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it's too hot to ride

Started by mr72, August 18, 2017, 11:04:29 AM

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mr72

Just whining folks.

Just got back from a 5-day trip to South Padre Island. It was not as hot there as CenTX but more humid and somewhat miserable to be outside unless you were IN the water.

Now we're in a stretch of weeks of consecutive 100+ degree days with heat index near 110F. I considered riding to the grocery store yesterday morning at 6:30am when it was ONLY about 82F. But that was too hot and too much of a pain to get the bike in and out of the garage just for one quick trip. Today I thought about riding to work, which is a nice ride but going home today it's forecast to be 102F. With a perforated leather jacket and full-face helmet, that's just too hot by about 15 degrees.

Can't wait for fall. CenTX riding season is from about October until the end of May, with about three or four days in there where it is borderline too cold. Then you're basically nuts to ride most days between June 1 and the end of September. :( Problem is with school in session during CenTX riding season, traffic is too horrific to make riding to work anything but drudgery.


yamahonkawazuki

i was in the dfw are during july last year for a month. step out of the ac and instasweat. i know what youre going through..
Aaron
Jan 14 2010 0310 I miss you mom
Vielen dank Patrick. Vielen dank
".
A proud Mormon
"if you come in with the bottom of your cast black,
neither one of us will be happy"- Alan Silverman MD

qcbaker

Thankfully it is only too hot to ride very rarely here in PA. Gets a bit sweaty above 80 if I get stuck in traffic or something, but other than that its no problem.

Winter can be a different story though... I do try to ride at least 1 or two days per month in the winter though, just to keep the bike from sitting for too long. Anything above freezing is manageable, with the right gear.

Watcher

Quote from: mr72 on August 18, 2017, 11:04:29 AM
Problem is with school in session during CenTX riding season, traffic is too horrific to make riding to work anything but drudgery.

It's been consistently over 100° for months by me, and I don't mind it.  I truly don't.  Today's high is 105° and I just got called in for OT, I'll be suiting up and riding down during the hottest part of the day.

But airflow is what makes it bearable.  If I was in bumper-to-bumper I think maybe I would be hesitant to go out in it, but traffic isn't so bad in my part of town.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

yamahonkawazuki

i remember when i had both the gs as well as the sportie, i would ride during winter many times. as low as 25f. course id pack my leathers with trashbags to block the coldness. and wear a rubber latex glove under my riding gloves. (and put each foot into a trashbag, then into boots. work was 6 miles away so it wasnt terribly bad. always had a hot chocolate waiting on me lol when i got there. ohhh the memories lol.
Aaron
Jan 14 2010 0310 I miss you mom
Vielen dank Patrick. Vielen dank
".
A proud Mormon
"if you come in with the bottom of your cast black,
neither one of us will be happy"- Alan Silverman MD

rscottlow

It's already getting down into the 40s F here...almost to the point where I'm making excuses to just hop in the truck rather than on the bike in the morning. The 70 degree ride home in the afternoon is perfection though...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Scott - Cincinnati, Ohio
2009 GS500F

yamahonkawazuki

Is make excuses to ride. It was hellish at 30f. But a short ride, plus heater at work made up for it.
Aaron
Jan 14 2010 0310 I miss you mom
Vielen dank Patrick. Vielen dank
".
A proud Mormon
"if you come in with the bottom of your cast black,
neither one of us will be happy"- Alan Silverman MD

ShowBizWolf

Yeah, it's starting to get chilly here again :cry: Wonder if this winter I'll beat my record 19 degree ride I did months ago! Got my fancy heated gloves this time :icon_mrgreen:
Superbike bars, '04 GSXR headlight & cowl, DRZ signals, 1/2" fork brace, 'Busa fender, stainless exhaust & brake lines, belly pan, LED dash & brake bulbs, 140/80 rear hoop, F tail lens, SV650 shock, Bandit400 hugger, aluminum heel guards & pegs, fork preload adjusters, .75 SonicSprings, heated grips

mr72

Well the weather here has been perfect for riding over the past two or three days. I rode to work Tuesday and even went down to get coffee from the roaster near downtown, making for about 60 miles that day. It was about 70F in the early morning and about 85F coming home in the afternoon. Really this is perfect and we are starting the perfect-weather time in Central TX.

I know soon many of you will find it too cold to ride. For me, without cold weather gear at all, 50F is about the lower limit for me on a long ride (>30 minutes), 40s and I'll still take sub-30-minute trips as long as there's a warm destination at the end and the closer it gets to 30F, the closer I limit my rides to quick trips to the grocery store or to pick up donuts within a 2-3 mile radius of home and 40mph or under. When it's 30F outside, I just have no tolerance for >40mph wind or being on the bike for more than about 5-7 minutes at a time. That much is exhilarating but more is punishing. Fortunately this is very rare in CenTX. I know some of you have cold-weather gear that makes 30F look like a breeze, but you live far north of here :)


Watcher

I'm surprised to hear it gets that cold in Texas, but then again it can get in the 30s here in Arizona.  Though only during winter nights, those days are usually still in the 60s.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

mr72

Quote from: Watcher on September 09, 2017, 09:27:07 AM
I'm surprised to hear it gets that cold in Texas, but then again it can get in the 30s here in Arizona.  Though only during winter nights, those days are usually still in the 60s.

Yeah it gets cold enough here for sure. BTW last time I was in Arizona for anything other than a layover at the Phoenix airport was early spring in Scottsdale a few years ago and I was sorely regretting not bringing a jacket. The "shuttle" my company booked to get me to the airport in the morning when I was leaving was a "limo" made from a stretched Hummer H2 with the rearmost portion lacking a top much like a pickup truck bed with seats in it. Yeah, I rode back there. Froze. It was probably upper 40s.

Anyway, I once had to repair a car that was overheating (believe it.. BMW gotta love it) even though it was 10 degrees F outside with wind chill of zero. Fahrenheit. It was so cold that the anti-freeze was slush in the radiator, which was not the cause of the overheating. I pulled the radiator to take it to my parents' house to repair, and once in the car it melted and I wound up with a garbage bag with a couple of quarts of antifreeze along with the radiator when I got there. Then I couldn't solder it because it was so cold outside you couldn't get the metal hot enough to melt the solder. Fun times.

About 8-9 years ago I took my kids for our one and only family camping trip. We went to my parents' place out in Castell, which is kind of near Enchanted Rock if you know where that is. If not, well it's out in the hill country of Central TX. It got down to about 21F overnight that night. This was late October. Both of the girls bailed out of the tent and went into the cabin. I stuck it out and slept in the freezing tent.

Usually we have our first freeze in October and the last freeze in March. It's not at all uncommon to have a hard freeze many times throughout the winter and usually at least 4-5 nights that get into the low 20s or lower. Most years we have at least one episode of the teens. And there are usually a few days each winter when it struggles to get above freezing all day, either due to overcast or just a cold front. I routinely go bicycling or mountain biking on New Years Day in the morning and it's routinely in the 20s when we get underway.

Don't believe the "average" temps because they don't tell you much. Yeah, the "average" lows in CenTX don't go below the 40s or 50s in the winter and the "average" highs are in the 50s and 60s but we rarely have average weather here. Far more common to have extreme weather, like Christmas Day high in the 80s or Halloween with sleet and highs in the 30s.

qcbaker

Quote from: mr72 on September 11, 2017, 11:22:34 AM
...
Anyway, I once had to repair a car that was overheating (believe it.. BMW gotta love it) even though it was 10 degrees F outside with wind chill of zero. Fahrenheit. It was so cold that the anti-freeze was slush in the radiator...


10 degrees Fahrenheit? You think that's cold? You sweet summer child...

In all seriousness, it pretty regularly gets that cold in PA, though I wouldn't call it the "average" by any means. Its normally like 20s-40s during late December to early February, with some days been colder or warmer. And it has been known to dip into the single digits on occasion. And we don't even have a reputation for harsh winters. Though, judging by the last few years, the real harsh cold snaps are getting fewer and further between.

I had to go to Wisconsin for a week In January of last year. It was awful lol. The high for one of the days was 4, the low was like -5 or something, not including wind chill. I think with the wind chill it was like -15 or so. Luckily, I didn't have to spend too much time outside.


cbrfxr67

my fingers were getting numb this morning,.... :bstar:
"Its something you take apart in 2-3 days and takes 10 years to go back together."
-buddha

Watcher

Don't hate me but...

It's 76°F right now.
"The point of a journey is not to arrive..."

-Neil Peart

yamahonkawazuki

yup ive done my time in the armpit of hades. (2001-2002) went thru shoes so often i would buy them from goodwill. december was fun 75f daytime, and 30f at night.
Aaron
p.s. and thouse GORGEOUS sunsets, and lightning during monsoon season
Jan 14 2010 0310 I miss you mom
Vielen dank Patrick. Vielen dank
".
A proud Mormon
"if you come in with the bottom of your cast black,
neither one of us will be happy"- Alan Silverman MD

qcbaker

Quote from: Watcher on January 02, 2018, 03:33:05 PM
Don't hate me but...

It's 76°F right now.

Well, my neck of the woods is sitting at a nice, balmy 1°F outside right now. I'm gonna hate you just a little bit.

mr72

Yeah it's 22F this morning. High yesterday here in CenTX was 29.

On the bright side, it's supposed to be in the 40s today and 50s by tomorrow. So I'll be putting in the new battery and going for a ride :)

mr72

69F right now, sunny, gorgeous weather in CenTX!! Why, oh why do I have to work?

qcbaker

Quote from: mr72 on January 09, 2018, 10:29:24 AM
69F right now, sunny, gorgeous weather in CenTX!! Why, oh why do I have to work?

Take some PTO and go ride.

rscottlow

Over the last couple of weeks highs in the teens (fahrenheit) have been pretty common, with lows below zero. The cold streak broke on Sunday, and we're headed for a high of 60 on Thursday. It's supposed to rain, but it should feel like summer relative to recent weeks so I'm going to try and get the GS fired up tomorrow afternoon and maybe ride to work on Thursday. Friday night temps are getting back down into the teens and they're talking 5-8 inches of snow and ice. Talk about a brief window of opportunity!!!
Scott - Cincinnati, Ohio
2009 GS500F

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