Getting Ready for Winter and OPS

[cheeseheadmike]

I had to a do double take, windmill. Looking at your pics and I’m thinking “why does this guy have an old outboard on his rig?”. Then it struck me that it was a trunk. Same style on my CX.

[RC20]

Looks like we get 4 to 9 inches today. Will get out and see how she does!

Late afternoon and light was going so could not play much - it did great. 3" Snow on icy roads, handling good, nothing remotely problematic. I could see a fun time in on country roads (in city not so much with bad drivers let alone first snow and ice) - glasses were fogging up but not a cycle issue

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[RC20]

When all said and done we got 9 inches of wet snow. Really late for us for significant snowfall but will take a large dump over a bunch of small ones any day.

Had to be 5 inches when I was out and about. That about as challenging a combo of ice under and snow on top as you will get.

Pretty tickled.

[Lofty]

RC: How do you keep your hands warm in such weather?

[scottmastrocinque]

It’s not as cold as Anchorage here inside Northwest Ohio but it does get very cold. I have big handguards, heated grips and good quality winter motorcycle gloves. It works for me.

[RC20]

Well you just have to not be a wimp, sorry but the truth is as harsh as the Russian winter

Reality is having lived here all my life, mostly I just do not get cold and if I keep the core up, I am good.

I had my Alaska Pipeline down pants good to -60 in the pipelines days or in that area and a large cold weather coat a friend gave me that fits over my stuff (sadly it was her husbands and she is happy its getting put to good use)

Rare case of no leathers as road rash not the issue if you go off you skid along nicely

Years back I found a good set of gloves at Harley Davidson of all places (getting S100 and on sale maybe). They work well.

A lot has to do with layering and ensuring the outer layer is wind proof. That can be a good coat and zipper or the Rain Gear ala Bib bottoms and long long length top (works wonders as a wind break and keeps heat from leaking out)

Been out as low as 10 degrees. Pretty well froze my a$$ off but that was 150 mile trip.

[sKiZo]

Got me a nice pair of Olympia winter gauntlet gloves that do a right nice job down to freezing anyway. Got to test them out a couple days back doing some local runs. What you're looking for is both GoreTex liners to keep out the wet, and WindTex liners to ... like ... keep out the wind. Mine have both. An occasional rubdown with mink oil is a good thing for sealing all the seams and stitching. I've also got a pair of National hand bubbles that I plan to swap from another bike for additional protection. Those just mount under the mirror stalks. Maybe even try the lowers but I expect I'd have to modify the brackets. Those are nice because you can adjust the angle on the fly to control air flow.



** The pic also shows the Saeng Ta edging I install on most of my windshields. That has a curved profile that adds an extra 2-3 inches to the wind envelope, and every little bit counts when it gets cold out. Stuff really works.

Winterizing mostly consists of plugging in the battery buddy though. I'll get out and ride if the roads are clear, but both me and the bike go undercover when the white stuff hits. So I guess that makes me a wimp ... I can live with that. ;-}

PS - DO check your tire pressures. That can change drastically when the temp drops. Maybe not so much on the Ural, but I'd see some serious changes on the big rubber on my Royal Star. Then again, those were big enough they had their own weather systems inside .... <G>

[Lofty]

Thanks for efficiently addressing my inquiry, sKiZo.

[sKiZo]

Hey now ... I've never been accused of being efficient before. Take it back! <G>

[RC20]

It’s not as cold as Anchorage here inside Northwest Ohio but it does get very cold. I have big handguards, heated grips and good quality winter motorcycle gloves. It works for me.

Anchorage is an odd place temp wise.

Normal winter temps can be pretty mild, 20s a lot. More so lately. Sometimes a lot of hovering around 0.

Then some winters down into the -5 to -20 area. No calling it. I have seen -35 in Anchorage.

More or less we are a narrow mountain range away from the Gulf of Alaska which tends to warmer streams of water (Japan current?)

Then cook Inlet angles to the Gulf at something around a 45 deg angle to the S.W.

Storms then can skirt South in the Gulf and flow from interior and quite cold, other times in between and sometimes a steady flow from the Gulf and a warm (and rainy ) winter. One awful one was 40 deg all winter and rain, ice build up horrible.

We are supposed to hit into the 40s latter int eh week with rain possible. Hope not, a few degrees on a storm one way or the other has a major change for us.

The good forecaster love being stationed in AK, you get a serious series of lessons (other than inconsistent from ships noting out in the Gulf for weather station unlike a lot of the US) - so they only tend to know what they are going to get when it hits the coast.

[RC20]

RC: How do you keep your hands warm in such weather?

Lofty,

My apologies if taken wrong. No pat answers as some people get cold hands and need heated everything from grips to gloves and most are in between.

My good friend gets cold feet easily (he is tall and circulation does not work as good as mine)

I tend to the just not cold and I am serious about the core, if that is warm then the extremities do much better.

[sKiZo]

Ural's a good bike for heated gear - the things have enough reserve power to light small cities. Mine's wired up by the previous owner for some serious Gerbing gear. My Royal Star struggled just to handle the addition of some lighting and a stereo ...

[RC20]

I will get my heated vest hooked up one of these days. Problem is its left hand feed into the vest with the cord and right would work better for the Ural.

I have to get the wife to put an expansion joint in it (sigh)

[RC20]

One area that may be of interest. Battery powered gear. Guy at work had a coat that was good for 8 hours and the battery was quite small.

It not that you can't hook up, but it is awkward hook up and unhook and how many connections? These are some options

https://www.thedrive.com/reviews/30282/ ... cle-gloves

Knatsu now makes a blow up vest that allows a tight custom fit regardless if you gain or loose weight. Will do some sleuthing to see if batter powered.

[RC20]

My Winter Riding Setup:

Several shirts layered, an insulated vest, insulated Carheart canvas coat and the down parka over it all
Legs had my arctic down pants on.

PB250309.JPG

Got out and ran errands, 20 degrees, roads run in with varying degrees of ice and packed snow/ice.

Went well, traction was good and handling consistent with no nasty stuff.

Once spot was so icy I had to really ease down to get traction but once gained fine on the same type of surface there and elsewhere.