$19 cover + nightlight = happy gs

[ohgood]

OK, I've test my lame setup to 39F now.

Results are :

bike starts almost as though it was run an hour before. (almost)
very little warm up time (less than 5 minutes)

added bonus- seat stays drier AND warmer

so go get yerself a $19 cover, and a 60 or 100 watt shop light. hang it on yer headers (hmm, maybe it works for F models too ?) and enjoy a bike ready to ride even @ 39F.

for you badass northerners braving <32F weather, sorry, i have no clue what that's like.

[fred]

Wow, that is craziness. It is cool that you can get it started easily, but damn, that is cold. Here is southern California, people bust out the down jackets and the like when it gets below 60...

[LOUiE]

for you badass northerners braving <32F weather, sorry, i have no clue what that's like.

i have nowhere to install a block heater on my bike!!!  wtf!!

I can however replace the front wheel with a ski and use it in January!

[GeeP]

GS afraid of the dark? 

It should be, with ZX's, TLR's, and CBR's out in the shadows waiting to molest it.









Whatever works!

[yamahonkawazuki]

Wow, that is craziness. It is cool that you can get it started easily, but damn, that is cold. Here is southern California, people bust out the down jackets and the like when it gets below 60...

pussies 

[shiznizbiz]

Im going shirtless @ 40 degrees. lol.  but that is a good idea. I thought about just going the cheaper route.......moving my baby into the garage.  Its actually warmer than my room.  I like my room cold. 

[Kasumi]

Our bikes sit in the garage which is attached to the house, the heating boiler is in there and keeps the temperature slightly warmer. Ive never had any problem starting it.

On the topic of cold weather

I got caught out in a snow storm the other day (you might have seen it on the news about it in the UK) it was nasty. Over 50 minutes of riding home in busy traffic with a galing wind and thick snow. The roads were untreated so there was ice etc etc.. My bike had its carb heaters removed for racing so it struggled to even run, i had to ride in a low gear with tonnes of revs to keep the temp above the blue (low temp) section on the guage. My so called winter waterproof gloves are anything but. Even with heated grips on full i got frost bite! on all fingers. I managed to make it about 10 miles from my house and the temp was so cold that approaching a roundabout the bike died! Thankfully without driving through the wind the temp of the engine managed to melt some of the ice and i got it going again. Made it to the next village where a friend lives and thought im going to have to stop i can't even fell my hands at all anymore. Stopped at hers and quickly stuffed them through the gaps in the fairings and grabbed hold of the engine block. Decided to struggle home the last few miles rather than going in. Got home and got off the bike. (i had only got perforated leathers on, no waterproof gear other than gloves) my boots had about 1 cm of ice around them from snow hitting them, melting and freezing again in the wind. Gloves were totally iced to the grips, my rucksack was iced to my shoulder with about 2cm of ice. And my entire helmet had a 1cm ice coat going from the front to the back 'wing' where it formed little stalagtite things hehe. Coldest i have ever ever ever been, black finger ends and everything.

It turned out my hands were so cold because the gloves wernt at all waterproof, the inside of the glove was as wet as the outside!

[spc]

I don't ride if it's below 60, hell I try not to go out of the house.  I guess I'm a spoiled southerner.

[Darkmyst]

It was 39F this morning for me.  bike was outside, no cover, wet and started just fine...  Maybe I'm just special but the only times I've had trouble starting have all been low battery...

[Malatesta]

It was 39F this morning for me.  bike was outside, no cover, wet and started just fine...  Maybe I'm just special but the only times I've had trouble starting have all been low battery...

Yeah, same here so far.

I think I'm going to pick up a battery tender and engine block heater (either this one or this one)--basically on cold nights/days I'd plug the bike in, lol. 

Dunno if it'll work but I'm going to try and keep riding in 20-30F degree range--my commute is only 4.5 miles each way.  Combined with heated grips, gloves and a thermal bacalava, I think I should be fine.

If I had a garage this'd be easier.

[Darkmyst]

I've got the nice gloves and bacalava.  I'm buying heated grips next paycheck.  I wouldn't bother but my commute is 40 each way, so by the end I'm hating the lack of heated grips :p

Also, I'd be doing better if I had a garage but I'm at an apartment complex...