anyone else still commuting regularly?

[stoinkythepig]

Getting cold enough to leave the 9R at home and take the old Conk. This 100+ mile daily round trip makes keeping the Conk a great idea. Saw only one other bike this morning, a Harley. Looked colder than me in his bad-boy-biker getup. Glad I don't have that image to maintain... Gotta say the electric vest and heated grips are wonderful. Prolly got a month of commuting left and then I switch to surly mode for the Winter and drive my beat up old Jetta back and forth.

[snowborder]

I think I saw Mr.Breeze this AM on 93 in Plymouth..... Brrrr 31 degrees.

[Honclfibr]

I took the bike 3 times this week, but it's getting less and less regular. Mostly I don't trust my tires when it drops into the low 40s...They've never let me down, but I've heard stories...

[stoinkythepig]

I've ridden down to 28 F and have never had a nasty cold tire incident. The front tire lockups are pretty easy to deal with, to be honest. Just gotta slow down a bit.

Get yourself a real piece of crap car and you'll ride more.

[cexley]

That whole Harley tough guy image is such a laugh
I live here in CT where there is no Helmet Law
I see harley guys freezing there bald heads off all the time
All for an image.......i don't get it.
I for one have not been able to ride/commute for a while now.
Sold my bike a month ago.
All that should change today.
Going to pick up my 2003 VFR800 this afternoon, and take it for a brisk ride home. Trying to beat the rain storm home.
Wish me luck

[stoinkythepig]

good luck and congrats! I know two people with those bikes and both are quite fond of them from what I can tell. Very refined bikes, they be.

[cexley]

I hope to be able to ride up till my Insurance lay-over (DEC 1)
I have a short commute though. I have been JONESin for a ride for a while, cold weather or not. I went from PureSport Bike to SportTouring, should make the cold weather riding a little more tolerable

[Honclfibr]

Originally posted by stoinkythepig
Get yourself a real piece of crap car and you'll ride more.

I'm working on it. Ripped the front bumper cover off my accord about a month ago on a tree stump, haven't replaced it yet. Also, I don't maintain it like I should. I hate that car. All smug with it's honda reliability. Well we'll see. I'll break it's spirit.

[stoinkythepig]

My Jetta was quite reliable for 10 years and then last October the transaxle developed a rather large hole in the bottom as big pieces of my differential decided to part ways while cruising down 101 at 75 MPH on my way to a craft store to buy white feathers for a cool "Hedwig the owl" costume I was constructing for my 5 year old to wear to a Harry Potter theme party which was actually more fun than I thought it could ever be. How's that for a run-on sentence? Three months later the front main seal failed catastrophically on 125 on a 10 below zero morning commute spilling about 1 quart of oil per mile. Been fine since then though.

[benVFR]

I'm still commuting, not much, but I don't commute every day in the summer either.

I'm on the fence about whether or not to ride or drive out to Albany tonight. If I ride I'm going to end up taking the MA Pike the whole way which will kind of suck. (I figure too much traffic to take Rt. 2 and the twisties aren't much fun in the dark)

The VFR with electrics + a nice warm jacket is still just fine right now.

40F and I'm 100% comfortable. I just kind of fear getting caught in the rain in those temps, so going away for the whole weekend seems a bit sketchy. I can never manage to keep my hands 100% dry and warm when it's raining. Heated grips sure seem tempting when the temps drop.

I think some of the harley guys have damaged nervous systems and don't realize they are freezing. They amaze me sometimes riding around in jeans, a cheesy leather jacket and no/open helmet in these temperatures. Tough, stupid, whatever, it's pretty surprising to see them dressed like that.

Cexley, you're going to love your new bike if you like to ride in all conditions, I really think the VFR is a fantastic bike to be on when the weather turns nasty.

Ben

[keet]

....the roads up here can get a little sketchy in the early morning hours...so i havent been riding in to work that much recently...yesterday morning, a car was off the road on 93 just before the peabody slopes exit.(cannon mt)black ice. fortunately(for me) the road crews had just sanded that spot before i went thru...not to mention, wet leaves all over the secondary roads ,some days.......ill probably be putting the bike up in Nov

[Stoneman]

I'm with keet on this. Living in an area with NINE lakes makes the first half of my morning commute difficult enough in a car never mind my bike. The first year we were up here I regularly commuted on the bike. But there were far too many close calls between fog impaired drivers (myself included) and wayward woodland creatures, and I decided it wasn't worth the risk any longer. I really miss commuting on it though, it really made my commute much more fun. And that first year we were up here, I logged damn near 10,000 miles on my old trusty RF900R (RIP)...

Sad to say I didn't even hit the 1000 mile mark this year...

[zombie]

Jay next year you will just have to re-invent yourself and commit to more road riding , now that you are staying put in your house

Set a goal for mileage and like the army says JUST DO IT.
I'm going to do a ride next year on the longest day of the year which will be an all nighter ending on the top of mount greylock to watch the sun come up............

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by zombie
Jay next year you will just have to re-invent yourself and commit to more road riding , now that you are staying put in your house

Cheryl & I have already committed ourselves to putting a shitload of miles on the streetbike next year. She hasn't even been on it ONCE this year...

That is of course, unless another little Stonner just happens to be running around by then. Heh, heh....was that my out loud voice again?

[wastedincome420]

I have been riding to work almost every day until this past week, and the only reason I haven't been riding much this week is because of the renovations I am doing at my house, I haven't figured out how to carry building supplies on the back of my SV

[RandyO]

the last post was from me.... didn't realize mark was logged in when I replied

[zombie]

[
That is of course, unless another little Stonner just happens to be running around by then. Heh, heh....was that my out loud voice again? [/B][/QUOTE]



damn you been busy then big guy
just imagine another little jay running around

[Stoneman]

Originally posted by zombie
damn you been busy then big guy
just imagine another little jay running around

Better than ANOTHER little Cheryl...

[stoinkythepig]

Originally posted by Stoneman
Sad to say I didn't even hit the 1000 mile mark this year...

Wow, that is sad. I will do about 12,000 to 13,000 this year. I was feeling kind of bad about that seeing as how I did zero long rides all season, my old Conk being broken and all. Hope to do more miles next season. Last couple of seasons were good for 15,000+ miles.

I know a guy that has over 100K on a 2001 Concours and another guy with over 150K on a 99 Concours. That's a whole lot of riding by any standard.

Freakin' cold this morning. Could have used one more layer of insulation. Really suffered for the first 40 miles.

[benVFR]

Hey Stoinky, are you married? That's some serious mileage if you are.

I've got about 11k so far this season.

I took the car to NY this weekend. I saw a little snow/slush on the road yesterday at the upper elevations on Rt. 2. Rideable but I'd much rather wash the salt off my car than clean it off my bike.

Plus I did enough that I wasn't in great riding shape.

Ben

[stoinkythepig]

Married for 13 years and have two kids aged 6 and nearly 9 and zero chance for more.

Almost all my mileage has been commuting and lunch time rides. I did no "rides just for the sake of riding" over 100 miles this year. Very sad but my commute was pretty sweet until August when my office moved to Westford from North Andover. Now my commute is still all back roads but they have more cars than I'd prefer and there are very few options to vary the route.

[oreo_n2]

heh heh.
i took christina's ninja out to my dad's house south of Albany last weekend.
some family stuff came up and it got left there last weekend. now it looks like it may spend the winter out there. i tried riding it home this past sunday night, but it was too damn cold with just regular street gear (plus my thermal undergarments). (it was near mid 30's and dropping after dark.

i think i need to look into heated stuff next year.

Originally posted by benSV
Hey Stoinky, are you married? That's some serious mileage if you are.

I've got about 11k so far this season.

I took the car to NY this weekend. I saw a little snow/slush on the road yesterday at the upper elevations on Rt. 2. Rideable but I'd much rather wash the salt off my car than clean it off my bike.

Plus I did enough that I wasn't in great riding shape.

Ben

[KB]

I ride and commute to work on my bike year round. You can see me ripping down 93 south into Boston between 7:30 and 8:00 am everyday. Unless I see accumulating snow in the forecast then I hop in the Rodeo and hit the 4wd lever.

I'm going with heated grips, heated vest, and snowmobile helmet with the heated shield this winter. I learned my lesson last winter.

You learn to remember where the ice patches are and you learn every inch of road very very closely when riding in the winter.

I also wear mittens instead of gloves just to keep warm Perhaps with the addition of the heated grips I cah go back to gloves.

KB

[Ken]

Originally posted by stoinkythepig
..... when my office moved to Westford from North Andover. Now my commute is still all back roads but they have more cars than I'd prefer and there are very few options to vary the route.

Damn! I was actually thinking of you and a "lunch ride" on Thursday. The ninja is away for the winter, but I've been riding the G/F's Kat since she isn't. I just got a KLR 650 that I'll probably ride all winter: cheep bikes are best in the snow. My comute is now all of two blocks. I still ride in from time to time if I'm going to work on the bike or if I just want to freak out the other guys but in general, it takes longer for the bike to warm up than it does to just ride over in the truck.

ken

[scootertrash]

Rode the ol' ZX9R in to work this morning. It was a nice one hour commute...not much traffic and the temp wasn't too bad either. What a good way to start the day...