Comments on: Cold Weather Challenge

By: starreem

starreem — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:07:45 +0000

Name: Starr Markham
Temperature: 12 F
Distance: 26 miles
State: NC
City: Raleigh/Durham
Date: 1/17/2009
Time: 8:45am
Scooter: ‘67 Li150
Your CWC story: Just stumbled across this, I know the deadline has passed, but perhaps honorable mention? FYBO weekend Jan 16-18: Drove the ~26 miles there and back each of the three days. The temperatures stayed below freezing the entire time except for a brief moment Saturday afternoon when it reached a toasty 33F. Although ride is less than 30 miles each way, avoiding interstate highways makes the trip almost and hour each way. Including the rally rides, I was about 8 hours in sub-freezing temperatures over the entire weekend. The coldest was the Saturday morning drive over: 12F.

The parts guy at a motorcycle shop gave me a pair ATV/snowmobile handlebar muffs. They helped a lot, but my fingertips still were very cold. Hand signals were challenging with the muffs sort of flopping around when I removed my hand. Several layers underneath a textile armored jacket and pants that come with a waterproof quilted lining kept the rest of me warm.

I had a little trouble starting the scooter Friday night, but got smart after I got home and put a small ceramic space heater in my shed. I let it warm up the engine case for an hour or so before the ride on Saturday and Sunday. It made a big difference

My friend Lynn was crashing at my place and made the trips as well, but she had no complaints with heated handgrips. Everyone driving a scooter at the rally deserves honorable mention too: It was FREEZING!
Photos: The photos aren’t mine, thanks to Zed and Lynn. http://tinyurl.com/cs9fkq http://tinyurl.com/d7h5w4
Map: http://tinyurl.com/d2txmc

By: hi2525

hi2525 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:34:52 +0000

Name: Will Stogner
Temperature: 0°F
Distance: 20miles
State: ohio
City: Cincinnati
Date: Jan 16 2009
Time: 8-9am
Scooter: 2007 Blur
Your CWC story: Just going to visit my parents. Riding home from their place to work at the Tax Place. Had on kackies, leather pants, underarmor for my legs with some merrel boots. Then a leather armored coat, flannel and long sleeve shirt. A baklava and hypo hands. The only thing that got cold was my neck. Need to find a better baklava. I rode all winter and greatly enjoy riding. Have heard from some why are you riding it freezing out there. I enjoy the riding and find it to be awesome when you find the right clothing for this amazing season. I rode pretty much everyday but this was the one day that I remember my baklava not really working to well.

By: Jen Stich

Jen Stich — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:32:15 +0000

Name: Jen Stich
Temperature: 12°F
Distance: 10.3 miles (of 22, see above)
State: Connecticut
City: Pawcatuck
Date: 6 February 2009
Time: 12:05am
Scooter: 1979 P125X
Your CWC story: Living very close to a state line presents one with unique opportunities regarding the CWC. I designed a figure 8 loop for my ride, with my house in the middle. I figured if I felt too cold, I could return home after completing the Rhode Island portion.

After the 11.7 miles in RI, I felt fine and crossed the state line to ride 10.3 miles in CT.

Was wearing a stupid amount of clothing, which served me well. Weak spot was gloves. I had only my ordinary riding gloves with liners and a hand warmer packet in each glove. Hands became uncomfortable around the 20 mile mark, but I knew I was only a couple of miles from home at that point.
Photos: none
Map: http://www.tinyurl.com/cl693y

By: Jen Stich

Jen Stich — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 06:31:21 +0000

Name: Jen Stich
Temperature: 12°F
Distance: 11.7 miles (of 22, see below)
State: Rhode Island
City: Westerly
Date: 5 February 2009
Time: 11:45pm
Scooter: 1979 P125X
Your CWC story: Living very close to a state line presents one with unique opportunities regarding the CWC. I designed a figure 8 loop for my ride, with my house in the middle. I figured if I felt too cold, I could return home after completing the Rhode Island portion and still have a viable entry.

After the 11.7 miles in RI, I felt fine and crossed the state line to ride 10.3 miles in CT.

Was wearing a stupid amount of clothing, which served me well. Weak spot was gloves. I had only my ordinary riding gloves with liners and a hand warmer packet in each glove. Hands became uncomfortable around the 20 mile mark, but I knew the end was near.
Photos: none
Map: http://www.tinyurl.com/dff7uf

By: ramjet

ramjet — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:11:49 +0000

Name: Jim Rogers
Temp: 13 degrees
Distance: 11.3 miles
State: Kansas
City: Wichita (the mistake on the plains)
Date: 2/4/09
Time: 7:55 am
Scooter: SYM HD200
Story: I commute every day possible (within reason) to and from work. Problem is the distance from home to where I park downtown is almost exactly 5 miles. A couple of cold days I thought I might make an extra loop to qualify for the CWC, but had chickened out when my fingers got cold. Today I did it by taking an extra loop along the river before I parked the scooter. Fingers were cold, but otherwise was a great ride.

By: morrisseyscoot

morrisseyscoot — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:06:11 +0000

Name: Michael Morrissey
Temperature: 28°F
Distance: 10.3 miles
Location: Portland Oregon
Date: January 26, 2009
Time: 6:30 PM to 7:40 PM
Scooter: 1979 Vespa P150
Your CWC story: I was getting kind of bored with my breadloaf bus, so today I rode the rickety yet trusty old Vespa to work. I wasn’t even thinking it would be cold, but this evening was really chilly. I work in deep SE portland, and live in NE Portland. I went about 4 and a half miles out of my way on the ride home to run in and get some hippy food at New Seasons at 33rd and Alberta. There was ice and some snow outside still. I saw a red motorcycle at one point also riding, which made me happy. The food was worth the extra distance traveled on the old putt putt.
Route: Deep SE, up 82nd to Fremont, New Seasons at Alberta and 33rd. Back out Killingsworth to my house in NE.

By: Richard

Richard — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:30:48 +0000

Name:
Richard, Cordova

Temperature:
23.3°F @ Sandia Crest

Distance:
11+ miles @ 23.3°F

State:
New Mexico

City:
Sandia Crest

Date:
January 24th, 2009

Time:
01:50pm MST

Scooter:
2008 Vespa S150

Your CWC story:

Great 54+ mile club planned ride on January 24, 2009 to Sandia Crest (elevation of 10,678 ft.) just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. The ride started in Albuquerque at 59°F the temperature dropped a staggering 36°+ as we climbed the up the mountain. It was slow going for the last five miles, as it was windy and the road visibility dropped to about 10 ft. so I was limited to 10-15 miles per hour for the last two miles but it was worth it, and the best part was that a Scarabeo 100cc made it to the Crest!

Photos:
http://tinyurl.com/b3a9ym
http://tinyurl.com/ajvfpk

Map:
http://tinyurl.com/b3sgs2

By: mythdraug

mythdraug — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:17:44 +0000

Name Quinn Yost
Temperature: 16 start, 20 end
Distance: 22.2 miles
State: IL
City: Des Plaines – Chicago
Time: 8:20 – 9:50
Scooter: ‘05 Vino 125
Your CWC story: Once again, I had to travel downtown for work. Not wanting to get the big one (Scarabeo 500) all salty, I took the little one instead. Spent far too long sitting in traffic on the way downtown. Instead of taking my usual surface street route (something down to washington, then race the green trains into the city) I took higgins to milwaukee. Not the brightest choice of roads to take at the tail of rush hour.

Winter Gear: 2 layer coat, snow pants, gloves, balaclava.

By: Professor Matthew

Professor Matthew — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:00:08 +0000

Name: Professor Matthew W.
Temperature: 32°F
Distance: 10.5 miles
State: FL
City: St Augustine
Date: January 21, 2009
Time: 11:15 PM
Scooter: 2007 Vespa GTS
Your CWC story: I know this is not a top contender but it is Florida so I made due with the weather I had available. 32 degrees is freezing. I also did it on state highways so the wind chill was subtracting from that temperature pretty good. I should have taken the time to put on my lap apron though.
Photos: none
Map: none

By: jcoverturf

jcoverturf — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:15:03 +0000

Name: Jonathan C. Overturf
Temperature: 3°F
Distance: 18.2 miles
State: Virginia
City: Roanoke
Date: 17 January 2009
Time: 6:00 AM
Scooter: 2008 Yamaha Zuma (aka Blackey)
After watching the weather and using the hourly forecast maps on Weather.com and via the NOAA, It looked like Saturday the 17th was going to be the coldest time (thus far this year). I layered with 2 pairs of thermals, a pair of jeans, and my nylon rain pants along with some insulated hunting boots. Up top I wore 2 pairs of thermals, a cotton sweatshirt, Columbia Bugaboo ski jacket, some generic ski gloves, a balaclava and full face helmet. The ride was uneventful as very few people were on the road. The only places I got cold were my hands and feet (after around 10 miles), and a small spot on my neck where I couldn’t close the top of my jacket. As a year round rider, its nice to know I can ride in some low temps without much trouble.
Photos: too cold :)
Map: http://tinyurl.com/94nwqa

By: Maggie

Maggie — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:12:43 +0000

Posting this for my club mate Kevin

Name: Kevin
Temperature: 0°F
Distance: 17miles
State: Missouri

City: St. Louis

Date: Friday 16 January 2009

Time: 5:30am

Scooter: 06 Burgman 650 (Ms. Goodbody)

Kevin is a Brewmaster at AB.. well AB InBev now. Kevin is our most hard core member and rides all year. Good thing! Cold weather shouldn’t stop the making of beer!

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:22:00 +0000

Name: Steve Williams
Temperature: -1 F
Distance: 14 miles
State: Pennsylvania
City: State College
Date: January 17, 2009
Time: 8:00 AM
Scooter: 2006 Vespa GTS 250ie

Your CWC story: My local forecast said -4F when I left. Checking today I saw the temperature was -5F. It got warmer quickly by the time I stopped to get warm after 14 miles. Some quick riding and some slow. The official temp showed 3 degrees when I stopped even though my indicator on the GTS showed 10. I suspect the temperatures vary wildly across the valley as air flows around.

All I know is it was cold!

I posted on my blog about it too: FRIGID RIDING AND THE BATTERY TENDER

Steve Williams
Scooter in the Sticks

By: sandor

sandor — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:10:33 +0000

Name: sandor
Temperature: +6°F
Distance: 12.1 miles
State: Pennsylvania

City: Philadelphia

Date: Saturday 17 January 2008

Time: 0545 to 0645

Scooter: 1974 Vespa 90

Your CWC story: on a whim due to expected record lows myself and another vespa rider decided to ride before sunrise. it was a great ride – a couple layers and carhart coveralls did their job. one big water main burst on the parkway, causing a foot of slushy salty icy mix.

Photos:
http://tinyurl.com/9o96db
http://tinyurl.com/9rcafv
http://tinyurl.com/7z75nc
http://tinyurl.com/958sg6

Map:
http://tinyurl.com/ay62lw

By: endtime34

endtime34 — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:09:52 +0000

Name: blake edwards
Temperature: -2°F
Distance: 15 miles
State: IL
City: chicago to river grove
Date: 1.16.09
Time: 1 PM
Scooter: 2007 yamaha vino 125
CWC story: was going to ride to the community colleges I teach at (56 mile round trip, most at 40 MPH) to pick up some books, but when I kept hearing about frozen bridges and cars sliding out (and it was still -7°F at the time) I thought forget it. Still, I wanted to know if I could wrestle with the minus readings, so I took a little jaunt.

The roads were fairly dry, the sun was out, and I didn’t feel much horrid cold. I tried to shoot some video, but that was a waste the minute I got out of the alleyway behind my place (no tripod, big mittens, awkward).

Speaking of, the dress for this weather (and for much of the cold weather riding I do) is as follows:

Torso: –Hoodie with a flannel and aCortech touring motorcycle jacket with down liner (this jacket is absolutely incredible)

head and neck: face mask, alpaca wool neck warmer (girlfriend made this: extremely toasty), helmet

hands: north face mittens (I forget the model, but they’re 2” packed down, so pretty darn warm)

legs: jeans, scooter apron (keeps the legs even warmer)

feet: hiking boots, wool socks

some additional notes:
1) I plan on replacing my mittens with outdoor research alti mitts; more expensive, but waterproof and two layers of synthetic down (that won’t bunch / collapse).
2) the scooter windscreen helps immensely.
3) I’ve just cleared 10,000 miles! (have had the scooter for 15 months)

a photo of minor relevance, from the toys for tots ride early december (my 5 degree ride): http://tinyurl.com/9yy5ea

I’m the pair of images below the route 66 image…

By: stefan

stefan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:08:30 +0000

Name: stefan – jedi knights scooter club
Temperature: -6°F
Distance: 10.3 miles
State: oh
City: cleveburg
Date: 1-16-09
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Scooter: 1980 p-deuce

Your CWC story:

old lady was driving me into work cuz my broke ass vw is getting a new head and cylinders, but that’s another story. anyhow, i see the temp at walgreens was -12, and i’m all like “it’s on!”. get to the shop, fire up the “mf’n juggernaut beotch p-deuce”, map out a nice 2.5 mile loop, and run it 4 times. by the time all that happened, temp went up 6 deg., and i was cold.

is it true the runner up prize is a 3 second pull on a bottle of malort with an old style chaser?

Photos:
http://tinyurl.com/9nrqro
http://tinyurl.com/7r9f3b
http://tinyurl.com/6uwunf

Map: http://tinyurl.com/772bgt