After more than a couple decades of riding, I'm finally considering some heated grips and maybe an electric vest to lengthen the riding season. Minnesota is indeed a land of extremes and I'm starting to get old and cranky about it. Warm, waterproof gear is a must! At least my old, cold-blooded Honda's tendency to not want to start as the temps get close to freezing keeps me from going out too late in the Winter when it's real cold. Black ice can be scary!:shocked:
A little forced common sense is better than none at all.
Joe
I do have the heated grips, absolutely awesome... Until it gets really cold.
You don't realize just how nice they are until spring and fall. Once it gets to freezing, they don't warm your fingertips, but after having one fail (pinched wire, slacking on my inspections) I will say they do make a difference. I'm now using a midrange pair of gauntlet sled gloves. For 12f, I use a Joe Rocket touring style jacket, lined chamois shirt, t-shirt and thermal shirt underneath. The bottom two is my normal work attire. I have a second pair of jeans that loose fit over the ones I'm wearing for the day, those come into play around forty and work to upper 20's. Below that a pair of rain pants is added.
Key is stopping the air movement, not so much insulation. Handkerchief below the nose and pinched under the chin strap protects the bare neck and seals off the top of the jacket. A backpack eliminates airflow down the back and torso if it has a waist strap. I also Velcro in an HJC "breathbox" below fourty. That stops airflow over the face and forehead(fullface helmet), which makes a tremendous difference in comfort.
I have a pair of Alpinestar padded bike boots that I wear year round. VERY comfortable. Just found out that they are far warmer the useless mukluks I wore the other day as a test.
Riding ultra-cold poses some odd issues. First of all is tires perform dramatically different, ride gets very harsh as fluids thicken, my headstock bearings actually "slap" on sharp edged bumps such as RR crossings because of contracting metal, fuel mileage on my EFI machine drops from 58 (If I pretend to be mature) to somewhere in the 30's as the machine attempts to adapt to the heavier air mass. Power comes up at mid rpms, but the machine does not deal with heavy throttle followed by a sudden decel at all. She stumbles wants to drage the rear end.
I run Rotella-T in the summer, but once it gets really cold I go to a lightersemi-syth. She lives in the heated man cave, but the thicker oil drags pretty hard after sitting at work for 14 hours.
Sorry if I have dragged the thread too far from the intended course.
Oh, and you almost get used to the odd looks, head turns, and gestures when everyone is bundled up like eskimos in their heated vehicles, and you go cruising by. :thumbsup:
