The Paulcb Memorial Coldest Ride, Winter 2024-2025

ST-venture said:
Sorry for your loss.
But, if he said he could only ride 4 months of the year in Denver, that depends on his definition of "decent riding weather". Except for the mountainous areas, you can ride about 10 to 11 months of the year. BTDT for the last 50 years.
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He lived in Evergreen. Claimed he could have snow from Oct thru May. He moved there from southern California so he may have been jaded lol.
 
So back in the center of Minnesota we'll probably see some light snow tomorrow and the salt truck drivers gotta make money so white roads it will be after the snow melts. But today - no record, only 12 out when I opened a package with Gears Canada heated chaps in it, strapped them on, plugged in the heated socks, a vest and a thick down layer under my jacket and went for a test ride. Turned into 50 miles because, you know it fun to ride and there was something I wanted to pickup a couple towns over that had a nice twisty road leading to it.

We'll see what January and February bring. I'm off to Texas on Friday. Trailering to KC because I've not got that big of a pair of fearless and adventure. Happy holidays all!
 
the Ferret said:
He lived in Evergreen. Claimed he could have snow from Oct thru May. He moved there from southern California so he may have been jaded lol.
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Evergreen is up in elevation, so he could have a more limited ride season. And yes, we can have snow from Oct thru May (or even more months), but it is rare and usually doesn't stay around long.
Coming from S California, I could see his point of view.
 
ST-venture said:
Evergreen is up in elevation, so he could have a more limited ride season. And yes, we can have snow from Oct thru May (or even more months), but it is rare and usually doesn't stay around long.
Coming from S California, I could see his point of view.
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My experience in Calgary was much the same. One year the kids were trick or treating in 15C and the lawns were all bare, another it was -25C with snow everywhere. I remember we came out from Ontario to look for a house the July long weekend in 1999. I think the high was about 15C at the most and it was rainy and chilly. I thought I had found the promised land because Ontario at the time was mid-30'sC and humid as hell. I could sleep in Calgary :D
 
I don't mind the cold temps (sometimes down to zero F or -18 C or below) we get up here. I also don't mind the hot/humid weather (upper 97+ F or 36+ C with 95+% humidity) we sometimes get at other parts of the year as well. And I will ride, and have ridden, in all those conditions. But if my son and his 3 kids were to move from central Iowa down to one of the southern states I know we'd be moving down south with them. I do already have one son with his wife and daughter living down south.
 
rjs987 said:
I don't mind the cold temps (sometimes down to zero F or -18 C or below) we get up here. I also don't mind the hot/humid weather (upper 97+ F or 36+ C with 95+% humidity) we sometimes get at other parts of the year as well. And I will ride, and have ridden, in all those conditions. But if my son and his 3 kids were to move from central Iowa down to one of the southern states I know we'd be moving down south with them. I do already have one son with his wife and daughter living down south.
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I'm lucky in that my kids and their family's live close (son 10 mins away, daughter 30 mins away so all 5 of the grandkids are close by). My daughter and her family did move once to the mountains in Colorado, but they only stayed a year and moved back home. Said mountains were beautiful in summer, but the weather was horrible in winter. I do think she would move to someplace southern with a beach if given the opportunity, probably once she's an empty nester.

For the most part I think the weather is fine for riding here in southern Ohio 95% of the time. I missed 14 days in January, 4 days to medical, 6 days to rain and 4 days to snow, but then only missed 3 days between Feb 1st and mid-July when I went on a 10-day Alaskan vacation with my family. Since coming back from vacation, I missed 2 days in Sept (rain due to remnants of Hurricane Helene) and 1 day in November (to an all-day rain), and I'll probably miss today December 17th also due to an all-day rain. (Don't mind getting caught in the rain, but hate taking off in it lol). Looking at the extended forecast I don't see any weather predicted that would keeping me from riding thru the end of the year which would put me at having ridden 331 days this year. Also, no weather predicted that will move me up in this cold ride contest, which really doesn't disappoint me lol
 
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So no improvement on the temperature list here, but an interesting tale of a temporary (hopefully temporary) fingertip numbness. Taking off during the cold snap before Xmas from my trailer in Kansas City area the day started at 18 F. By afternoon I was out of the discomfort zone for the clothing/bike choice I made for the trip. I recall the next morning at the Ozone National Forest Campground the temp was just barely below freezing. Eventually the North Padre beach got up to 78 degrees and on the way back the lowest I saw was 48. Some stroke of luck took me west of Dallas which avoided the tornado super cell storms from Houston through Louisiana and a bit of Arkansas from what I read on the news. There sure was a lot of water on the ground there and in eastern Oklahoma. And I saw barely a sprinkle and damp roads twice on the whole trip.

Back to the temporary fingertip numbness. Riding an R1150RT gave a nice air pocket behind the fairing/mirror. But I was clever and had a barback which rose the handlebar to the high side of the pocket and a little more moving air. Knowing that 18 would challenge regular gloves even with the heated grips switched to high I was wearing a battery powered pair of heated gloves from eBay that had 3 fingers together but the trigger finger has only itself for warmth. After a couple hours of putting up with a cold left hand. (Somehow my right was perfect and there was really no breeze to cause that. Must be that age changes circulation in different parts of the body. Plus, the left-hand grabs that metal clutch lever frequently when taking Garmin's adventurous route.) Well, being a battery conservative person I turned the left glove to setting 1 of 3. That took away the discomfort and by noon nothing was needed. I was going to thinner gloves for better grip after that since temps were warmer. And after that the batteries in the gloves never were used again. Surely could have used them up earlier in the morning when those left hand fingers were getting cold, cold enough to damage the nerves in the tip of that pointer finger. Good news is I have plenty of sensation left to play cello in the New Year's eve concert tonight. And this happened to a few fingers once about 7 years ago whilst snowmobiling all day at a high of -15 F and strong winds. It took most of a year to get the full feeling back then so I bet this one comes back sooner. Moral of the story is I gotta pay attention to cold feeling body parts a little better when on the machines. Stationary hands don't stay as warm as when one's more active like skiing, walking or skating.

(pic on the second day in SE Arkansas taking a coffee/lunch break off the main road overlooking a river. Sorry, no picture of the wolfman and kermit bags strapped to the back of the RT. If you look closely it's a thick down jacket under the lined riding jacket and over the heated vest. Nicely the beemer has plenty of amps to power heated chaps and socks as well)
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Happy New year to you!
 
This would be a good week to move up the charts since we are getting single digit temps all the way down to zero ...... if we hadn't just gotten 11" of snow, which my quad with snow plow won't even clear. Gonna be awhile before I am out on 2 wheels again. :(
 
Tomorrow morning is supposed to be 6F in the area... that means likely 3-4F points north of me in the country. We just had a few inches of snow a few days ago (we sent it all to southern OH). Just a few patches of ice here and there on some roads but easy to ride around those. The bigger trouble for me is I'm just coming out of having bad bout of a cold so not wanting to get out and chance a relapse.
 
Gee thanks pal. I have been riding my quad with snow blade for 2 days and still can't see most of my driveway. Have to take the snow in slices off the top as the blade won't push that deep of snow and no place to put that much snow once I push some off. Not going to melt for at least a week .... next days above freezing are Sunday the 12th and Monday the 13th then back below freezing again until the 18th.. ugggg. On the news they said worst accumulation of snow in a 2-day period since 1987 or something. I don't know how people in the lake effect snow belt of New York deal with this lol.

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Today's work commute was 9°F on the way in and 19°F for the ride home. Doesn't move me up the standings but thought I'd mention outfitting, comfort and bike.

Normally my winter rider is a Yamaha WR250. I geared up with Klim snowmobile top-layer and gloves. Head in a baklava and helmet. My WR250 has bark buster hand guards to keep the wind off the knuckles and heated grips (Oxford Heaterz EVO) so Klim gloves with medium liners are adequate for today. I add a heat pack or go with heated gloves when below 10°F but for just 30 minutes at 9°F or higher, no issue.

Issue: WR250 didn't start.

Had a jumper pack in my pocket in case of trouble restarting in the afternoon but didn't have it on the charger overnight. No time or desire to get out the tools (and don't yet have the higher amp wires on for jump-through-charger-wiring) so I went with my Honda GROM which started just fine.

Commute was now 45 minutes of 35 to 45mph surface roads instead of 30 minutes at 70mph with no heated grips and no wind deflectors. I guess it was tolerable, but I was pulling my fingers back into the glove's palm for more heat during stoplight waits. Got a bit achy by the end. I like finding limits (traction, tolerance) and have identified 45 minutes at 9°F without heated grips or windbreak is a tolerance limit. The ride back at 19°F was no problem.

I'm sure the relatively slow travel (35 to 45mph) helped ease the pain. Faster wind over the knuckles would have pushed things up into intolerable.

Later,
Kent Larson in Minnesota

P.S. The misspelling was intentional. Did you laugh? I was really wearing a balaclava.
 
Somewhere I recently read that this winter is supposed to be the coldest in many years. We'll see. I wonder if that means coldest adjusted for climate change? Kinda like adjusted for the cost of something adjusted for inflation. :shrug2:

Since I don't usually wake up early in the morning any more the only way I'll improve my standing or get a ride temp below zeroF is if the daytime high is close to zeroF. That could still happen.
 
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