Who's still riding? (Fall & Winter 2024 Edition)

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PrivatePilot said:
Check out the Yamaha MyRide app. Yeah, it's branded, but of course it doesn't care what you actually ride...and it seems like it did a lot of the same stuff the last time I played with it.
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Thanks - currently using it. I was just interested in comparing its reporting of maximum lean angle and top speeds to something else.

I compared reported top speed to my GPS and MyRide was significantly lower; OTOH lean angles MyRide report seem extreme for the way I ride on public roads where I don’t know what’s coming around the corner, or how.
 
Jayell said:
I didn't encounter a single bike on the road, and only three at the Tims in Port Perry. I guess all the fair weather riders have packed it in.
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I don’t usually frequent Tim’s, but on this mornings ride I wanted a bite and a facsimile of a coffee.

Disappointed as expected, in that regard. The wraps seem to have shrunk to the size of a candy bar and the coffee still tastes like dishwater.

Anyhow, yeah, arrived at 10 or so and stayed a half hour and I was the only bike there the whole time despite being quite pleasant out actually.
 
Jayell said:
140km, Pickering to Port Perry and back yesterday.
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That’s a drive I made many times when I was a teenager as we owned a property out there and I worked a couple of summers there.. Port Perry was a funny little town then. Night life consisted of one bar called Crandell’s and another bar whose name escapes me. The first time I got kicked out of a bar was at the former; the first time I got so dead drunk I was puking out the next day was at the second.

I did remember they had very attractive girls my age. Ah, memories.
 
Today's precipitation is probably a time for a reminder - watch the wet leaves, they're like ice.
About 15 years ago this time I was riding home after dark, came around a corner and someone had smashed a pumpkin on the street.
You can imagine what happened.
 
Yesterday got on the bike for about 140km (to aurora and back) the whole time i was at the event there, i had a slight chill to my core. Didnt fully leave before i had to go back on the bike 2 hours later
And by then the sun was going down.... i felt "cold" for about 2-3 hours after ugh.

Should've put that extra layer on. Or even put on my old touring clothes that are 3-season.
 
LePhillou said:
there, i had a slight chill to my core. Didnt fully leave before i had to go back on the bike 2 hours later
And by then the sun was going down.... i felt "cold" for about 2-3 hours after ugh.
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I’ve got several attack methods for the cold while riding now:

- 12v heated vest. Heaven. Keeping your core warm keeps your extremities warm

- Tmaxx thermal longjohns for cool weather, they really are worth the money

- A good set of proper winter gauntlet gloves, I think the ones I have might actually be snowmobile gloves but they are great.

- Textile gear with liners. Never found leather to be effective against cold. I recently purchased a set of textile riding pants as well to go with my jacket, I’m usually a jeans guy but it was another investment in comfort. Hell of a deal on prime day, I am 99% sure they are Oxford knock-offs, but priced at $100. Genuine Oxford textile pants are not $100 lol.

Of course having a heated seat, heated lumbar backrest, and heated grips are big bonuses. And the new bike has epic wind management so you can create a nice bubble to ride in as well and avoid the direct blasting wind.

No replacement for good gear for riding in cooler temps. Ironically despite all of this I still like riding in my half helmet down to about 5° because I’m weird like that.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Ironically despite all of this I still like riding in my half helmet down to about 5° because I’m weird like that.
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I also like the half helmet, I don't want to be seen on my AT with it. I wear a full modular and feal claustrophobic in it
 
ToSlow said:
I wear a full modular and feal claustrophobic in it
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It's not that I feel claustrophobic or anything in a full helmet, it's just that I like the wind in my face. The wind in my face is one of the really big enjoyment factors for me being on 2 wheels.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Them: "It's too cold, I put my bike away!"

Me: "I'm still riding"

Them: "You're going to crash, your tires are like hockey pucks at anything below 10 degrees!"

Me: "Yeah, no, that's really not a thing, just ride to conditions"

Them: Something something wet leaves on road, hard tires, slippery, danger Will Robinson, danger danger! (arms flailing)

Me: "Ride to conditions"

Them: "You can't ride this time of year, you'll freeze!"

Me: "Snowmobilers are still out there at -20, how do they do it?

Them: <crickets>
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We all feel cold and pain the same way, but we react to it based on how well we have hardened our senses.

Ride in the cold for a while and your cold tolerance rises. It doesn’t take long to build tolerance.

Skiers, outdoor skaters, snowmobiles do this routinely without complaining as they know there isn’t an alternative.

Few motorcyclists invest into cold conditioning, the ones that do see winter riding no differently than a skier or snowmobiler.
.
 
Mad Mike said:
We all feel cold and pain the same way, but we react to it based on how well we have hardened our senses.

Ride in the cold for a while and your cold tolerance rises. It doesn’t take long to build tolerance.

Skiers, outdoor skaters, snowmobiles do this routinely without complaining as they know there isn’t an alternative.

Few motorcyclists invest into cold conditioning, the ones that do see winter riding no differently than a skier or snowmobiler.
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I mean theres this group of people who cold dip in the lake all year. One lady i personally know has reynaud's so she has iffy circulation. But she built the resistance over time, even though her fingers turn green after that cold exposure and she stays cold longer after it.

Between that and wearing the proper gear (and a bit of stoicisim) it's all possible
 
Mad Mike said:
Ride in the cold for a while and your cold tolerance rises. It doesn’t take long to build tolerance.
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It's the stereotypical "Canadian in Florida in February" scenario. Send a Canadian to Florida in February and you can rest assured they're in shorts and t-shirts because to us, acclimated to Canadian winter, it's darned nice to us.. but meanwhile the locals are in winter jackets some days.
 
PrivatePilot said:
It's the stereotypical "Canadian in Florida in February" scenario. Send a Canadian to Florida in February and you can rest assured they're in shorts and t-shirts because to us, acclimated to Canadian winter, it's darned nice to us.. but meanwhile the locals are in winter jackets some days.
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That’s me! My place is in south Fl. I’ll be there all Feb, daytime avg 25, nighttime lows 16c.

I’ll be in shorts.
 
PrivatePilot said:
It's the stereotypical "Canadian in Florida in February" scenario. Send a Canadian to Florida in February and you can rest assured they're in shorts and t-shirts because to us, acclimated to Canadian winter, it's darned nice to us.. but meanwhile the locals are in winter jackets some days.
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I was born in Winnipeg, I have a place in Timmins.

I have never worn a hat or gloves in Toronto
 
Mad Mike said:
I was born in Winnipeg, I have a place in Timmins.

I have never worn a hat or gloves in Toronto
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I had the opposite experience. I grew up in Dryden and we would often go out snowmobiling when it was -40 and think nothing of it. When we moved down to Toronto it just felt colder because of the damp cold caused by the open waters of Lake Ontario. That's not a problem up north where everything was frozen solid and no open water anywhere. We would drive out onto the lake using the ice road to go ice fishing and wave to the logging trucks as they drove by.
 
PrivatePilot said:
It's not that I feel claustrophobic or anything in a full helmet, it's just that I like the wind in my face. The wind in my face is one of the really big enjoyment factors for me being on 2 wheels.
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Same here. I like to ride with my visor up all the time. It only comes down for speeds above the ton, HARD rain, and when it's 5C or less.
 
ToSlow said:
I also like the half helmet, I don't want to be seen on my AT with it. I wear a full modular and feal claustrophobic in it
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Me too. I wear a modular, the chin is always up as I don't like the closed in feeling.

I'll close it when it's cold, or when rain, dust or pebbles feel like darts hitting my face.
 
timtune said:
Same here. I like to ride with my visor up all the time. It only comes down for speeds above the ton, HARD rain, and when it's 5C or less.
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When I do wear my full face, I'm the same - visor up all the time unless it's pissing rain.

But to me a full face is taking something out of the riding equation for me. I use the analogy of a deaf person driving a Ferrari - yeah, you're still going to get the power and the experience, but not being able to hear that sweet engine sound would be a big something that would be missing.

That's "the wind in my face" for me.

Yeah, yeah, half helmet, watermelon brain, risky, yeah. I get it. Riding as a whole is a risk, and that's one of the risks I accept to enjoy every ride. I pay all the crazy additional fees on my insurance (to the tune of almost another $1000 a year) for the top of the line coverage so that if someday I do become a vegetable or whatever, I'll be well cared for and won't be a burden at least. No matter *what* you wear for gear, this is always a risk, so if you can afford this sort of extra coverage, do it.

I am not a nutjob when riding and being a commercial driver means I am really good at reading traffic and knowing what some people are going to do even before they've consciously made the decision to do it, so that reduces the risk for me as best as possible. But life is too short to not enjoy yourself at the expense of some additional risk sometimes. YOLO.
 
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