First ride to work this year

[Varmintmist]

Got up this morning and the weather report on the radio said sunny and 65 this afternoon, currently 30. Did the 3 S's (s, shave, shower) and got to the kitchen and the outside thermometer read 33.

Thought about it for a bit and said what the heck. I have ridden that cold before, although it wasnt a bunch of fun, the Aero was a different bike and maybe the Valkyrie would be warmer.
    
Any port in a storm.   

Bungeed the lunch and coffee to the bike, put on the chaps, jacket insulated gloves and grabbed a neckerchef for the chin/throat and after calling the dogs in twice was able to roll out.

The Valk has a clock on it. Good and bad. I looked at it and realized that the extra gear, tieing stuff down, and getting the mutts in through the garage door AND the man door put me up against it in time. Got to the main road and thumped it. . . . . It again reminded me that is is a different animal as I passed through 95mph just after shifting to 5th. Unrolled my wrist and settled down some.

The face sheld fogged so I lifted it a bit for air flow and than helped cool everything down.  The chaps were good though w/o any extra insulation, they are just wind breakers at that temp. Although the fellas were a bit cold the big one is a stand up guy and they hung in. Upper bod was fine, had the liner in the jacket and a fleece vest that is a part of work gear made it real comfy. Gloves are a cheapo leather insulated dress type that I have used for 4 years. Hope I can find a replacement pair when these get holes.

Things I learned.

The thermos will survive a bounce and roll. It came unglued and I had to go back for it. Need to rethink bungee plan before next flight.

Horribly uneven brick streets in low temps get a glaze and are not condusive to MC riding. I touched my front break in the alley leading to the shop and the entire bottom of the bike slid to the right into a tire groove. Its good to be a big fella when this happens. I won, no scratches.

[Big IV]

Bricks are a pain when the cool morning dew decides to get icy.
The asphalt cut and shaped like bricks and painted is only slightly better, it also gets slick.

Will your thermos fit above the handlebars between the speedo and tach? A large sweet tea from McDonalds and some of the fat gatorade bottles fit there very well.

[Varmintmist]

It might, but I would be afraid of the metal of the therm messing up something. I will take a bit more time this afternoon and find a few more hardpoints.

[Big IV]

Stick the termos in your jacket and it doubles as a vest warmer.

I remember once pulling into the college parking lot on my CB750 beside of a pretty redhead's little ranger truck. She looked disappointed because I was supposed to get breakfast before class (it was mine turn). She had hungry eyes. I unzipped my motorcycle jacket and pulled out two paper cups of orange juice from McDonalds--not the fancy plastic with the foil lids which I had expected them to give me at the drive through window but real paper cups--and two straws. In my book bag was a paper bag of still warm biscuits. She was impressed.
That worked once.
I've never figured out why the cups didn't crush in my jacket pocket. I've never tried again.