This weekend I'll be taking a ride out through Moscow, TX and into Geneva, TX. I'll be staying the night with my girlfriend in Nacogdoches for the end of day 1. Day 2 will just be a straight ride home to Austin from Nacogdoches.

The main reason I was going to take this ride was to go see my girlfriend who goes to school in N-Town, but I thought it would be nice to do a nice long ride on my own, since I normally ride with my father or my sportbike club here at school. The ride is going to take me through the pine country in East Texas and through some of the most beautiful parts of the state, so I'll hopefully get plenty of photo oppourtunities.

My round trip mileage is 650 miles:

And to give you an idea of where in Texas I'm talking about:


The ride from Austin to Moscow, Geneva, and Nacogdoches is 365 miles, which is going to take me around 8 hours, plus stops for photos, food, and stretching my legs. I figure it'll be roughly 10 hours.  I plan on leaving at 8am, so getting in to Nacogdoches at 6pm works out nicely. A little later won't hurt either.

Now for the "Damn Alpha, you are one dumb muthaf%$ka" part:
The high on Saturday is going to be about 60 degrees. The high on Sunday is going to be about 50 degrees. That's cold around here, people. It's going to be raining both days. Forecast predicted "thunder showers" and normal showers in every place I'm going to ride on both days. I'll be doing this ride on a naked bike with minimal luggage in the cold and wet. Never will I want a fairing on my bike so much in my life.

Does anyone have any tips for me on keeping warm and dry so that I can make this trip safely? I'm going to have 2 pairs of gloves and glove liners, my leathers, rain gear, a thermal shirt, t-shirt, balaclava, neck warmer, thermal pants and thermal socks with my boots. I took a ride in 40 degree weather with all that and still got pretty cold, so I'd like some tips from you northerners! Space is an issue because I'm not taking much luggage. I'm going to be taking a small tankbag (Joe Rocket Manta), a 22 liter tailbag (it can hold a change of clothes and my raingear as well as a few other things), and MAYBE a backpack. I want to avoid taking a backpack because they're bad if you crash, but will if necessity dictates.

Are there things I should take that one might forget on a trip like this? This'll be the longest single excursion I'll have taken before, much less on my own. What things do I need to do and know before I take this trip? I plan on doing the standard things like checking the oil and making sure the chain is cleaned and lubed properly before I go, check the lights operation, and tire inflation, but what else?

This is going to be an adventure for me!

damn! what's the matter with you??

only tip you need: get lots of love from your gf

Yeah, I am thinking this probably isn't the wisest idea. It's worth it to see this girl though.

Ehhhh but we all do some not wise things or things we never would thought we would do to see girlys...... like get on planes when we are scared to death of them!!!!!  Good luck Alpha

Alpha, if you weren't a starving student, I'd say break down and get a Plexifairing II (like Kerry has). 

Scotchguard works to keep clothing dry(er) for a while, but wears off.  Maybe a strip of tape or rubber on the back of your glove to wipe the rain off your faceshield. 

You're a dedicated rider, a better man than I, and one crazy mofo
Best of luck to you!
D.

bad as alapha i might have to make that ride one day but .. i guess i need to find a girl to vist in that rought so i have a place to stay   .. what kind of jacket do you have ? if its one of them dual sports ( what i call it has a liner you can take out for the hotter days ) then i'd but your rain coat over your jacket i did this the other day and it did wonders i was really shocked ! . and see .. you should have left that fairing on your bike ! ( as your kicking your self now ) but i'd tuck a little extra money away . you  never know whats gonna happen . as far as the only problem i see you having is the gloves .. if it rains there gonna get soaked (unless there water proof) .. i'd say go buy you some really big latex gloves and sit them bad boys in one of your bags. that way when it dose start raing . you can throw them latex gloves OVER your riding gloves . that way your hands stay dry and somewhat warm take you a bonkie ( some ppl call it a tobogon .. i dont know .. that deal that goes on your head to keep you warm put it on under your healment it will do wonders .. i found out when that high was like 45 back before we got that light ice

I've got a Teknic Lightning jacket and 2 pairs of gloves. I've got a "junky" pair that have been through hell and back that I'll wear in the rain and some nice new ones I'll wear in the dry. That latex glove thing might work... I might have to pick up a few pairs of those. I don't think I'll have to worry about keeping my head warm, because the balaclava does a damn good job of it, and combined with the neck/ear warmer my head will be pretty toasty. I'm more worried about my torso and hands, because that's my core temperature and the stuff that controls the bike!

to hell with that man, the weather is going to be terrible this weekend.  Cold (for this part of the world), rainy and those 40mph winds like last weekend means you won't find me out on the road unless I absolutely have to be.  Good luck and be careful!

I see nothing wrong with this trip, GO FOR IT! haha
I can't wait till there is no snow so I can start taking my trips... Damn you snow!

Just be careful man, going that extra speed is never worth going down or something happening.

Have a blast and keep it upright!

Alpha...look up Woodville and see if you can work it into your route at all.  It's beautiful riding right around there and there's this restaraunt there I can NOT wait to hit up again!  You don't get a menu...you just eat what they bring you...awesome place...

...thinking of that, I might be hitting that joint up again this March.

Woodville adds 50 miles to the begining of my trip. I'm not sure if I could swing another 50 miles on the first day. I'm going to be exhausted as it is when I get into Nacogdoches.

However... if you want to ride out and meet up for lunch one weekend in March, let me know.

That 50+ miles amy seem like a pita but if you could hit the place up around meal-time it's stupendously worth it.

I'm not sure what our route's going to be yet...I've been wanting to go back to woodville for a couple years.  I think the ride is going to be on March 12, starting in Conroe.

You sound pretty well-prepared mentally, given your equipment situation. You *will* get soaked if it's raining and you're out there for 10 hours, and as soon as you get soaked you will very quickly become very, very cold. Try not to wear anything cotton - cotton t-shirts, cotton socks, denim jeans, etc. If you have any articles of clothing made of wool, absolutely bring them along. Cotton does more harm than good when it's cold and wet - wool will still keep you warm. If you have the cash and expect it to rain for even just an hour, it'd even be worth just going out and buying a wool shirt and set of pants. Water-resistant/proof riding gear can only protect you for so long - my Joe Rocket gear is effectively a solid barrier against Seattle rain, but nothing's perfect. Water will find its way under, around and even through your protection.

Aside from that, once you get wet, it'll just be a matter of keeping yourself running and warm. Take breaks every hour to hour and half at a cafe or burger place. Stay very well-fed - your stomach's where your body heat comes from, if it's got no fuel, you won't have any body heat. Hypothermia is very real, very possible and very dangerous - not the direct effects of extreme hypo, but its more mild, indirect effects: loss of attention span, inability to concentrate, drowsiness etc. Not conducive to motorcycling.

So, bottom line from a northerner who rides daily in the rain - do the best you can to stay dry, but acknowledge that you will get soaked to the bone. Concentrate most of your efforts on staying warm and well-fed despite the rain.

Oh, and make sure your cellphone and wallet are in the luggage bag, in the middle of everything. If your pants get soaked and your phone's in your pants...

You're gonna be miserable, especially on a naked GS.  I'd skip it.  We had 30mph winds the other day and I could barely keep on the road from the gusts.  Talk about scary taking curves.

You can't wait for a couple more days?  I remember TX weather always warmed up/dried out not long after the cold fronts.

Tophyr - Thanks for the advice. I'll try and get a wool sweater or shirt from a thrift store before I go. Thanks for the advice on staying well fed, that makes a lot of sense when I think about it. Usually the week-long forecast is a little off, so hopefully it'll only be occasional showers, or I'll miss a alot of them as I ride east. As for getting wet and having water work its way through my rain gear: do you think it would help if I rubber banded the ends to my wrists/ankles to help keep water out? How do you suggest keeping water out of my neck area?

chris - I've ridden in 50mph wind gusts before and it didn't faze me too much, so that won't really bother me. I can't wait for a couple more days either, because I've got school during the week and other things to do on the weekends. I've also got to plan this around my girlfriend's schedule, because she's equally busy.

For your wrists, hopefully your gloves have gauntlets that extend over the sleeve of your jacket. That'd be the best - tighten down the gauntlets and you'll pretty effectively seal your wrists. Your ankles/legs, unless your riding pants are very loose, will mostly get wet simply through capillary action - bottom inch gets soaked, the water moves up, and then up, and up etc. Rubber band won't do much against that. For your neck, a sturdy wool scarf, WWI Pilot-style. In this particular case a cotton scarf will probably do better than nothing at all, simply for wind protection: Cold rain @ 60mph stings like a Buddha Loves You.

damn I really missed a lot of that first post, alpha...

I ride year round...including last years low of -11 under...but I do it to and from work.  10 minutes on the road in nominal conditions.

You're going to be spending an excessive amount of time on the road in adverse conditions...let me start out by saying that, from your idea of the weather and all, this is not going to be a safe trip.  Next, it will not be an easy trip.  I personally think you'd be wise to either postpone, or drive to see your girl.  I guaruntee you she'll be much more enthused to see an alive, healthy, warm-bodied alpha than a cold, tired, achey and wet alpha.  You should also take a moment to consider that, under nominal conditions, ridnig is an excessively dangerous activity.  You should ask yourself if you're willing to drastically increase the possibillity of your girl getting a phone call instead of an alpha.

As for staying warm, your best friends will be dirtbike hand-guards, a wind-proof outer layer and a large synthetic scarf.  As said, stay away from cotton...especially next to your skin.  Get a thermal set first...a wool/synthetic one.  that next to your skin will help a lot.  Can't do much about your pants...just get heavy jeans to stuff under your leathers.  Get a wool sweater to wear under your jacket.  On top of your leathers wear a rain-suit.  A florescent orange one.  Seriously.  The scarf is to seal up the gap between your jacket and helmet...your bellaclava won't do the trick very well for a long ride.  It's going to be most difficult to keep your fingers warm...can't do much about it.  Be sure to make frequent stops and use your exhaust can to warm your hands up.

Also take a few trash bags.

50*f gets old really fast in the wet at 70mph.

I'll echo Makenzie.

Especially the part about getting a phone call instead of an Alpha.

Tophyr - I'm going to have my boots ("waterproof") over my leather pants, and then have my rain suit over that. I figure if I rubberband the rain suit to the boots it will help prevent the water from soaking down into my socks. It'll have to work its way past the rain gear, up the boots, then down the leathers to my socks. That's the best chance I've got so far. Maybe I'll get some waterproof booties, too.

Mak - You're right, this probably won't be my safest trip, but the roads I'm going to be riding won't be twisty high speed sweepers or technical hill roads, they'll be fairly major highways and straight, flat roads. I took into account the risk involved due to the weather and I'm going to risk it. I don't think that the risk will be too great if I am properly prepared for what I'm getting myself into. That's why I'm posting here, so that I can take care of everything I need to before I go out there so that I can be safe and show up to see her, alive and healthy. I know I'm going to need many trash bags though, just in case. They'll also be covering my tail bag.

GeeP - The only phone call she'll be getting is from me wondering where she is.