Who's still riding? Fall & Winter 2022 (& 2023!) edition! | Page 25 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Who's still riding? Fall & Winter 2022 (& 2023!) edition!

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Heated gear is ready. Still need to spray the ural with ACF50. No salt or brine in KW yet.
My cutoff used to be +4, but i don't fall over any more.
 
Took the new beast out for a test run after installing all the mods. Nothing seems to have shook loose.

However, i saw some suspicious trails of 'something' on the onramps to 401 in North York E, i suspect the brine has come, which means that's it for me.
 
Everyone knows I'm always up for a ride. So when Anton txts me the night before to see if I want to go for a cold weather street ride in the morning, I replied, "You had me at 'Sup?'"

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TFT displays getting so hi-tech these days

I live up on the mountain, so it was actually -1C when I rolled out of the driveway.

Computer throws up a frost warning on the screen below 4C. You have to press "OK" to acknowledge the "Roads are icy" warning to remove it off the screen. After you do that, it throws up a second warning which reads, "Well, you're an idiot then".

Thx, I know.

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Coffee and donuts in the belly and Timmy's in the rear view mirror, time to roll!

Anton's got his 890 so I brought out the 901 for the ride today! Double date with cousins! Kinky!

I'm plugged in with all my heated gear on. Anton's got no electrics, not even heated grips, so he's in for a cold one today. We did stop by Crappy Tire briefly to check out what they had in the store. Just some battery-operated heated ski gloves, but 0 abrasion/impact protection, so he's gonna get proper motorcycle electric gloves later.

We're relegated to the valley once again. Any attempt to climb out results in snow appearing on the sides of the road and damp, shiny patches on the road, especially in the shade. We try to keep our bikes on the dry lines that the warm car tires before us have created.

Lots of moisture on the road because the last couple of weeks have seen a steady cycle of freeze/melt/freeze/melt as the temperatures have been above 0 during the day, but well below the freezing mark at night.

On one of the higher elevation runs, while threading my wheels on the dry lines, I take my foot of the peg and drag it along the shiny patch beside me.

Ice. Fork....

The temps never go above 4C and sometimes dips below the freezing point. What the heck are we doing out here? Because we're idiot motorcycle addicts is the correct answer.

We're doing all the low elevation twisty roads I know. There's good grip in the corners when the asphalt is dry, but the minute we see wet pavement ahead of our front wheels in the shade, we slow all the way down and tiptoe through the turns, trying to keep our bike as upright as we can. It would really suck to slide our bikes into the ditch because we were pushing 10/10ths like it's the middle of summer.

I'm leading the ride, so I keep an eye out for Anton's high beams. Everytime he flashes me in the mirror, we pull over, and he hops off the bike rips off one of his two layers of gloves and wraps his hands around the exhaust to warm up his frostbitten fingers.

We do about 5 hours of this - ride a bit, stop a bit. We manage to cover just over 400 kms before the setting sun threatens to take back what little heat it gave us.

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No heated grips, no electric gear. What a friggin tropper!

Sunset at 4:10PM today. And still another month to go before the winter solstice is upon us, which will further rob us of more daylight to the tune of a 3:56PM sunset. Ugh.

All my motorcycle addict friends have taken me out on the road and trails for close to 1000 kms in the last 7 days. That's pretty good mileage for me for the middle of November.

We're all dreading the impending snow fall and desperately trying to get as much riding done as possible.

I'm trying to convince them all to stud up their tires... :D
 
Quick 50km ride yesterday and 125km today. Ice on the road both days in the shady areas and my dash giving me the big “ice warning” display. “Street” mode traction control cuts in more than in “Sport” so today I just ran in sport mode. More direct and fun and no traction control display light telling me I’m burning through rear tires :)
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Quick 50km ride yesterday and 125km today. Ice on the road both days in the shady areas and my dash giving me the big “ice warning” display. “Street” mode traction control cuts in more than in “Sport” so today I just ran in sport mode. More direct and fun and no traction control display light telling me I’m burning through rear tires :)
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so much better than an inline 4:love:
 
Hey, y'all hijacked last years "who's still riding" thread and just continued on lol.

Should I start a new one or just rename this one and make it a 2 winter thread instead? Decisions decisions lol.
 
Another quick 100km run today and that’s it for this season. Wash/wax tomorrow. Have to dial in the suspension over the winter but that’s easy. Really enjoying this bike. Ordered a top box, Zumo XT and some other things for it.
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A few weeks ago, after finally convincing myself that my brain was settled enough to actually ride solo safely for the first time this year, I took off on a little solo motocamping adventure through the Adirondacks and into Vermont and Maine.

The weather was chilly all week and I couldn't seem to dodge the near constant black clouds and threat of rain for a good portion of the week, but I only got into actual hard rain once and managed to find shelter, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Got about 3000 kilometers in, including basicaly 1000k on the last day hightailing it home because of impending less manageable looking weather on the weekend.

Sadly, I think this trip constituted about 50% of my mileage for the whole season courtesty of my brain bonk a year ago, but hey, at least it happened.

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One of my favourite all time completely free campsites in a State Forest in upstate NY about a half hour E of watertown. I wish we had this sort of stuff here, but sadly, if we did it would be smashed to **** and destroyed by partiers in no time flat. I keep the location of this one (along with 5 others like it in the same area) close to my chest. Beautiful destinations.

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Lots of beuitiful colours on the trees still, I just wish I'd had more sun. Was thankful for heated gear.

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Waiting out some hard rain, this was the best shelter I could find, but it worked lol. It passed in about 10 minutes and I continued on. The joys of riding in the mountains.

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Always a good riding day when you see mountains in the distance.

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"Whereever the wind takes me" was the plan on this ride. If it looked interesting, I went and checked it out.

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One of the few bits of sun I saw all week.

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I was in Eat, sleep, ride mode. Sunrise to sunset, ride.

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Camping was foiled a few nights by campgrounds which were showing as open on Google but had already closed for the season, or were *supposed* to be open and had just mysteriously closed their gates. So sometimes the wind took me to little places in the moutains like this quaint little hikers lodge. A beaitiful lodge, a basic clean (if not fancy) room with a hot shower, and a nice cooked to order breakfast in the AM included in the room rate.

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And on the way home I found Nipple Mountain lol.
 
A few weeks ago, after finally convincing myself that my brain was settled enough to actually ride solo safely for the first time this year, I took off on a little solo motocamping adventure through the Adirondacks and into Vermont and Maine.

The weather was chilly all week and I couldn't seem to dodge the near constant black clouds and threat of rain for a good portion of the week, but I only got into actual hard rain once and managed to find shelter, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Got about 3000 kilometers in, including basicaly 1000k on the last day hightailing it home because of impending less manageable looking weather on the weekend.

Sadly, I think this trip constituted about 50% of my mileage for the whole season courtesty of my brain bonk a year ago, but hey, at least it happened.

View attachment 64549

One of my favourite all time completely free campsites in a State Forest in upstate NY about a half hour E of watertown. I wish we had this sort of stuff here, but sadly, if we did it would be smashed to **** and destroyed by partiers in no time flat. I keep the location of this one (along with 5 others like it in the same area) close to my chest. Beautiful destinations.

View attachment 64550

Lots of beuitiful colours on the trees still, I just wish I'd had more sun. Was thankful for heated gear.

View attachment 64551

Waiting out some hard rain, this was the best shelter I could find, but it worked lol. It passed in about 10 minutes and I continued on. The joys of riding in the mountains.

View attachment 64552

Always a good riding day when you see mountains in the distance.

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"Whereever the wind takes me" was the plan on this ride. If it looked interesting, I went and checked it out.

View attachment 64554

One of the few bits of sun I saw all week.

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I was in Eat, sleep, ride mode. Sunrise to sunset, ride.

View attachment 64556

Camping was foiled a few nights by campgrounds which were showing as open on Google but had already closed for the season, or were *supposed* to be open and had just mysteriously closed their gates. So sometimes the wind took me to little places in the moutains like this quaint little hikers lodge. A beaitiful lodge, a basic clean (if not fancy) room with a hot shower, and a nice cooked to order breakfast in the AM included in the room rate.

View attachment 64557


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And on the way home I found Nipple Mountain lol.

Love the pics.
Glad to see you riding solo again and more than 1 KM from home?
 
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Glad to see you riding solo again and more than 1 KM from home?

Yeah, it was a ****** summer really, hardly any riding, and a few rides that were quickly aborted when I realized I shouldn't have gone to begin with. It really depended on what part of the rollercoaster of feeling better vs not I was at on that particular day.

Anyhow, I've still got some symptoms (my instant memory recall and a few other things are still total ****), but at least the worst of the brain fog is beyond me and I can focus on things. I've found riding almost thereapeudic a little since it forces you to clear your mind - too bad the season was mostly over before I could really get back to it..

Onwards and upwards.
 
Ugh!!!! Years ago I took a ride through the Adirondacks but ended up planning the most boring route possible. I wish my ride looked like yours!
 
Ugh!!!! Years ago I took a ride through the Adirondacks but ended up planning the most boring route possible. I wish my ride looked like yours!

I've been out that way quite a few times so I am a little too familar with *some* of the roads, but this trip was purely to try some new roads. I ended up on a few of the well known ones regardless as there's only so many roads out that way, but it was all good. I found some new ones in Vermont.

One of my goals was to go back and forth over the Green mountains and check out *all* of the passes back and forth over the mountains themselves, but the day that I was in the area the weather just wouldnt' play nice - every time I needed to go north the radar (and the sky) just showed it was pouring rain. So I did the ones I could (got 2 of 4 or 5 I think) and that was that, I headed south instead and stayed dry. I'd hoped to get out into New Hampshire as well, but with the forecast turning crappy for Friday and the weekend I lost 3 days I'd planned to ride, so I had to stay closer.
 
Rode through the flurries today.

I think my season is coming to a close. Hands are getting colder. And drivers are getting bad on the road.
 
Rode through the flurries today.

I think my season is coming to a close. Hands are getting colder. And drivers are getting bad on the road.
‘Getting’ bad??
 
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