It's just too hot to ride

[kroberts]

I dont know how you guys in the southwest or in other desert locales do it.

It's been at least 100 degrees everyday lately...and humid. The gulf is 140 miles away and you'd think it was in my back yard. Not a damned cloud in the sky either.

I spend about 25% of each work day in an office, the rest is spent out in the hangar. The last thing I want to do is ride home in the afternoon when the temp has peaked. It sucks. I feel guilty parking my bike in the blazing sun too, it's beating the hell out of my old seat (I have two more but that's not the point).

My hat's off to you guys who ride every day. I manage one or two commutes a week. I guess it's like living up north, bike gets parked for winter, just in reverse and not for quite as long. I went out and ran some errands this afternoon in boots, jeans, jacket and gloves. I literally sweated thru my jeans. I'm sure I looked incontinent.

Cant even work in the garage, I'm cleaning guns on my coffee table in the living room.

[1100s nut]

Same here...I rode for a hour and came back..not fun. I was supposed to ride dirt today....no way. Piddled in the garage, sweat dripping off my nose....came in the house to drink beer and ended up on here. Lol

[wswartzwel]

It has to do with conditioning yourself for the heat. I have AC in my shop but don't use it... I also bicycle in the heat. Though at a slower pace and drink lots of fluids. For motorcycling I find leather to cool better than mesh. with mesh the sweat evaporates too quickly. with my leathers I unzip the front just a little... the air comes in the front and exits up my back and out the top behind my neck cooling my back like air conditioning. Dirt riding in the woods would be miserable as there is no air moving, and lots of ticks and snakes in our region. I will admit that the A/C in the home garage is kicked on high when I am doing woodworking projects though.

[twodear]

When I was riding to work in Oklahoma BBMW (Before BMW) my daily ride was a 1993 CBR900RR. The sun was vicious but that bike had only a small storage area under the passenger seat, no room for a full storage cover and didn't really want to spend the $$$ that was being asked for one. I ended up using the wifes sewing machine to turn a bedsheet into a sort of half cover. It fit from the handlebars to the tail piece and covered only the top surfaces that were in full effect of the midday sun; fuel tank, seat and tail piece. It was small to fold up and carry.

[ahdoman]

I'm in the high desert in SoCal so we don't have quite the humidity but it's been in the high 90's to low 100's here. I use a thermacool vest under my mesh jacket. It's like having an air conditioner on the bike. It's good for a couple of hours and then it dries out (a quick re-wet at the local gas station solves that problem). I highly recommend them. Now I just need one for my helmet!

[AZ-J]

In Scottsdale, ride at night with HID headlight. Now 86 F and dark at 1 AM,

[bradzdotcom]

there's a route that i've taken with ralf, sergio and many of the other suspects around here. it goes from the pacific coast and heads inland to the anza-borrego desert.
if you time it right in the summer and the coast area is overcast, you can go from 65 degrees to 115 degrees in less than two hours (80 miles one way).
that's a 50 degree spread.

if you top off the tank in anza and whip back around, you can do the 115 to 65 thing and be back at the beach in time for lunch when the sun breaks through.
interesting experience, but the quick temperature and elevation changes can cause nausea and headaches. the beach bikinis cause interest and alertness, and work well as a carrot dangler.

i've been using that little run for years because it's an interesting way to test street and touring gear. it's one of the few reliable routes where you can go through a wide range of temperatures to see how riding gear is working. you can also fiddle around in a particular temperature range by just riding back and forth in an area based on the temperature (like between 85 and 100).

anza visitor's tip: the food sucks (best bet: the mexican place), the fuel is expensive (it's a big uphill to get out of there, top off) and the cop (when he's about 10 miles outside town) is exceptionally diligent.

if you're ever interested in trying it, here's mr. google's route map (man, that dude knows how to get everywhere!)

[AZ-J]

Here we're the lowest part of the State. North or South I go up and cooler.

[1100s nut]

It was too hot yesterday.....today almost too cold. I rode 100 miles up to the nc mountains to Dee's house to say hello and ride...today was a little cold,foggy and rainy...but we got to ride.

[Chris Canning]

Originally Posted by bradzdotcom

there's a route that i've taken with ralf, sergio and many of the other suspects around here. it goes from the pacific coast and heads inland to the anza-borrego desert.
if you time it right in the summer and the coast area is overcast, you can go from 65 degrees to 115 degrees in less than two hours (80 miles one way).
that's a 50 degree spread.

if you top off the tank in anza and whip back around, you can do the 115 to 65 thing and be back at the beach in time for lunch when the sun breaks through.
interesting experience, but the quick temperature and elevation changes can cause nausea and headaches. the beach bikinis cause interest and alertness, and work well as a carrot dangler.

i've been using that little run for years because it's an interesting way to test street and touring gear. it's one of the few reliable routes where you can go through a wide range of temperatures to see how riding gear is working. you can also fiddle around in a particular temperature range by just riding back and forth in an area based on the temperature (like between 85 and 100).

anza visitor's tip: the food sucks (best bet: the mexican place), the fuel is expensive (it's a big uphill to get out of there, top off) and the cop (when he's about 10 miles outside town) is exceptionally diligent.

if you're ever interested in trying it, here's mr. google's route map (man, that dude knows how to get everywhere!)

I would have thought you would include Palomar mountain in your route for temp variation.

[bradzdotcom]

Originally Posted by Chris Canning

I would have thought you would include Palomar mountain in your route for temp variation.

that route is for riding.

palomar is for posing, or for being "the man" by owning some 2/10th of a mile section with three turns that you've ridden through 14,732 times.


...and only fell in the right hander 17 of those times! (well, okay 19 times, but those other two weren't your fault).

palomar is also too fast in elevation rise, so to keep in a temp band, you'd be doing the same back & forth mindless pong thing that the sportbike squidsters are doing.

(disclaimer: most weekend mornings at about dawn, there is a pack of sport bikes that go by here heading to the twisties for a 2 hour session of seriousness.
i've jumped in a few times.
those dogs can hunt.
the palomar part is only a pie slice of their non-organized, non-event that's not happening most weekend mornings at not about dawn.
so if any of those guys are reading this, i wasn't talking about you, so please don't egg my house, okay?).

[Chris Canning]

After a week in Carlsbad last January had to go on the net and ask 'surely there must be a decent road out here' the climb to Palomar is what I ride most of the time so it was a welcome relief just a shame I didn't have my SM with me,with snow on the ground when less than an hour away they were on the beach.

[bradzdotcom]

i've had a few visitors who did the surf in the morning, snow ski in the afternoon thing.
once they figured out it wasn't all that hard, it kind of knocked the dew of the lilly.

palomar is fun on an SM, even better with a few friends on minibikes.
it's more fun than you deserve.

[SergioK]

Originally Posted by bradzdotcom

... you can go from 65 degrees to 115 degrees in less than two hours (80 miles one way).
that's a 50 degree spread.

And what's fun is checking your tire pressures once you get to the heat... do you air down for the hot pavement/temps or put up with higher pressures for when you return to the cool coast?

[bradzdotcom]

yes. yes you do.

[SergioK]

If Jeff was here he'd probably say something about how his shocks/suspension acts differently. At least there are readily accessible clickers to solve this issue.

[2wheelmike]

Originally Posted by bradzdotcom

if you're ever interested in trying it, here's mr. google's route map (man, that dude knows how to get everywhere!)

Brad,
Back when I did one of my first triple crown rides with you, Ralf, and the gang, we did this portion on the way back but a different route out. Can you remind me what the way out was again? I recall it skirted the border with Mexico. I didn't have GPS back then cause now I know better how to find those gems you guys and the Z-boys have shown me. It was a lot of fun and now that my son is at SDSU, I can use that excuse to ride the area again.

[Phil Y]

Here in HI it's too hot in the summer with 90 degree sunny days and high humidity, especially w/ATGATT. I'm tempted to do like my HD buds and go jacketless!

[AZ-J]

91 F and dark here now after 97 F today and 34% humidity. We are supposed to thunder-storm tonight.

[PFFOG]

Ying and Yang.

You guys say you couldn't live in the cold and snow of the north, but we actually get as much nice riding weather as you guys in the South. And for 7-8 months ever year we get great riding weather.

As for hot days, I bought a BMW venting Machine jacket, and a set of Mesh Revit pants, and they work great. Just standing in a slight breeze and you can feel the air movement through the jacket.