Tested my winter riding gear....

[aaronrkelly]

Yesterday it warmed up enough that the snow was melted off the main roads here in southern Iowa.

I had been planning a little winter riding but wanted to test the waters first.

My gear:

Tourmaster Polar-Tex gloves - $40
Tour Master :: Gloves :: Polar-Tex Gloves

AFX FX-10 full face helmet - clearanced at $35

quilted coveralls from the nearest farm and home type store...not Carhartts - on sale for $55

Total price - $130 (and to tell you the truth I needed coveralls anyways and they have ALOT more use then just riding......so I could take them out of my total but I wont)




It was mid-30s - temperature wise it was great for a trial run of my el-cheapo winter gear. The main problem was a DENSE fog....visibility was 50ft at best....that didnt make me fell warm and tingly. Motorcycles are invisible anyways.....add fog.....add winter (nobody expects to see a cycle in the winter). I figured I would just ride out around the lake, no long ride......maybe 20 miles. The main roads never concerned me but in parkings lots and side roads there was still some slush and snow.....I used my outriggers (legs) quite often and avoided them when I could. The fog was so dense it was basically like riding in a misty rain, water covered everything.

Coveralls - fit was a little big. Apparently Im in-between sizes so they were a little baggy but once you got on the bike no problems. Kept me warm with minimal air leaks but I got the feeling I may have only 10 degrees left, down to about 25 before these dont keep me warm. I was not wearing any thermal underwear underneath them though....so I have more layers to go.

Helmet - I underestimated my big melon and got a 2XL.....should have gotten the 3XL. When I put it on it was tight enough I could feel my pulse in my face. Quite a bit more pressure then I wanted....but it was cheap and I already had it so I rolled with it. After a few minutes the pulsing went away and I got used to the pressure......I had the helmet on for the duration of the ride with only minimal discomfort. Since I have NEVER worn a helmet to date I figured this was normal for my first ride with a full face helmet.

Gloves - what can I say, these gloves ROCK. I got them at Motorcycle Superstore (along with the helmet) - I HIGHLY recommend these. The temps never got below 30 during my ride but there wasnt even a HINT of cold in my hands......they kept my hands completely warm and dry. The controls felt damn good, really impressed.

I ended up riding about 75 miles instead of the 20. I encountered a only few problems.

The fog....wow, that kept my helmet covered in just enough water to make it useless - the entire 75 miles was rode with the face shield flipped up. This let some cold air in but not as much as you would expect....I was still fairly warm, believe it or not. The shield also fogged up like crazy. Im buying some Rain-X anti-fog for the shield today.

My neck...I actually have a neck gaiter but didnt think it was needed. For the most part it wasnt, my ride today was just fine without it....if I was going further or if the temps were a little lower I would have really liked to have it.


The bike I was riding was my 1980 KZ1000 LTD - it had been siting in my garage with a tank full of treated gas with a battery tender on it. I gave it full choke and hit the starter.....it hit and took off, turned over maybe 3 times at most before taking off. Let it idle with the choke on for about 30 seconds then took the choke off completely.....stayed running just fine. It ran for another minute or so and then I idled around town for a few minutes before taking off. Bike ran, stopped and worked fine, no issues at all. Pretty impressive for a 27 year old piece of equipment.

[KwakaKZ1000]

Sounds like you're nice and warm. I have snowmobile pants and heated gloves I wear when it gets cold, they keep me nice and warm.

[cf brown]

looks like snow is on its way! to late to get mine out! well get some use out of the snowmobiles anyway.