alaskahack, thanks for the candid answere... I put on quite a few miles during the summer but get nervous when the temp gets down to freezing . just dream now and then about pushing spring. Hate seeing that bike parked.. Never get to old to dream !! :0)
I hated seeing the bike parked for so long. I just got the sidecar last spring. I had to dig out a trail of close to 180 ft and two shovels wide and 2-3' deep for the most part to get my 1200 GS out so I could put the sidecar on it. Saw all the folks in Europe driving year round and thought why can't I It's not that easy but beats the heck out of picking your nose It's good to see someone on here about my age, Alcan Rider from Glenallen area has been known to ride a goldwing in the winter
Like that kickstand reverse action. Have you tried just cracking your face shield it worked for me kept the fog off and wasn't as bad as running with the shield up Great video thanks for sharing
I love my studded Kenda Trackmasters. One car stud per knob with just enough carbide showing to break the surface of the ice and enough rubber that I feel confident on dry pavement. 6 good scratches in the ice when I stomp hard on the rear brake. I've been through 4 fun-filled winters of +40f to -20f through ice and snow at 0 to 60+mph. My front tire has always held and the rear kicks out in a very predictable and controllable manner if I want it to. Knobbies do get a bit warm running at highway speeds but the leading edge of the rear tire is just now starting to round off. Maybe because of our strange winter but I think this was the first time there wasn't a tire studding party where you could practice drilling and using a pneumatic stud gun. Hackymoto did my tires years ago for Barb but I got em instead. When I first got em it had been a long time since I'd ridden a dirt bike or true knobbies. Since I'd forgotten to lower the tire pressure on my first outing years ago, I almost called it quits right then and there before being reminded about lower pressure. Now I only run about 15 to 20psi or so. Works for me. One of my favorite pics of Comet looking like he's wondering if I really want to do this. Mark H.
I live in San Diego, a few weeks ago I took my 1200GS with the stock (streety) Tourance Exp tires to Vegas. There's a pass which gets to 4200 feet. It was raining and about 41 at sea level. I haven't biked there before so I wasn't as intimately aware of the pass altitude (cage isolates you). I said to myself as it kept raining and the temps hit 36 that I won't have to worry about ice. It's raining too well. EEEK next thing I know it's a blizzard it's 30 and I'm stuck in the rut of the car in front. Unlike the TKC80 shod CBR I didn't feel comfortable crossing the snow/slush boundaries. (It was like his video but blizzard too) Pucker factor 100%. Bike and I did fine 4-6 miles of "please don't fall" at 30-40 mph. Biggest issue was cold. Body was layered up (I'd planned for 40) but the gloves were single layer and the heated grips were OK but not really enough. Top of glove was actually frozen. Cracking the visor was the only way to avoid fogging but it was bitter bitter cold. Anyway. Looking forward to running TKCs full time. So it's doable. Just don't goose the throttle. Mind you a lot of more sensible folk on bikes had pulled off. But I didn't relish waiting 2 hours for a truck to drive me out. In 30 degree weather.
know the" please don't fall "sound drumming in my head. usally encountered on the alcan when there is 6 inches of loose stuff in some long construction area and they stick you up behind the 15 mile an hour pilot car out of pure kindness. The bike starts to wobble and you can't goose it .. Gotta look first hand at akducs set up on his klr just for trying out the local streets .The Girdwood run has had many days this winter of bare dry pavement.. Drives you nuts.
Nice day today, but a bit cold. Saw a guy on a trike. He's having a blast. Caught him on my cam for a while.
Thought you were talking about the guy I saw at Freddies. I saw a dude on a Tri Glide. Bike looked like he had been riding all season.
Great warm day today. Went and put 50 miles back n forth on the Glenn . Saw another rider (trike) felt great.
Subdivisions are pretty icy, we had a lot of freezing rain the last two evenings, but the roads look fairly good. Tried to start-up the Go-Pro but I guess I didn't press hard enough to start it up Short stop in a Professional loop near PW Highway [/url][/IMG] I ended up riding close to 3 hrs on all the main roads between Wasilla and Palmer Fun times, felt good
I've been having a great time getting out and about Fairbanks. Not to far or fast for me yet just a lot of running around on local roads. The ice on the roads isn't as bad as it was but I'm still working on hang of hack driving and getting things set set up such as lights. Lots of fun, I should've done this years ago!
I hear you Richard. It does make you wonder what took you so long to get into the side car. I've been out the last couple days, but it hit 37* and got real messy, the roads in the neighborhood got real slippery. But it was still fun, 4" of snow last night and the temp is dropping. I love being able to ride year round
WAS WAS going to go ride , until all this snow came thru.. oh well. it'll melt eventually.. 6 weeks i give ...
this is one of the nice thing about winter, you get the riding taste outta your mouth and get all pump up for the coming season, also a great time to work on the bike ..
