| Author | Message | ||
     Jerseyguy  |
I raced a hare scrambles in PA a long time ago when it was about 5 degrees F. One of our club members actually got frostbite on his face. The skin turned black & nasty on his cheekbone. | ||
| Downundabueller  |
Well i thought I was tough going out in 34-36 degrees + wind chill + kangaroos, cows and truck tyre carcasses with an XB standard headlight. But some of you guys sure are extreme. You win The things you do........ My run was a late night run of 370 miles to spend three days with a lady and then 370 miles back under the same conditions. At least there was no rain ,ice or snow. Brrrrr Shiver It was on that ride as I was shivering and shaking that I was reflecting how some of my friends tell me Iam "mad, insane, crazy" etc and thinking ........yeah I think they are right. | ||
| Bluebuellxb9r  |
Last spring I rode a BMW K1200 LT from Burlington NC to my house in Tennessee, went from 55 degrees in NC to about 20 in the moutians with snow spitting down. I was really glad to be on the cheater bike ( heated seats we on as were the heated hand grips - 6 disc changer was full , times were good ). When I got home it had warmed up to a balmy 40 degrees . Best part about that trip was watching the people in cages looking @ me with shock and horror in their eyes  | ||
| Brucelee |
"I think its the older you get that perhaps you tend to get a little smarter. I know I have wussed out a lot over the last few years, now I see 55 degrees & its take the truck to work day." I would like to think you are right on this. Otherwise, that would mean I am growing old!  BTW- I do remember that during that winter, I used to wrap an electric heating pad around the engine about a half hour before I pushed it out of the garage. That thing only had a kick start (remember those?) and then I had to park it in the sun during the day and hope for a break on start up. Last resort, a hair dryer at work. They must have thought I was a loon! (Message edited by brucelee on December 02, 2004) | ||
| Rek  |
In the early 80's I rode my '70 Sportster from the bike shop in Flagstaff to St. Johns AZ one blustry January day. Temps were low 20's. The last 60 miles from Holbrook to St. Johns I drafted in 10-15' behind a semi and rode in relative comfort. When I got home I nearly had to be lifted off the bike w/ a fork-lift because my body was frozen in position. A genuinely stupid trip that I'll never repeat. Rob | ||
| Brucelee |
"Dirt bikes on the frozen lake, nothing hits as hard as falling on a frozen lake!" That hurts just thinking about it! | ||
| Blackbelt  |
So far the coldestI have ever ridden in is 23, bunch of times in the 30's on the way home from spidy's for 90 miles.. THAT GETS FRIGGING COLD! but the 23 was my dumb aZZ fault. I left my bike in my in-laws garage in Durand and i wanted it at my house so i could tinker in the winter, so i decided to go over and get it.. well i waited till 10p.m. to ride home and it was 23 when i left and 20 when i got home 45 minutes later. I couldn't bend my knees it was really not a sane thing to do..... just FYI | ||
| Court |
Don't ask.....at least I was being paid to do it.  Court ...make no mistake....there is a HUGE difference when you pass the 32oF mark going down and a HUGER one when you pass 0oF | ||
| Glitch  |
Somewhere in the teens. This morning it was 30 when I left for work. I'm getting too old for this cold riding stuff. Think I may buy a truck this weekend. | ||
| Scooterroid  |
I'm in South Florida. 55 degrees. Brrrrrrrrr Hah.  Steve-O | ||
| Tramp  |
minus twenty fahrenheit- that's ambient temp BEFORE windchill. many times one season, commuting to my old ski-school directing job. not so bad wearing skiing clothes, though. (Message edited by tramp on December 02, 2004) | ||
| Josh_  |
It's all relative tho. I put the windscreen up on the FJR, and don't need to hook power to my Widder gloves or turn on the Widder vest on the 45min, 32deg, 30-80MPH ride to work this morning (grip warmers were on). I was perfectly comfortable the whole ride where I would needed to turn on the vest and gloves on the S3T or been freezing on the Blast. Wind protection is everything. Gear for down to 30deg and sun or 35deg and rain: Aerostich Aerostich Fleece jacket Widder vest (not on) Widder gloves (with lining falling apart and holes in the outer cover) polo shirt long johns dockers dress socks Sidi Symtatex GT boots Dual-Star Grip warmers | ||
| Tramp |
weirdest thing about well-below-freezing riding... you can stay relatively comfortable overall, but the tiniest little 'holidays' in your insulation are like cold needles | ||
| Crashm1 |
Coldest was a 25 mile ride to work late eighties on a norton, it was about 20 degrees out and took about a half hour to thaw out. I've ridden the Buell to work a couple times this year when it was around 30 degrees in the morning. I can't seem to leave it alone. | ||
| Mr_grumpy  |
I was out today on the M2 taking the virginity of my new Buell boots (thanx again Dave). Thermals & leathers, a crisp clear sunny day about 6°C, I don't know what that is in old money. The coldest must be about -2°C on the FJ1200, for the same reason as Downunder. How is it that the opposite sex can induce you to such lunacy?  | ||
| Steve_mackay  |
Mine was last Friday. I went Christmas shopping on the S3T at I think 28F when I left to go to Best Buy at 4:30AM. Luckily my Nephew was there to take home the two huge printer boxes that would have looked quite funny on the back of the S3 | ||
| Cowboy |
I have rode in the teans. The key is clothing,put a wet suit underneath yours leathers and it is almost impossible to get cold | ||
| Lornce  |
Hmmmmn.... Coldest ride, eh? You realize asking a Canadian to remember his coldest ride is like asking an old alcoholic to remember his favourite drink? Was it Vancouver to Calgary with heavy snow through Rogers Pass? Or waking up to 2' of snow in Minot North Dakota? Was it hitting 20 ft of open water on my Can Am ice bike? Or wrapping my naked self in garbage bags before re-donning wet clothes to stave off further hypothermia while riding in the mountains completely unprepared? Or was it the time my Guzzi Eldorado wouldn't even run without added choke.... 45 minutes into the ride? Hard to say which was coldest. It's all kinda relative though, eh? Cause now I could don high tech fleece warmies, cover up with an Aerostich, plug in the electric vest, turn on the heated grips, stick on the hippo hands, wrap up the neck warmer and plop on the full face helmet and go all day at 10F and it'd be easier than some of those near freezing rides back in the day with bread bag over-gloves and newspaper stuffed in your jacket. Adversity stirs the blood, though, eh? | ||
| Clydeglide  |
it'd be easier than some of those near freezing rides back in the day "back in the day" we did a lot of things that can now be laughed at and shared with friends. But as I have mentioned before there comes a time when we rarely ride in temperatures lower than our age!  | ||
| Swampy  |
POLYPROPLYENE long johns, and WOOL socks!!!! I wear them almost all summer long, keeps you cool when its hot out and hot when its cool out. | ||
| Tom_b  |
After reading Cowboys post about the wetsuit, I don't feel so bad about wearing my wifes pantyhose once on long cold ride  | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise)  |
My wetsuit wont fit under my leathers. Fathom Seaflex 7mm suit with jacket & longjohns. Looks like this pic only mine is red & black. Havent worn it on a bike but its unbearable to wear on a warm day, way too hot.  And the longjohns look like this.  I may just have to try it out on a cold day 0 degrees or less. Had it hanging in the back of my closet & had totally forgotten about it. | ||
| Gomo  |
Coldest day was around zero perhaps lower (even before moving), but those rides were just about 5-10 miles long. The coldest regular rides were on the average of 18-22 degrees for about 55 miles (one way), it was the week that the auto decided to take its own vacation.  | ||
| Buells Rule! (Dyna in disguise) |
it was the week that the auto decided to take its own Always cold when that happens. My Dodge shadow puked after 170,000 miles in jan of 02. The wife needed our other car to get to work so I was relegated to riding either my Dyna or the X1 to work for jan & feb until I got my tax $$ back to buy a new car. 33 miles each way, luckily it didnt really get much below the teens during that time. The X1 didnt mind that weather too much, but the HD was a real bear to start. It hates anything below 35 or so, real PITA sometimes to fire up. | ||
| Doughnut  |
Rode through freezing rain, (literally, visor was iced over.) for about 20 miles. Was afraid that I had frost bite last year. Was after 11-20-03, don't know what the temp. was beyond freezing my nades off. | ||
| Brucelee |
"My Dodge shadow puked after 170,000 miles in jan of 02" That has to be some kind of record for a Dodge Shadow. Did you change the oil every month?  | ||
| Wyckedflesh  |
One of the worst weeks of rain I dealt with in Hawaii had me showing up to work delivering pizza with my springsuit wetsuit on under my uniform clothes. My Yamaha Zuma was about the only moped that could deal with the high water in the streets so I got most of the deliveries. Raked in close to $2000 in tips that week, and only delivered one soggy pizza out of the entire week. All the rest arrived completely dry. That one was due to a truck blowing past me in water about 8 inches deep. Caught the flap for the warmer bag just right and flooded the inside of the bag. I think that week is my most miserable time EVER riding. Its not a matter of how cold you get, but spending all day running deliveries in a torrential downpour and finnessing a moped down flooded out streets while keeping stuff dry was just nerve wrecking. Between the horizontal rain, rabid taxi drivers, flooded streets, flooded parking structure ramps, high winds, and the fear of hydrolicing your motor just strings you out too much. BTW for those that want to know, I took that $2000 and bought a CR500 engine for the Ninja 250 I had and a new engine for the Zuma pumping it out to 94CC with new transgears, clutch, carb and exhaust. | ||
| Peter  |
-17°C or 1.4°F On the way to the Elefantentreffen in Germany. When it became unbearable, I slept in it  Left my boots under the bike during the night (read DUMB), and then rode about 5 miles to a service station in the morning. Don't know what the windchill was on those -17° boots, but I thought I had frostbite for real when I got there.  (Note to self; always boot your boots in your sleeping bag....) | ||
| Blake  |
Epic. You are da man. The rest of us are pathetic pansies. Well, except for Tramp, he's probably slept naked in the snow, and liked it. When we doin Dakar?  | ||
| Tramp |
worst thing about sleeping on cold, snowy rides is being awakened by the plows spraying you with slush as you're going 30 mph. it's enough to keep your eyes open for the next 4 miles.... |
