Monday, January 9, 2012

Still working it out...

Well, it's winter. It's cold, and snow is coming soon.
This is the time of year when I resign myself to treating any gas left in the tank, hooking up a battery tender and calling it a season.
Not this year...this year I am still riding, or Ural-ing, or whatever.
The first thing I figured out...even though the Crawler ain't fast, it dosn't take much speed to rapidly multiply how fraking cold it is.

A spin around the block results in me not being able to move my mouth and my hands are burning cold.
There are ways around this...get the proper gear. However, I don't want to end up with 2 sets of gear if I can help it, so I as always find a way to make it work.
The first issue I addressed was my numb face.
Normally I wear an open face helmet, but was considering picking up a snowmobile helmet for the winter.
After a bit of thought..I ended up just acquiring a snowmobile helmet breath curtian and figuring out a way to mount it to my current helmet.
If it looks lil like a fighter pilot helmet...that's not all bad is it?
To this I have added my bib snow parts, and a parka.
Throw in a pair of wool sock under my insulated boots, and we have everything kinda handled...except the forepaws.
I know I might get some flak for this...but I HATE wearing full finger winter gloves when I ride. The reason is, every bike I have ever had requires some 'in-flight' adjustments. There is always something to tweek (idle/air mix screws) or wiggle and I hate having "Muppet Hands" with the dexterity of one Dr. Zoidberg. So...I have ordered some handlebar muffs...like so.
Hopefully these paired with some lighter gloves will help.