29*? Yes it's cold on a motorcycle

[tomacGTi]

So I decided it was do or die to get the Bandit to its little hibernation spot in my folk's basement mainly because of the impending weather and access to it through snow..

Let's just say I look like Bib when I was tooling down the road. I have no idea how guys ride all bundled up like that through the winter but no thanks. Besides looking for the usual gravel, there was also black ice, the fact that tires don't like to grip very well at all, DOT spraying pre-treat and the fork oil is so cold that the action is slower.

All done now. Ski gloves are also aweful to ride in. You can't feel a damn thing through the padding but my hands were somewhat warm. As silly as it may be, it was actually kind of nice to twist throttle for a change.

Oh and Rear SS line feels fine, pads still have the same amount of bite, just way better feel. Seems like you can modulate them that much better.

-Randy

[magicGoose]

I agree about the gloves Randy. I recently tried some cold weather riding gloves and hated them. It felt like riding with pillows taped to the handlebars. Doesn't anyone make gloves with insulation on the top, where you need it, and just leather on the palms so you can still feel?

[Vidrazor]

You'll need insulation on the handlebars and brake/clutch levers if you want to keep your hands warm, because those are massive heatsinks in the cold.

My friend's GoldWing has "foam"-type handlebar grips, and they do a decent job of insulating you from the frozen handlebars. Might go for that on my B4. Also saw some rubber lever sleeves which would provide a little insultion on the levers. I'd love to find similar foam sleeves for the levers.

I won't have to worry about that for a while though, because we just had a good dousing of snow here in the NYC area. While Manhattan is pretty much snow-free already, my neighborhood in North Bergen NJ is blanketed.

[Red01]

For ~$30 you can put grip heaters on the bike and that'll solve the cold grips thru the bars problem. (I use Dual-Star's grip heaters.) Your hands aren't usually on the levers long enough to make a big difference.

Due to black ice issues here in the Pacific Northwet, I don't usually ride in below freezing weather. Even near freezing weather if it's been wet recently, but in the 33-up weather I do ride in, I find I can get away with medium weight gloves with the grip heaters on. The backs of my hands will get a little cold, but it's not unbearable, and I like it better than wearing fat insulated gloves. (I don't think I've worn my winter weight riding gloves since I installed the heaters.)

[tomacGTi]

There are 6 fresh inches of snow here in PA and the bike has been snuggled up for the winter. It won't see the light of day again until I get home from the spring road bike races in CA.

My hands were physically tired from riding those 15 or so short miles because of the squishiness of gloves. Working the clutch and brake only made it worse as I had to kind of fight past the padding to reach. Ironically I have the same problem on my mountain bike as my winter gloves have a thin palm but the fabric "slides" and causes my hands to cramp. I usually ride with either a mechanix type glove or nothing at all so placing something the consistancy of a kotex on the handlebar gives me problems. Shame my Specialized doesn't have a 12v electrical system.

I envy you guys who can ride all year long. I went to the Ducati open house/Paul Smart release last Friday with my GF and tried on a pair of the Rev'it winter gloves. Quite nice but not $175 nice, that's for sure. Heated grips are an option, but having spent extended times on the back of a motorcycle in the pouring rain and cold as a mechanic for Mavic, if I have a choice in the matter, I'll ride when it's nice out.

-Randy

[Vidrazor]

>>Your hands aren't usually on the levers long enough to make a big difference.<<

Hmmm, that hasn't been my experience. I can feel the cold traveling from the levers to my fingers (or, more accurately, the heat dissipating from my fingers through the levers/heatsinks). After riding around for a few hours in 30-degree weather last weekend, my fingers were getting pretty numb from all the clutching and braking. I have motorcycle mitts which break the wind and keep my hands overall fairly warm.

After that day's ride the worst victims were my fingers and my toes, especially the big toes. They were quite refrigerated. I had to take a warm shower to water-heat them back up.

>>I use Dual-Star's grip heaters.<<

I've considerd using either heated grips or gloves, but I'm already using a Widder vest and I'm not sure the bike can handle the two, even though the Widder isn't set to it's full 35-watt heating capacity (yet). I did have my rectifier replaced with a unit designed for a Yamaha, which puts out .6 volts extra, so I may be OK on this.

I also just read about Heat Factory chemical heat pads and was wondering if anyone's ever used them. They have toe warmers that I'm particularly interested in. I'm wondering if I can wrap their larger pads around the hand grips and levers Perhaps just throwing a pair into my bike mitts might do the trick. Anyone ever use these?

http://www.heatfactory.com/

[Thief400]

But its really warm on one of these, almost too warm!   lol