Gear for Riding in the Cold

For the past week the morning and evening temperatures in Raleigh, NC have been no different from the San Francisco bay area - what did I get electric pants and electric gloves for? "Just wait", my sister tells me. "You'll see." 


This morning the bike's mini-dashboard was flashing "31.8" degrees at me. A robotic voice in my head with a slight German accent said, "Ambient temperature is near freezing, do you really want to be riding right now?" YES! I DO want to be riding, I have Gerbing electric gloves and pants (new thin-wire technology), and my trusty old thick-wire technology jacket liner. While I'm still trying to figure out the best way to connect everything up to the dual-control rheostat, and was the 25 amp fuse the right one to run everything from, all the gear  works - I have heat to my hands, neck, upper body, arms, butt and legs. Hallelujah!


I have mixed feelings about the Gerbing heated pants. The quilted legs are great - from about 38 degrees to the low 40s (with no wind chill) I don't need the electric heat on my morning commute. 

Below 38 degrees that electric warm blanket around my legs is so nice. The seat surface of the pants has a special material that will maintain friction with the bike's seat in wet conditions - good design. The fit of the pants around the butt and hips is not so great for me - it is a unisex fit that definitely favors the male "straight vertical line from waist to hips" body. Also, Gerbing seems to have designed for a less-than-athletic butt. (grumble)


The ComfortShell jacket was magnificent for three seasons. When the weather became cold and rainy two problems presented themselves. The wrist closures have a thick velcro lock-down strap so pulling on the long gauntlet of the electric glove is difficult and wearing the glove is uncomfortably bulky. The ComfortShell jacket is just fine in a light or middling rain but in the last downpour I really needed a waterproof/breathable liner. The three-year long, half-hearted search for a new winter jacket was now front and center. The "must have" requirements were a) a wrist closure that would accomodate *both* large gauntleted gloves and slide-under-the-jacket gloves and b) separate rain liner from the warmth liner. After weeks of reading jacket specifications online, my winter jacket is the Rev'it women's Ventura jacket. (watch the Revzilla video on the link for more information)

The jacket more than met my requirements and the design features are impressive. There is plenty of room for women who are better endowed than I am; if you have a C-cup chest the unfilled-out darts on my jacket indicate that you will not feel smashed in this jacket. 
I am barely aware of the jacket when I'm riding. I'm warm with the non-electric liner down to the mid-40 degree range. Replace the warmth liner with an electric long sleeve liner and I'm good to go into the 30's. I love the wrist closures and the removable neck piece. Rev'it has designed the best touring jacket for a woman's body I have found. 
Glory Hallelujah!

A Happy Beginning for 2012

Instead of riding on this bright, dry, sunny New Year's Day I am writing - a cold that turned into the flu has kept me in bed for days and I'm in no condition to ride. I'm supposed to fly back to North Carolina for work at the end of the week. For those of us who do contract work, there's no such thing as a sick-day or vacation; if one isn't working, one isn't getting paid, so I have to get well. 


Two thoughts for the new year: start fresh, and, motorcycle appreciation and safety starts at home. 


Start fresh
Do you live in the United States? Do you think you don't need to pay off that years-old speeding ticket you got in some other state because they can't trace it to where you live now? Think again. The state DMVs are linked; you may not be able to renew your driver's license until you pay off that out-of-state ticket. The longer you take to pay, the more the late-fine on that ticket may be. 


The state governments are strapped for money, and, the online systems for the states' Departments of Motor Vehicles are now connected, so that still-unpaid ticket you got racing the wind in Montana ten years ago is going prevent you from receiving your license when it comes up for renewal. Suggestion: get to them and pay up before they get to you and the possibility of driving on an expired license looms. See the story here: Mr. Roadshow, aka Gary Richards, a northern California newspaper columnist whose work helps commuters in Silicon Valley.  A word to the wise: If your DMV will let you make an appointment online, do it - save yourself 1-2 hours of waiting-in-line time. 


Motorcycle appreciation and safety starts at home
With my fevered brain on input-only for several days, I was immensely grateful to discover MetalJockey's ride report of his family's ride across Namibia in 2009 on ADV Rider. If you can't get to the forum by clicking on the link, invest 30 seconds in creating an account on ADV Rider just to read the story and look at the photographs - it is one of the best ride reports I've ever read. 


It's not just the amazing off-road riding environment, it's not that MetalJockey chronicles his thoughts watching his wife, Tharina, as she evolves to a new level of riding; it's not that they encounter elephant, wart hog, oryx, meerkat, wildebeast, and leopard and broken masterlinks, it is all of that and they bring their young daughter with them for this one-month ride. 


The teasing title of the ride report is, "The Wife, the Ex, and the Kid do Namibia". The "Ex" refers to the BMW XChallenge, in case you were wondering. Here's Tharina ("the Wife"):
 


Here's the sequence that starts her on getting past her fears of riding downhill. 

(palms pressed together in respect) Maybe someday I'll be able to do that. I have not given up.

Here is a droll section on the futility of wrestling with kid logic: (if you can, "hear" the text in a male voice with a lovely South African accent)

We are heading for Tsumkwe in Namibia. The road from Nokaneng to the border surprises us again. Every now and then you think that you have seen it all, ridden all the kinds of bad roads there are, and then you come across a totally new variant. And then I'm still requiered to play mind games at the same time too. About an hour on this crappy road and I stop for a pee. Peanut says she has been wanting to pee for a long time. Me: But you must tell me baby, I will stop. The Kid: I did. Now that is very possible, she is very vocal on the back, sometimes she sings, sometimes she points out things she sees, sometimes she has long dialogues with imaginary toys. Many times she asks me things, and I just go “yes, I see that” because if I want to hear what it is she is on about, I have to stop and shut down the motor, and that way we will just get nowhere. Me: I cannot hear you back there, you must bang on my back. The Kid: Ok My subconscious: That may have been a mistake. Me: Ignore As we are about to leave, Peanut asks for another jelly bean. Tharina says she can have one when we stop again. Subconscious: That’s definitely a mistake. Me: I know. What’s done is done. We pull off, far to go still today. Just as shift to top gear I get the banging on my back. Subconscious: I told you so Me: I know, shut up. I slow down, stop, switch off the motor, open my visor, Me: Yes? The Kid: I want a jelly bean. Me: Mommy said only when we stop. The Kid: We are stopping Me: Oh….. er ……no, we don’t stop for jelly beans, we have never stopped for jelly beans. When we stop to rest again, you can have a jelly bean. Subconscious: You are not too bright are you? Me: Shut up. The Kid: OK Pull off again. Still within sight of the pee stop, banging on the back again. Subconscious: I saw this coming. Me: Well, speak the fuck up next time. Slow down, pull off, shut motor down, open visor. Me: Yes? The Kid: I want to rest. Me: No Peanut, we can’t rest, we just rested. You don’t say when we rest, I say when we rest. You understand? Don’t stop me for nothing again, we are wasting time, we have far to go. Pull off once more. If I knew that we were going to spend half the day to pee, I would have held it in until we got to the border. Subconscious: You know what’s coming next, dont you? Me: What? Subconscious: You told her she can have a jelly bean when you stop. Me: So? Subconscious: You told her you’ll stop to pee. Me: Dammit, if she does that, we are going to have to have that nasty ‘don’t ever lie to me’ scene again. On the backseat of the bike the gears work slowly, but they work. About 8 kms on, banging on the back again. Goddammit! Subconscious: I.. Me: Shut the fuck up! We finally get the stop start thing under control and we head for the border.

Once you start reading MetalJockey's Namibia trip report, you won't be able to stop - plan on around 8 hours of down time. "The kid", or "Peanut" (we never learn what her real name is), who looked to be around 7 or 8 years old in 2009. I wonder where she'll be and what she will be doing when she is 18. Racing Dakar?


May things improve for everyone in 2012! May you be happy, may you prosper, may you be well, may you ride safe!