometer says 33.6° F, it's pitch black outside (I left at 10 pm) and there's thick fog outside my window. At Jesse's house (he wasn't there, so I just turned around and came back), the front tire slid under light braking due to the ice on the ground.

And I'm not cold. I'm actually a little bit too warm.

I think I've finally found a combination that works to keep me warm.

1. Heated vest
2. Numerous (but not excessive) layers
3. Aerostich
4. Heavy winter gloves
5. MX style handguards

And for all practical purposes, the Goldwing is unfaired. No big windshield keeping the wind blast off me. Amazing.

The handguards are the new addition as of tonight. I definitely didn't think they'd be as effective as they are. I have new gloves (FirstGear Voyagers), which are nice, but suffer from a perplexing leak at the fingertips. My whole hand will feel surprisingly warm against the fleece liner, but my fingertips will hurt -- when I pull my hands out of the gloves, my fingertips will be deadly cold. I assume this intersection of multiple seams is allowing some air in. With the new handguards in place, I didn't have that problem at all.

My hands actually felt warm riding along the freeway (keep in mind, this is near-freezing, and 60-70 MPH). I'm sure they weren't actually warm, but compared to the cooling they'd normally be getting, they were toasty. Between the warm hands and the heated vest set on about half-power, I was quite comfortable. Now I just have to get my face shield to stop fogging up.

In other news, I'm going to the Motorcycle Show tomorrow. I'm not sure what all I'm going to see, but I hope to see Aaron's CBR600 based offroad sidecar rig there, which was significantly helped along by Jay down at Dauntless. I'm also hoping to see a few new models, particularly the Ninja 650, and the BMW F800. I don't expect to see the BMW there, but I can always hope. I hear the new Ducati reproduction models are there as well, which I'd like to see in person.

I'm also looking forward to trying on helmets, as the timer on my current helmet is running out. Hopefully someone will have a Shoei X11 there, and I'd like to try on a Suomy and a Roof if they're available.

Posted at 23:36 permanent link category: /motorcycle

Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.