Sub Zero Riding
- Dodgy69
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
Got my hand me down Gerbing heated jacket out ready for the ride in the morning but it's too damn cold in the garage to bother fitting the connections to the battery, probs do it in the morning thou
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
First time was when I was 16, sod that! Then just before I became a despatcher, I took my CB125T to a mates in the snow. Absolutely fine until I found myself sliding up the snow covered road at 40. Only damage to myself or the bike was I managed to amputate the M/cyl lid.
So went despatching for 8 years but Belfast isn't that snowy or cold so it was just freezing and damp most of the winter. I found the importance of good kit. The one ride that really sticks on my mind was a 5pm run to Derry in January. I was riding an XJ600N at the time and it was raining in Derry and it froze coming back across the Glenshane. When I got back home the ice fell off me like a launching rocket.
Fast forward 20 years and I'm doing it again. Now I'm all mortgaged up, I can't justify spending money on a car with a load of bikes in the garage.
It was a lot easier to justify it today though.
So went despatching for 8 years but Belfast isn't that snowy or cold so it was just freezing and damp most of the winter. I found the importance of good kit. The one ride that really sticks on my mind was a 5pm run to Derry in January. I was riding an XJ600N at the time and it was raining in Derry and it froze coming back across the Glenshane. When I got back home the ice fell off me like a launching rocket.
Fast forward 20 years and I'm doing it again. Now I'm all mortgaged up, I can't justify spending money on a car with a load of bikes in the garage.
It was a lot easier to justify it today though.
Re: Sub Zero Riding
This morning, on my commute the vans temp gauge was saying -10c, traffic was trundling along at the usual 50mph or so, and a sports bike came past the line of traffic like it was a summer afternoon.
Fucking nuts, but I suppose he had to go faster to get to work and back into the warm
Fucking nuts, but I suppose he had to go faster to get to work and back into the warm
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
Only been out twice this week as WFH but I'm amazed that people seem to think that cos the snow isn't on the road they can hoon around as usual even at - temps.Taff wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:51 am This morning, on my commute the vans temp gauge was saying -10c, traffic was trundling along at the usual 50mph or so, and a sports bike came past the line of traffic like it was a summer afternoon.
Fucking nuts, but I suppose he had to go faster to get to work and back into the warm
- Taipan
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
It's been a tough week or so commuting on the scoot. I've shuffled my work around so I can WFH a bit more, which I dont like doing normally, but that is damn cold on a bike. Not cold enough to put me on public transport mind...
- weeksy
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
You're a brave boy. I've barely left the house, let alone wind blast at whatever bonkers numbers you've had.
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
I remember a few years ago when it was these sort of temps, I was overtaken by a guy on some sort of 'sit up and beg' naked bike, don't remember what, wearing cargo shorts The angle was just right that the wind must have been blowing right up 'is nads.
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- Yorick
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- Taipan
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
I did question it the other night. When I got in my hands were burning with the cold! My wife had to help me get my lid off! I did wonder if I could have actually used my brakes properly in an emergency!
- Bigyin
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
All our training has been cancelled for the past 2 weeks due to the temperature despite call after call from people trying to book in.
The weather isn’t a problem for the instructors as we are all experienced with assorted solutions to the cold including bar muffs, heated grips and heated kit but students turn up in jeans, a leather jacket and summer MX gloves and get the hump when we refuse to take them on the road despite explaining wind chill. There was a case a few years back when an instructor (doesn’t work at our place anymore) decided to go ahead with a dual carriageway lesson with a student who wasn’t dressed for the temp and when he got to a roundabout couldn’t use the brakes as his hands were so cold and binned the bike. He should never have left the base as the temp was 2 degrees
I am bloody bored now and the enforced layoff means I have seen pretty much every world cup game
The weather isn’t a problem for the instructors as we are all experienced with assorted solutions to the cold including bar muffs, heated grips and heated kit but students turn up in jeans, a leather jacket and summer MX gloves and get the hump when we refuse to take them on the road despite explaining wind chill. There was a case a few years back when an instructor (doesn’t work at our place anymore) decided to go ahead with a dual carriageway lesson with a student who wasn’t dressed for the temp and when he got to a roundabout couldn’t use the brakes as his hands were so cold and binned the bike. He should never have left the base as the temp was 2 degrees
I am bloody bored now and the enforced layoff means I have seen pretty much every world cup game
- Noggin
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
I drove through Annecy the other morning at commuter time. TBF, Annecy itself doesn't get loads of snow and seeing a couple of inches of snow on the pavements and knowing it was - temps made me very surprised to see a guy riding his bike (something like a superduke I think). Ok, wasn't hooning exactly, but there were plenty of places where there was slush at the least on the roadTaff wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 9:51 am This morning, on my commute the vans temp gauge was saying -10c, traffic was trundling along at the usual 50mph or so, and a sports bike came past the line of traffic like it was a summer afternoon.
Fucking nuts, but I suppose he had to go faster to get to work and back into the warm
Life is for living. Buy the shoes. Eat the cake. Ride the bikes. Just, ride the bikes!!
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
Sunday it should tip down with rain and the temp get up to 13 ish.
Then it’s going to get cold again ….
I’ve got Monday off so maybe ….maybe….go out for a spin
Then it’s going to get cold again ….
I’ve got Monday off so maybe ….maybe….go out for a spin
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
Had to admit defeat, went down to minus 6 and the snow froze, then melted into inch thick ice, as soon as I let the clutch out, the back wheel would just spin.
Ended up buying an ancient, if very clean 106 for the bad days. It uses less fuel than the bike.
Ended up buying an ancient, if very clean 106 for the bad days. It uses less fuel than the bike.
- Yorick
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- wull
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Re: Sub Zero Riding
One of the best cars I ever had in the snow was a wee 106, 1.1 petrol, car was superb with the small tyres. A few years before that I had another 106, series 1 or whatever shape it was and it was fitted with the 1.5D engine and that thing ran on fresh air, a tank would seem to last forever. I loved that car.