Winter Riding Rules

[normratscoots]

What are yours? Today, the temperature sat at 22 degrees during my morning dog walk. When my commute was four miles, I'd ride in anything but anticipated ice build up. Since we've been 12 miles out of downtown, my cut off has generally been 25 degrees. I've taken this winter off from scooter commuting, mostly due to my Aprilia being out of service. Avoiding traffic and deep chills has been a bonus perhaps worth the increased cost of metro.

[Zeets]

If it's dry, I ride. I didn't ride this morning since I had an appointment that required me to dress all fancy and all, but I would have. Ice concerns me, and cold tires freak me out a bit. Drifting the DRZ around the u-turn infront of my house is sort of fun, though.

Last winter wasn't too cold, but the previous winter, I went to work a few times on my RD when the temp was just above 20. I've never tried the teens, but I suppose I would if it was clear and going to be a sunny day.

Lately, there's been some constant moisture on Connecticut Ave under the 495 overpass. It was real slick yesterday, and frozen this morning, that's what makes me nervous.

[Andi]

dude so, I hardly ever ride in the cold but I rode to our meetup the other night (a whole 3 blocks!) and my throttle was sticking like a mofo. anyone else's do this? on the smallie it doesn't snap back anyway, but in the cold it is reeeeeallly hard to rotate it back and forth. was a little scary actually!

[normratscoots]

It's possible that your cables are greased instead of properly lubricated with an oil. Some greases freeze. This is why I'll likely be on Beth's Stella rather than my P200 when riding in colder weather (i.e. learned that lesson the hard way).

[epsato]

My insurance is expired so I haven't ridden since the end of October. I've kicked over the scoots and ridden them for a few minutes in the garage, and will likely do so again in a week or two to keep things fluid and running. I still want to sell the PX in hopes of finishing an "in progress" stella purchase and to replace the P200's stator.

If the Px doesn't sell, it'll be at least March before I can afford to get on a scooter again. If it does, I'll be on the p200 in two shakes

[Zeets]

Have you looked into Rider insurance? They quoted me less than $75 for my RD for a year.

[Brodyfrompa]

got mine thru geico....100 a year for gt and bajaj

[Zeets]

It was thirteen balmy degrees during my commute in this morning. Usually, the cold doesn't bother me, this morning, my forehead was frozen, even with my balaclava. Otherwise, my Firstgear pants with their liner did their jobs sufficiently and my Revit jacket was warm enough, but it helps I was wearing a fleece vest underneath. My Gloves are pretty good too, but I now have some Barkbusters on my bike that help deflect a lot of the wind off of my hands. The biggest issues were: My tires were like icy little round bricks, I just couldn't get sufficient traction until they warmed in, a lot. Also, my chain was really noisy, I'm assuming it was just stiff from the lube being all cold, but it made a hell of a racket for the first few hundred yards.

But, it is a beautiful day for a ride.

[normratscoots]

That's pretty good. What are you doing for a helmet, specifically the visor? I use a fog city shield insert which works pretty well up to a point, but the times I've done the full commute in the teens, I've had a nice layer of ice freeze up on the inside.

[Zeets]

That's pretty good. What are you doing for a helmet, specifically the visor? I use a fog city shield insert which works pretty well up to a point, but the times I've done the full commute in the teens, I've had a nice layer of ice freeze up on the inside.

What kind of panty waist wears a helmet?

Or, I'm using my Shoei RF1100. Currently I just leave the chin vent open and when I stop, I pop the visor to the first notch. I don't really have any issues with bad fog up. Plus, most of my commute is at 60+ mph. I did just buy a pin lock visor and a fog shield, but I haven't received them yet.

I'm guessing the higher speeds I travel keep enough air circulating that I don't have issues, with that.

[toigo]

I've mostly been riding my bicycle around when it's this cold since the bikes both take so long to warm up in the morning. If I do ride in though I have huge snowboard mittens and ride the Ninja. Cables to drum brakes seem pretty worthless as soon as your right hand gets cold. I pretty much go by if it's above or below freezing.

Also, exhale as you pull up to a stop so when you need to you can inhale and can still wait even longer without breathing out to fog up your visor.