My riding season has begun!!!!!!

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Originally Posted by PhilB

I'm with you. 01Apr start the last two years; this year will likely be similar. End when it starts snowing -- '14 Thanksgiving, '13 Thanksgiving, '12 Christmas Eve, '11 never.

I can deal with cold. Falling down on ice, I'd prefer to avoid.

PhilB

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Another vote to wait.
Make no mistake about it OP. PhilB has 237k miles on his Monster. If he says it's too early... then it's too early.

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Originally Posted by gumby

Another vote to wait.
Make no mistake about it OP. PhilB has 237k miles on his Monster. If he says it's too early... then it's too early.

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Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say my choice must be universal. If you're someone like RandyO with a V-Strom with a car snow tire on the back, there is no start date because you never stopped. The Duc, though, has sporting tires that are not good with snow/ice, and rims that aren't great with huge potholes, so I'm going to wait. If I had a dual-sport or adventure bike, I might well be on the road already.

PhilB

For most of my bikes it has to be 50 out. On my cross plane r1 I go out when its 40. Below that and none of my bikes tires behave in what I consider an acceptable manner plus all my reactions generally become much slower when its that cold. A near miss in warm weather would almost certainly mean an accident when it gets really cold out. Its just not worth the risk for me. I've crashed plenty of times to know.

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Originally Posted by boosten lebaron

For most of my bikes it has to be 50 out. On my cross plane r1 I go out when its 40. Below that and none of my bikes tires behave in what I consider an acceptable manner plus all my reactions generally become much slower when its that cold. A near miss in warm weather would almost certainly mean an accident when it gets really cold out. Its just not worth the risk for me. I've crashed plenty of times to know.

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I've found that with good layering of clothes, and heated gloves (very important!) I can ride fine for up to an hour at 20F (-8C) if the roads are dry. Traction is limited by extreme cold, sure; just as it is by rain, bad roads, leaves, etc. I'm OK with adjusting my riding accordingly. We each need to find our own parameters; everyone is different.

PhilB

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Originally Posted by Viper897

Wait till there is at least a good soaking rain to wash all the Salt off the road.

I don't wait till the street sweepers but at least a good rain.

Everyone is right though, the salt will destroy your bike. Best advice on that is to wash it ASAP to get salt off. It will eat the aluminum, rust any non coated steel, make your forks get pitted.

I will however be starting up the SV maybe this weekend to listen to it, maybe change the oil and have her prepped to go.

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In Case you missed it, here well said by Viper897 is the main reason to wait until the SALT is gone. It eats your bike. and the second reason is sand and salt and cold make you dump your bike. SALT WILL EAT YOUR BIKE!

This winter has been really bad.
Last winter was pretty bad, too.
The winter before I commuted about 50% of the time by bike.
You just have to assess conditions every day.

Unfortunately, this pattern blows:

Rain/Melt one day and wash away (some) salt.
Super cold the next turning the runoff into ice sheets.

^ this post was oddly poetic

Movin to AZ before winter of 2016/2017. I say fuck the snow and cold.

I remember when I used to ride in the winter. Outgrew that after a few years. I'll wait for the sweepers and 45+ temps, thank you. I guess that makes me "fair weather" by definition, 'cept I do love me some rain riding :bananna:

I'm a fair weather rider, and proud.

I don't have the self control to ride with cold tires with no grip...then you guys would be all mad at me for wrecking a special edition Ducati....

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Originally Posted by jwm2k3

I'm a fair weather rider, and proud.

I don't have the self control to ride with cold tires with no grip...then you guys would be all mad at me for wrecking a special edition Ducati....

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Pfft. Ducati snob. Nobody cares what you do with your special Ducati John.

I rode all of your moms last night. Does that count?

Arent you the guy who didnt have health insurance??

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Originally Posted by myzx6

Sounds like a lot of fair weather riders on here, if I waited for ideal conditions my riding season would be a quarter of what it is now.

Just cause your on 2 wheels doesn't mean u gotta go balls to the walls all the time. I'd much rather bundle up and take it slow in shitty conditions then take my truck hell any 4 wheeled vehicle for that matter.

I started riding dirt when I was young and the weather or trail conditions never deterred me and I guess I brought that mentality to the street too, as for motorists not expecting or looking for motorcycles yet, what's the difference more times then not they aren't watching for us anyways and I always ride expecting to be cut off or run off the road.

Got a pcv put in my cbr this weekend now I just gotta get access to a laptop so I can download a couple maps even with the map that was in it (2 bros slip on) the low speed fueling is much better then it used to be

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Originally Posted by Lxpony

Arent you the guy who didnt have health insurance??

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That's not me, I've always had health insurance

It snowed yesterday.. :(. I've been slowly getting all my pre season maintenance done. Renewed the registration 3 weeks ago, tossed on new tires last week, was planning to do a fork oil change this weekend(but not in the snow), also have oil change and filter clean to do.

I only ride when I know I am going to enjoy it. I did the math and at current gas prices even doubling my mileage on the bike vs the car I will waste more money on tires than I will gain in fuel economy so it's actually cheaper to drive the car. So if I am going to be spending extra money/mile it better be worth it. Riding carefully on sand and around potholes and growing snotcicles on the highway isn't fun to me. That said I probably would have take the bike out on a short joy ride last Sunday if the maintenance was all done, instead I spent the day spooning on new tires. Which was fun in its own way.

Bought a Monster over the winter and took it out yesterday for a 10 mile ride just to try it out. Has a couple questionable moments when the back got slightly loose. Still glad I took it out for a putt putt around town.

Now it's snowing out!

Well looks like they recently salted the roads again from the Saturday storm. Gonna be a late start for me this year.....

I rode about 70 miles on Wednesday to break in the new top end. Now that they salted the roads again I'm going to wait for some rain to fall before I go back out. I'm hoping that sometime next week it'll be clean enough to head back out. This is one of those winters that refuses to quit.

Patina (my fine scruffy machine) started right up after her winter storage.
Pull the choke out, thumb the starter, few crankovers, and ... running!
Just did a quick shakedown spin last night, but my riding season has started.
01Apr is the day to start the season, for the third year in a row.

PhilB

Got 17 miles on my ZZR so far,, and 2 on the KZ1000. I don't do cold well.

I'm a little over 1K for the season so far on my bike, and already need a new rear tire.
So I got my wife's bike out of winter storage this week, and am riding it.
She also has a Ducati M900 Monster, a 1995. So while it's only a bit newer than mine, it's a lot shinier.
It's also faster, louder, and more obnoxious.
I don't know what mods previous owners have done to the engine, but it definitely has a more aggressive character than my stock motor.

PhilB

^ PhilB, aren't you the guy with some ridiculous 200k+ miles on your monster?! Always had mad respect for you, especially since you live in NH, where it's either winter, mud, rain, black flies, cold, etc. except for 2 months a year.

As for all the "fair weather rider" comments, I agree with John and say fuck riding in bad weather. My life and time are too valuable to be riding with 18 layers on and teeth chattering and risking injury and death. I've been there and done that, and it was never really enjoyable to start with. I have other hobbies where time is better spent when weather is not good in New England.

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Originally Posted by PhilB

I'm a little over 1K for the season so far on my bike, and already need a new rear tire.


PhilB

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Not bad at all, I just checked my trip meter yesterday and I'm just under 800 for the season, some of which were a lot more enjoyable then others but, all of them were more fun then sitting in my truck!!!

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Originally Posted by xxaarraa

^ PhilB, aren't you the guy with some ridiculous 200k+ miles on your monster?! Always had mad respect for you, especially since you live in NH, where it's either winter, mud, rain, black flies, cold, etc. except for 2 months a year.

As for all the "fair weather rider" comments, I agree with John and say fuck riding in bad weather. My life and time are too valuable to be riding with 18 layers on and teeth chattering and risking injury and death. I've been there and done that, and it was never really enjoyable to start with. I have other hobbies where time is better spent when weather is not good in New England.

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First, to be fair, about 190K of those miles were accumulated when I lived in San Diego; I only moved to NH a little over 3 years ago.

But second, I'm actually riding more miles here. In CA, I rode year round, averaging about 11K a year. In NH, I'm riding between 8 and 9 months a year, but have been doing about 17K miles a year. I don't mind the weather much, as long as the roads aren't icy. A couple layers and heated gloves can handle pretty much anything.

PhilB

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Originally Posted by PhilB

First, to be fair, about 190K of those miles were accumulated when I lived in San Diego; I only moved to NH a little over 3 years ago.

But second, I'm actually riding more miles here. In CA, I rode year round, averaging about 11K a year. In NH, I'm riding between 8 and 9 months a year, but have been doing about 17K miles a year. I don't mind the weather much, as long as the roads aren't icy. A couple layers and heated gloves can handle pretty much anything.

PhilB

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Ah, I see. San Diego... I still dream of living there one day. What made you move diagonally from best weather in America to worst weather in America? haha.

Still, 200k on a motorcycle is freaking awesome. A dear friend of mine put 100k on his BMW F650.