Riding Season

With fall here, many of you living and riding up north are trying to get in the last rides of the year before the weather gets nasty.

For us here in deep south Texas, our riding season is just beginning.

Why? Because the heat of the summer is still with us.



We've had something like 83 days of temps over 100 this summer. While that's a record, it doesn't make much difference. One hundred degree temps since May are the norm, and as you can see, the humidity makes the temps even worse.

By mid-October, the temperatures will slacken - then we can get on the NT with a little more comfort. By January, we'll be complaining about the "cold" temps of 50-60 degrees.

Hummm, I may have to load my NT in the trailer and head down there in mid-January. I've always wanted to do that. And I am retired. I'm running out of excuses.

Another option I'l looking at is flying out to SW USA and renting a BMW R1200 RT for a week. They have some good deals on airline tickets and I'd get to spend a week on a Beemer. My gas money for driving would just about equal an airline ticket and a couple days not spent in a motel would off-set the bike rental quite a bit.

The worst part of both options is returning home and dealing with the snow that will be here. What a hardship.

You are right Doug. Down here in hot humid, flood prone Louisiana the summer has not been good for motorcycle riding. We are still above average in both heat and humidity. Can't wait for that first cold front with crisp cool air and bright clear blue skies!
Come to think of it, I should be living in Colorado, or Utah, or Montana, or New Mexico, or......how did I ever end up here in Louisiana???

Tim, I often ask myself that question. We last lived in Albuquerque and loved the high desert.

Daboo said:

. . . before the rains come in for good. . . .

Where do you have your air conditioning set inside the house for?

Chris

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Rain? Huh? What's that?

AC is set for 78, and 76 at night. Since the low temperatures this time of year are in the low to mid 80s (that's right - our lows), the AC runs 24/7.

tawilke46 said:

how did I ever end up here in Louisiana???

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I know "how" I ended up in Hotlanta. The question is "why" in the heck do we stay here now that we are both retired. I keep telling my wife I want to go home to Montana but she starts shivering just thinking about the winters...:rolleyes1:

At least it has finally cooled off around here to the high 80's instead of the low 90's...not that it makes much difference.

I don't know how you folks in the South do it. Here in Michigan we don't get many days with the temps above 95 degrees, but the humidity is always very high. (We are surrounded by water). I do not ride much from mid June to mid Sept. I would much prefer temps in the 30's over anything above 75. I start my season around the first part of March and end when we get enough snow for the road commision to salt the roads. Usually in late November.

[The worst part of both options is returning home and dealing with the snow that will be here...]

But flying home then jumping into your car for the drive home is much nicer than having to ride your motorcycle all the way back only to encounter white stuff in WI!

Just got back from a 200 mile Sunday ride. 93 degrees and a beautiful day. Light traffic. NT averaged 62 mpg. Looking forward to when the temps are in the 70's.

Don't remember where I heard or read it, But there is never weather too bad to ride just bad riding gear...

What a difference one day can make. Yesterday it was 93?. This week it is going to be in the 70's.

Got down to the 40s last night and now it is well in the 60s. Last winter we had a total of a foot of snow so I never bothered to put the bike up for the winter.. Maine is nice. We don't get the extremes, tornadoes, earthquakes, extremes in temperatures. Hurricanes are usually de-fanged by the time they reach us. During the winter we get no tourists so the restaurants have no lines and there is little traffic. After Labor Day things slow down--we still get the "Leaf Peepers" and then everything mellows out. The winters seem a lot less severe although we are prone to ice storms. I plan to get a generator to deal with those.

Bear said:

I plan to get a generator to deal with those.

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How's the solar system doing?

karl said:

Don't remember where I heard or read it, But there is never weather too bad to ride just bad riding gear...

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I think it was not bag riding gear, just the wrong riding gear.

Months of riding to be done here in beautiful Wayne County. The shutdown here is short. Last year I did 100 miles on Christmas day then started commuting to my "retirement job" in February.

I found it too hot to ride quite a bit this summer. Perhaps I'm a wimp but when it exceeds 85? with humidity my interest in riding drops significantly.

vzshadow said:

I found it too hot to ride quite a bit this summer. Perhaps I'm a wimp but when it exceeds 85? with humidity my interest in riding drops significantly.

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Same here Dan. Except this summer has been above average temps and way above precipitation. Have not been on a ride since April 29.

tawilke46 said:

Same here Dan. Except this summer has been above average temps and way above precipitation. Have not been on a ride since April 29.

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Yikes!!!! That's no good at all!

We've been at the MSTA "Fall Colors" event in eastern WV for the past 4-days and will return to OH this morning. The high temps here have been in the mid-70s and we did have one morning of steady rain and a few other days with brief showers; neither deterred us from riding. Deb is riding her NT but I'm on my 2013 NC700X - the first fairly long trip on the NC. I recently had the compression damping on the NC's HyperPro rear shock revalved to "softer" and it made a huge difference in my comfort level and also the ability to handle rough roads. Deb's NC has the softer Ohlins shock spring and she loves it.

bicyclist said:

How's the solar system doing?

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The solar panels are great, but when there is a power outage they are no good because I am still hooked up to the grid. My electric bill is $11.00 a month for the hookup.

Don't know the details, but there are inverters available now that will keep working when there is a grid power outage. My guess is that they open the grid connection until power is restored.

I'm building a moto hauler with two 160 watt panels on the roof. Even with the lack of sun for the past week and the fridge running, the battery was only down to 91% SOC. Had a few of hours of sun yesterday and it's back up to 100%. It's like magic; free power falling from the sky.