Motorcycle Consumer News / Motorcycle Consumer News / General Motorcycle Discussions / Winter 09/10 thread / Latest Posts

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

Gfurlo — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:53:30 GMT

Out here on the west coast, it was a bit cold in the morning requiring long sleeve shirt but it warmed up for short sleeve till early evening.

I know I hate me too!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:33:29 GMT

Saturday, we got light but constant rain/sleet and snow to a depth of 2 to 3 inches with temps hovering from 26-30f.

Today, Sunday, dawned to wet roads and snow on everything except pavement at 30f. Snow was still falling lightly as I left for biker breakfast. Melted snow only needed to be wiped from my visor every mile or so. The ride to breakfast was quite beautiful and enjoyable mostly because I knew that it was at the end of the season.

The ride home was in brighter daylight on dry roads at 43f which allowed for some deeper cornering. All in all, a pretty nice ride.

edit: 3-22-10, monday; Saw my seasonal 'first harley parked at a bar' about noon today.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

OzarkHarleyGuy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 15:34:36 GMT

About 10 inches of snow here in nw Ark. Only about 6 to 8 on the ground right now its just about freezing so a little has melted but still coming down.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

NJScooterGal — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 14:19:58 GMT

We FINALLY had some real nice days here and yesterday, it actually got up into the 70's. Hubby's first day off in a while and he cleaned up our rides. We went out briefly and cycles were everywhere. Ran into a few friends and made a few new ones.

Rain moving in tonight and it is supposed to get colder again mid-week. Hopefully, the snow has gone into hiding in our neck of the woods and the riding season has commenced.

Folks, start your engines, let's get ready to rummmmmmmble!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

torqueman — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:40:58 GMT

Well OHG your strawman is week. Warmer temperatures always cause more evaporation which results in more precipitation. Never has a climatologist claimed victory due to a local weather but the opposite is always true. Every cold day that comes along global warming deniers claim is proof that global warming is not real. Climatologist understand that just because it is snowing here that does not mean it is snowing all over the world.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

OzarkHarleyGuy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:23:12 GMT

Winter is refusing to give up even here in the South. Yesterday 70 degrees and beautiful sunshine. Today 40 degrees and dropping with snow and sleet and freezing temps predicted for this first day of Spring.

Why do da Global warming nuts claim victory WHATEVER the weather does?? Kinda like playing Monopoly with a 4 year old.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

torqueman — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:50:56 GMT

Same here Fran with the beautiful week. We are suppose to get rain and snow for this weekend but so far it is just in the 40s and dry. If you got it then we are sure to get it worse after it crosses that big lake. Just be thankful we are not out west.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:24:26 GMT

Monday thru friday of this week, the weather built nicely into the upper 60's. More and more bikes appeared on the streets as the temps warmed. Friday, I saw my first antique car of the year up and rolling on the street.

The weather forecast for this weekend was for colder temps, 28-38F, with rain and snow. Naturally, they got it right. We have snow. Hopefully, it will melt off and be merely wet for the ride to sunday biker breakfast.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

torqueman — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:45:54 GMT

I saw two on the way back from the site I was working at today. Both far east as you put it. It will be near 50 here tomorrow.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:12:31 GMT

Ok. It's friday. On some for'ms, friday is 'harley bashing' day. Far be it from me to start such a thing here. BUT. Due to some warm temps, the local streets are clear of ice, the pot holes are easily seen, and most of the winter debris is bounced into the gutters. Saw two sport bikes out today. One was obviously doing his 6am commute. The other was observed on the roll about noontime. I don't expect to see my first harley of the year for another coupla months and 30 more degrees of temp. I saw another sport bike around noon last week but didn't consider him hard core because the mid-day temp was so warm. It was 26 degrees at 6am today and 38 degrees at noontime. Who knows how long after the harleys come out that the wings and beemers will appear?

Edit: Late this afternoon, I saw a Far East cruiser roll past on the homeward commute. Gotta luv the WW1 flying headgear.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

Gfurlo — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:25:38 GMT

Had a friend call over the weekend and he said they had two more feet of snow where he is!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:51:44 GMT

The IMS bike show in chicagoland was last weekend. The weather was not condusive to letting me ride to the show. I could have ridden to a post-show biker pizza party on the friday nite. But foul weather predictions that did not materialize made me chicken out. Same thing on saturday during the show. But Sunday's weather was rain changing to sleet changing to snow and I was glad that I had wisely chosen not to ride.

My local paper informs me that today marks the end of my meteorological winter. Your latitude may cause your winter to hang on a bit longer or have disappeared some time ago. Historically, chicagoland can get cold and snow as late as April 15. But, the streets will melt free of snow and more daytime highs will be closer to 40f degrees from here on. Anywho...this thread is officially closed for the season even though fun posts can be added to everyones heart's content.

It has been a tough winter. I got a lot more snow than usual which kept me off the bike more than ever. IIRC, I only got about 6 rides over the winter with only one of them permitting me to ride thru really fun snow flurries.

Today, a few snow flakes fell in such a way as to allow me to open the visor and feel them hit my cheeks but not mess up my glasses enough to impair my vision. My PMS is abated for the moment. Another rider (on his bike, of course) appeared at biker breakfast this morning and we exchanged knowing smiles so as not to flaunt our pleasures and satisfactions in front of the bikers who caged it. Kindness counts, don't ya know.

The next big thing, you ask? MARCH. The month of prepping the bike, mind, body, and soul for the track. Naturally, The Daytona 200 gets my psychic sap rising. And the MotoGP events start up.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:08:48 GMT

Anybody got any favorite "Murphy's Winter Riding Laws"?

Here are some of mine:

- The worse the conditions, the more likely the bike will start. It knows and wants you out there where it will have a better chance to kill you. Unless not starting will aggravate you worse. Sometimes it will not start to get you aggravated really well so that when you actually get going you are in a worse frame of mind for the trip. If you don't believe this, maybe you should be concentrating on deciding if you are a biker or a motorcyclist and not ride till you can decide for sure?

- 99.99% of the traffic will think that you are so loony that they will stay far away from you (Thank you, Geebus). The one idiot cager will be so amazed that he/she will be right on your rear wheel trying to get a better look at the 'fool on the bike'. Every LEO will pull out to have a better look and radio all others to come see for themselves, village after village...

- If conditions are bad enough, the LEO's will pull you over to ask if you are ok and to check you out for being on drugs or similar impairment. (This will unplug your electrics often enough that you will freeze to death before you remember to check the plugs before you ride away.)(It can happen often enough that I will walk back to the LEO with my hands raised before he can get out of the vehicle and ask, "If this is a serious stop, can I sit in the back where it is warm while we do what we need to do?" Speed is usually a non-issue for these stops.)

- Subsequently, some part of your gear will not be sealed up after producing 'license&registration&insurance'. Thus, you will stop to plug in the electrics and still nearly freeze to death wondering why you have no heat? Usually, the main zipper is open after having put my 'papers' away and I am dying of the heat of all the gear while talking with the LEO that I forget that it is open until I am nearly frozen.

- If the electrics come unplugged and you need a simple red light for the time to take off a glove and plug stuff back together, you will not get red light for the next ten miles and nearly freeze to death before you pull off and fix it.

-Subsequently, you will not be able to make a green light for the next ten miles.

- Your fuel will be low and you will pass up perfectly good fuel stops to get to a station that has low cost fuel, really good coffee, passably clean washrooms, cute counter girls, and plays your favorite music at the pumps.

- Subsequently, you will run out of fuel at the bottom of the biggest hill on your route. Knowing that there is fuel on the other side of the hill, you will push the bike up the hill overheating yourself in all your winter gear, nearly giving yourself a coronary with the effort, and nearly freeze to death in your own chilling sweat coasting down the far side to the highest price station for the next 50 miles.

- It will be so cold that the breath condensation in your helmet will frost nearly instantaneously rather than evap. Eventually, you will lose enough vision that you have to stop and use a credit card to scrape off the frost inside the visor to be able to continue.

- Subsequently, you will raise the visor enough to prevent this and freeze your nose, cheeks, tears on your eyelashes, and the snot to your balaclava which will be frozen into your mustache well enough that unthinkingly removing the gear at your destination will give your upper lip a yank like you won't believe.

- The people who wonder why you didn't ride last week when there was warmer weather but snow/ice on the ground, cannot get over that you rode when it is now so much colder but the pavement is frost free.

- The colder that it is, the more likely that all such laws will occur.

It was 9f degrees this morning on my way to biker breakfast. The sun was shining. And I was going to see some of my favorite women on this Valentine's Day. Don't ask how I know about the above 'laws'.

Add your fav's to the thread.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:29:28 GMT

Thanks for the suggestions guys...
Fran, I have done that before and it might work. But you would have to see my situation.
I used to move trailers around with a ball on the forks of a fork lift. You can put them in some pretty tight spots that way.

Torque, My trailer is a 32 foot enclosed toy hauler, with living quarters in the front....It weighs 2,800lbs empty...It's about 4,600lbs with the two bikes and the display stuff in it......The lawn tractor ain't going to get it.....
I do use the lawn tractor to move my 5 X 10 open trailer around the yard though.....It works good.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

torqueman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:37:41 GMT

I have a ball on my riding lawn mower. It makes life much easier to move the trailer around.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:44:49 GMT

Ironhead

After you drop the plow blade off the truck, find a spot on the truck mounted plow frame to mount a trailer ball. When you get home, unhitch the trailer off the back and drop it on the front ball. Thus you can drive foreward pushing the trailer back into your drive. You should be able to see where you are going, have finer control over which way the trailer in moving, and end up easily parking your trailer wherever you need it. This is an old boat yard trick. Makes moving a lot of boats on trailers easier for a one man operation.

If you do this, let me know how it worked for you.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:14:52 GMT

OK enough already........Now they are calling for another 6 to 8 inches of snow.....and the pump motor on my snow plow burned up yesterday!!!!
Timonium Motorcycle Show load in on Wednesday....I don't know if I can get the trailer out of the driveway???????
I know this sounds strange but if I get it out, I might not be able to get it back in....It's because of the way I have to back it in.....Since it's a dead end street, I can't go around a block to get into the same position as the way I go out. The truck and trailer together is 54ft!!!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:25:22 GMT

Gee Phil, You didn't need to be so generous with the snow....They are calling for up to 30 inches here!!!!!!!

Yes we are blessed to be living in the USA.
Regardless of how much all our bureaucracy can slow things down, we still get a lot more done that a lot of other governments.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:28:44 GMT

motojavaphil (2/4/2010)

The 82nd Airborne will respond within 24 hours to a war. Equipping aircraft for humanitarian work is a bit more difficult. Its not like pallets of food are sitting there like ammunition. ...Moto

Dang?! I thought that was how those MREs were stored when they aren't stacked ready-to-go in those air-drop crates? Bwah-ha-ha..

Thanx for the fun and the clarification, Moto. I only know what I read in the papers and see on TV/web.

On a more serious note, one would think that field hospitals would be fairly easy to insert except for perishable meds and man-power?

OMC: Rider Magazine (March '10) has an article on a guy who is riding daily this winter on a Ural in Minnisota. AND Mark Tuttle, p.8. was pretty funny. That right there lets you know how desperately I need a laugh this winter. I especially liked his "Forge Ahead or Turn Back Indicator" I am going to make my own FA/TB Indicator with proper labeling for my bike.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

motojavaphil — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:55:14 GMT

The 82nd Airborne will respond within 24 hours to a war. Equipping aircraft for humanitarian work is a bit more difficult. Its not like pallets of food are sitting there like ammunition. Yes, recon elements from different Countries did get in ahead of us but our recon was there as well. Our aid, when compared to other Countries, is generous to put it mildly. We will end up rebuilding Haiti. I too wish we could have responded more quickly.

On a more positive note, we have boxed up some more weather and are forwarding it to the East Coast. You should be in receipt about now. Our next weather is for the entire next week, we will be busy boxing it and forwarding to you. Thank our friend El Nino for the abundance. Great skiing!
Moto

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

NJScooterGal — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:14:54 GMT

OHG, I don't think you or anyone else on here needs to be forgiven for any complaining or ranting we may do about anything from A-Z.

I think for the most part, we all live relatively comfortable lives and I am quite sure we've all worked very hard for everything we have. the economy has hit everyone in some way.

I was just in our local grocery store and not because we're going to get a foot of snow, but because this is our regular shopping day. Let me tell you, the place was an absolute nightmare. People were actually fighting over loaves of bread! You wouldn't be able to tell by the amount of food in the baskets that the economy is in any kind of peril, that's for sure.

If our two kids are home from college, our food bill triples. The people in Haiti were happy to just have one bowl of rice, some baby formula and clean water.

It sure puts everything into perspective when you take a second to look at the bigger picture.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:06:26 GMT

shortinseam (2/3/2010)

Let Rich know that we appreciate his efforts!
.

My sentiments too.

Not getting on a soap box here, BUT

Why is it that in the good ol' U.S. of A. we have the military priding themselves on being able to get men on the ground in very short order to kill people. But we do not have the same or better response capability to do good?

It doesn't get any closer than Katrina or CA earthquakes. One would think that Haiti would be close enough that we could respond with much better results?

And just to put some top spin on the issue, why can't our military use events like Haiti as world class missions for real crises? Nearly everything required to respond to a military crisis happened in Haiti except for the desire to kill people. If I read the papers correctly and listened to the radio reports correctly, the danged chinese were on site and helping out faster than we were? How the heck is that possible?

Eisenhower warned against the idiocies of the military-industrial complex. He didn't know the half of it. And didn't include the political pork barrel part either.

I hope that our personel are getting about the area easily on motorbikes. (OMC)

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

OzarkHarleyGuy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:47:58 GMT

After seeing those pics of Hati, I hope all will forgive me for ever complaining about winter!!!!!!!!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

shortinseam — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:40:04 GMT

Let Rich know that we appreciate his efforts!

A friend of ours was down there also. Interestingly, he was in Zimbabwe, living on the borders of the bush, when he heard about the earthquake. He's back in the states for a short while and then will return to Africa.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

NJScooterGal — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:33:44 GMT

The videos were great, thanks for sharing Iron. I love where you live too! My brother has been flying helo's for years. They live in Connecticut about 45 miles from Hartford, but in tobacco and horse country on 75 acres on Route 66. He put a helo pad in his front yard (well, actually old cow pasture) and still uses it. I think only one "neighbor" complained about the noise some time ago, then, the female half of that same neighbor was hit head on by a drunk driver right in front of the gates going down to my brothers.

Their whole attitude changed when the med flight that flew her to the hospital used his pasture as a landing zone and that flight saved her and her daughter's life.

South Jersey is getting slammed with snow. We had the 18 inches back in the beginning of January, got another five the other night, a few more tonight (Tuesday) and maybe another eight coming late Friday into Saturday.

Hubby got back from Haiti early last week via a military transport jet. I think it was a C-130, but it was huge just the same and had two armored support vehicles inside its belly that had broken down.

I missed him a great deal, but I know he was glad to help in the unorganized chaos, especially with the children who just didn't understand what was going on. He was there for 11 days until his team of one dentist, one OBGYN, one infectious disease doc and three nurses were relieved by five other docs from Doctors without Border's and Catholic Charities.

I know there are many, many people who do not agree with us sending all that aid (let alone if it really makes it there or not), but Rich is the kind of man who would help anyone, at any hour, on any day, especially if they were sick and couldn't afford or didn't have care.

When Rich and our friends decided they would go to Haiti (with Penn Hospital's) blessing, we took our own money and our friends took their own money, went to CVS and Walgreen's and bought all of the over the counter medical supplies we could. This was before we knew what, if any aid, would be in Haiti. General Electric donated the use of two private jets to get them to Port Au Prince along with their supplies which included 200 cases of donated water from Walgreens and I am proud of him and all the doctors, nurses and military people that helped and are still helping.

Below are a few pics..some from Rich, some from friends. The media soak can be overbearing at times, but we are here, we are safe with our families, our homes, our toys and while all of us struggle with various issues at times and who knows, some of us on here could be struggling to pay bills and put food on the table, but I pray that each one of you and your families never, ever have to go through something of this magnitude. WARNING, SOME OF THESE PICS ARE GRAPHIC IN NATURE!.

This little girl named Mykeshia had a broken jaw in two places and hadn't eaten in five days. She was sipping dirty water through a straw and got intestinal parasties, much like giardia. She did not survive.

In the fourth picture, those tube like looking things in the bottom of the photo on the right are bodies waiting to be cremated.

The large hole was dug by the Haitian workers outside the makeshift hospital to bury the patients that did not survive. It was one of five mass graves dug before my husband came home. They were all full.

We started up all of our cycles today, but still to much snow on the ground to go for a ride. It got up to around 40, but overcast. It's snowing as I am finishing writing this.

Scootergal..

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:31:59 GMT

http://comics.com/rose_is_rose/?Page=2

This should be a link to the cartoon strip, "Rose Is Rose" as it appeared on sunday, 1-31-10.

As posted many times long ago, Pat Brady's character, Rose, has an alter ego biker chick named Vicky. Always great fun to me when Vicky makes an appearence.

Mr. Brady has a collection of Vicky cartoons in paperback which I have yet to see. If someone has a copy, please post up some observations on the book.

I hope to meet Pat Brady someday and find out for myself if he is a biker.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 13:23:05 GMT

OzarkHarleyGuy (1/30/2010)

7 inches of wet snow here. I know there must be a good reason for winter but I know I'll never understand it.

I have heard that the innermost circle of Dante's Hell is very, very cold. Thus, the reason for winter may be nothing more than to give some of us bikers an exquisit appreciation of the rest of the year that is possible by no other means.

It was 14f degrees this morning when I left for sunday biker breakfast. It would have been a more bracing 13f, but the digital thermometer ticked over one more degree as I watched it. My super sensitive personal traction control system went off as I turned out of my drive. I didn't have to make a 'save'. But traction was funny for the ride. I suspect ubiquitous salt dust to be the main culprit.

I didn't even hesitate to activate the electric vest. My finger tips were aching with the cold by the time that I got to the diner. The snowmobile boots made for clunky gear shifting. But I was going slow and steady, and butter smooth shifts were not near the top of the opperation priority list. The front end felt especially 'darty' today and I have no idea why? It was a good, fun trip. The visor tended to fog up on the way out. But it remained clear in the 27f sunny temps on the why home.

I think that I can go for a little while now that I have had my biking 'fix'.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

OzarkHarleyGuy — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:56:47 GMT

7 inches of wet snow here. I know there must be a good reason for winter but I know I'll never understand it.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:34:37 GMT

WAHOOO!!!

My Stich came back from the factory today! I am definitely riding to Sunday Biker Breakfast tomorrow. It's supposed to be dry, sunny, and a high of 27f. So it will probably be about 18f when I am out on the bike.

I got out for a breakfast ride about two weeks ago when the temp was hovering just below freezing. Even though 'black ice' was predicted, I couldn't not give it a try. We had 'frozen fog' on the landscape and lake effect snow near the diner. Some of the creeks had narrow open water in them and a mallard drake was paddling along. Overcast the whole day 'cepting for a little bit.

A sunny ride will be just about perfect.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:42:11 GMT

In two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday.........I better get busy!!!!!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:30:36 GMT

If my calculations are correct, yesterday was the mid-point in this season's ecological winter.

Thus, today is our first full day of coming out the other side of the winter season. we will have just as much snow and ice as in the first half. BUT, we should be slowly warming from here on into spring.

Halle-freaking-ullia!!!

So. If you ain't got most of your planned winter bikin' projects completed, all y'all better get cracking. (Don't anybody go nutz. I am so far behind schedule on said winter bike stuff that I should be in that same boat as everybody.)

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:27:02 GMT

no no no.
That would be a Convent....or maybe a Coven, Probably pretty similar to each other...WHOA...Was that lightning??????.......
Anyway, yeah I was talking about the gates where I turned around (they need a paint job). And of course I made the ones in front of my house too.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:30:36 GMT

"Covenant" ????

You got nuns by you? What kind? God's Geese? Or them holy terrors, The Sisters of Mercy -a mis-nomer if there ever was one? As a kid, I got knouted once by a Dominican with the knot tied on the end of that rope that they wear. You be careful around such people. They can be more hostile than they let on. They don't seem to have much of a sense of humor. I think that they are not sniffing the right incense.

If they got time for prayers or prayers stacked up with no one to claim 'em, get some for me.

If you are talking about the iron fencing/gates where you turned around, it looked good to me. If you are talking about fencing/gates near the speed bumps, I sorta missed that.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:11:26 GMT

I like how you think Fran....
The part of the road that the speed bumps are on, is actually private road. It's a right of way through the farm, to get to the last four houses. I don't go down there that often. There aren't any between my house and the main road (turning right out of my driveway). The previous owner of the last house on the street, had experimental aircraft. When he bought the land he was able to put a covenant on it so that no one could complain about the noise. He bought enough land to have the required buffer, then built the other houses and sold them with the covenant attached. So when the guy with the helicopters bought the place, he was grandfathered in. I kind of like having folks like them around. He flies over the house every now and then and waves hello......If I could just get him to hover low enough over the yard to blow all the leaves away in the fall.......Did you notice the gates on his stone posts. I made them for him....
Hang in there...Springtime's coming...

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

RePete — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:32:38 GMT

But, its always nice to have the wealthy people on your side.[/quote]

Now there is a bit of wisdom for the masses.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:13:35 GMT

ironhead97 (1/20/2010)

Here ya go...Take a ride with me on my Bronson bike...!

Mucho thanx for the vids, ironhead. Very very nice.

I haven't seen grass around here since Dec 7 09.

You are a helluva guy and I am glad to know you.

Those speed bumps would drive me crazy. I would be killing myself trying to figure a work-around for those things. I would be trying to find out all that I could about those things and the possibilities of removing them. And then...And then...I would sneak out there sometime and cut me a nice motorcycle friendly narrow little vee-notch right in the middle of them. Add a little touch up paint and own up to nothing. If anybody asked, I would reply, "I heard that was to let bicycle traffic thru without eroding the shoulders." And I would be sure to ride thru there real slow as if I was crossing the bumps so as not to tee-off the neighbors. Put the notch in there at an angle so that it looks like a continuous bump but it ain't. Iffin that clown with the helicopter puts up a fuss that can't be smoothed over, remind him that the community has noise limitations. That chopper can't possibly be very quiet. Granted, he probably never sees the bumps. But, its always nice to have the wealthy people on your side.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

torqueman — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:30:03 GMT

Seeing the Bronson bikes makes me want one. Looked like a beautiful day for a ride to me.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ironhead97 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:07:21 GMT

Here ya go...Take a ride with me on my Bronson bike...It was cold and the roads were a little wet but I just wanted to warm the bikes up and run them a little. It's just a mile to the end of the road I live on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT99xqA8GRs

If you like that one, then check this out. When I took the Vulcan out I went down a muddy Gray Clay, Very Slick road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq79qimVxjc&feature=channel

Enjoy... and I know I will get chewed up about this...Go ahead and poke fun...
Oh Yeah, the vids were taken with a Christmas gift from Jan. It's a pair of sunglasses with a video camera built in!

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

modette — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:32:33 GMT

Today was nice, I just got back from a ride :-) Tomorrow is suppose to be in the 50's again. It has made for a crappy ski season but I see riding season has started early.

RE: Winter 09/10 thread

ibafran — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:12:40 GMT

Hah!

I rode to biker breakfast this morning. Man-o-man-o-maaaan, did that feel gooood!

Started out in 21f and came home in 28f. No apexes (apexi?) were straffed. Nor were any hero tabs dragged. But some lean in the proper direction did feel great. The streets were clear enough that ice, black or regular, didn't seem to be an issue. However, there was lake effect snow for the last mile to the diner that had me wondering if I was going to get there? And if I did, was I going to be able to get out after b-fast? Several bikers at the table berated me for my foolishness and in ways to lead me to believe that they were mortified by their own percieved lack of courage, riding accumen, and a wide ranging reasons of personal disappointment with themselves. Sorry biker breakfast budds, but you are what you are and I can't help that. Luv all y'all anyway. Anywho, there was frozen fog/frost on lots of trees and bushes. I don't recall ever seeing such a phenomena before? It was very cool, neato, and a bit surreal and ghostly. It has been warm enough of late that some open water is running along the centers of many of the little creeks running under the road. A sight of a mallard drake paddling in the narrow lead of water put a smile on my face that would not go away. That sighting of the duck would not have been possible if I was cage bound and it made my ride a thing of beauty.

My monthly antique club met this past week. And I sooo wanted to ride in. Weather was do-able. But it was a night ride. And I didn't have the gumption to face possible ice at night. Even after caging it to the meeting and noting that I probably would have been able to make the ride, I was just as happy to have forgone the mental stress. This 'getting old and weak and scared' sux. Fortunately, none of the other antiquers rode. Thus, I did not have to suffer second guessing myself and berating myself for whatever failing expectations I might have of myself.

edit: I should note that this ride was the first in 6 years that I wasn't wearing my Stich. The Stich is off to the factory for some repairs and a little TLC and I haven't got it back as yet. In a safety sense, I didn't feel any extra exposure due to my gear. But I did miss the warmth of the suit and the comfort of its armor. I needed a ride so bad that I was willing to revert to gear from the days of olde to do so. But I do have a heightened sense of risk caused by a reading of the book, Traffic, that is noted in other threads.