[ChesterBurnet]

I haven't ridden in weeks now. It's supposed to be 50 degrees tomorrow and I'm gonna give it a shot. Usually there's a day or 2 where I can get out for an hour or 2 but that's not been happening and now that it's actually winter. Only 83 days until spring. Days are getting longer. I feel like I need a motorcycle fix every day. I make my GF crazy as she does not want to talk about bikes every day. Truth be told, I try and ride every day. I check the weather multiple times a day to predict days I can ride. If I'm not riding them, next best is working on them and then buying things for them and then reading about them and posting stuff on forums about them. I do have plenty of other interests but they all come in 2nd. (Just to make me a little crazier, my GF's daughter is getting married late next year and she wants to talk about wedding shit everyday. I hate ****ing weddings)

I am going to use this thread to try post something motorcycle related every day. Whether I can ride, mods I've done, random rants, reviews I've read, favorite products, helpful hints, a little Harley bashing..........all to get me to spring and daily riding. Feel free to tell me to STFU or join in. This is my unofficial anything goes spring count down thread.

 

[Weeksy]

All our temperatures currently are around freezing. Roads are continuously damp. I'm not seeing any riding for another 6 weeks.

Well, I am, but not with engines.

 

[Da Braddah]

84 degrees, trade winds out of the ENE at 10-20mph. Just sayin.......

 

[MK3Brent]

84 degrees, trade winds out of the ENE at 10-20mph. Just sayin.......

View attachment 162542

Ehh... but the humidity... Makes my hair frizzy...

 

[PinoyRider88]

I enjoy the snow, makes for better shooting with this

 

[Da Braddah]

Ehh... but the humidity... Makes my hair frizzy...

If I had enough hair, that WOULD be a major concern

 

[ChesterBurnet]

82 Days
It was a balmy 51° this afternoon and I'm off all week so I went out and burned through a tank of gas. I have a great local loop I do and never seem to get too bored with it. Roads were kind of greasy and I got it sideways before the traction control straightened it out. All in all it was satisfying to get out for the 1st time in 3 weeks.

I use a Linux operating system and I figured out how to make the ° symbol. So there's that too.

 

[ChesterBurnet]

81 Days
I was outside and thought gee, it doesn't seem too cold but in fact it's only 36° out so no riding. 50° is around my cutoff but when I'm really dying to ride I'll go out when it's 45°.

I have a set of Chinese case savers which were the fastest delivery of anything I ordered during December. How do they deliver in a week and UPS and USPS take 3 weeks to deliver stuff from western US to east?
I'm waiting on a Seat Concepts seat cover that my GF gave me for Christmas but hasn't arrived yet. I'm also waiting on a turn signal canceling module from Safer Turn which apparently is in Slovenia and apparently is the slowest delivery of motorcycle parts I've encountered so far. I've ordered a lot of stuff from UK and had great luck with reasonable shipping times. Same with items ordered from Greece and Italy. Chinese free shipping on Ebay items is nothing short of amazing but I limit Chinese parts to nonessential parts due to their metallurgy. Same reason I won't buy tools from Harbor Freight. Stood next to guy inline that was returning 2 aluminum floor jacks that broke in half when he jacked up his truck. I knew I wasn't going to buy important tools already but that just served to remind me not to get seduced by their shiny stuff with cheap prices.
Shipping times and Harbor Freight failures could be their own threads.

I'm not rushing out to install the case savers as I have to pace my self to have motorcycle related things to do.

Rain, snow and cold in the forecast.

 

[betoney]

I'm not rushing out to install the case savers as I have to pace my self to have motorcycle related things to do.

Rain, snow and cold in the forecast.

Same train of thought here, I'm in no rush to get winter bike maintenance done and don't want to get everything done in one shot, so little bits a time to stretch it out.

 

[peabrain]

i have a GS500E that needs some big attention, and i need to figure out where to put a line on how much i should spend on it.

forks need an overhaul
rear also needs some work
top end also needs a checkup
regular oil and spark plug change
frame needs repainting and a bunch of new bolts.

This weekend i am going to top off the battery on my MT09 and make a list of things that needs some loving on it.

 

[ChesterBurnet]

i have a GS500E that needs some big attention, and i need to figure out where to put a line on how much i should spend on it.

forks need an overhaul
rear also needs some work
top end also needs a checkup
regular oil and spark plug change
frame needs repainting and a bunch of new bolts.

This weekend i am going to top off the battery on my MT09 and make a list of things that needs some loving on it.

I've been looking for an old bike to make into a cafe racer. It's hard to find them as people have wrecks of old bikes sitting behind their garages rusting out and think they're worth a fortune.

 

[peabrain]

I am actually considering doing that to mine, but it has a decent third party fairing on that would be a waste to bin. Mine would never be worth a fortune, but as a cafe racer it might be easier to sell to a hipster.

JK but it would be an easy projekt and interesting.

 

[ChesterBurnet]

80 Days
Rain and cold.

 

[Chrisdurandchris]

I just purchased a new 2020 MT09 just as the winter season broke, been foaming at the mouth to get out and ride but in the same I have had time to change lots of the components to my likings. But yes counting the days, each, one by one as they pass.

 

[Weeksy]

80 Days
Rain and cold.

I'm hoping it's less until i actually get out for a ride... but rain and cold pretty much sums it up currently.

 

[PinoyRider88]

Anyone else?
GT is same as Avatar Name

 

[ChesterBurnet]

79 Days
Rain and cold....but wait....I was looking out the window and it looked like it stopped raining and then around noontime the Sun started to break through. It got up to 49° and was pretty windy and dried roads up. I went out and installed my Chinese case savers and then put on all of my cold weather gear and went riding for a little over an hour. Wind gusts up to around 30 mph. Funny thing that I've noticed. My XSR900 and FJ 09 would get blown all over the place where as the MT 10 seems to be pretty much impervious to wind. I've had Puig screens on all 3 bikes. This bike has an electronic steering damper which may help too.

I'm not a big fan of Chinese aftermarket parts but certain ones seem to be ok. I'm just not spending $80 - $100 on a couple of hunks of metal thats only function is to get scraped up if you or bike falls. They looked pretty decent. At the same time, I'm not going to use Chinese chain adjusters because if they fail, you're screwed. Lots of Chinese parts look like the real deal but metal quality is always suspect. If there's even a slight chance that a part failure could cause a crash or fall I always go with the better quality.

Cycle gear Freeze-Out base layers work well. I've had mine for 3 seasons now and they hold up well too.

Freeze-Out Warm'R Long Johns - Cycle Gear

The Freeze-Out collection has been redesigned and things just got a lot Warm’R. The outer materials are lighter and more flexible than ever before with a new 3D honeycomb fleece inner structure and the essential Freeze-Out windproof membrane.

www.cyclegear.com

Freeze-Out Warm'R Zipped Gilet - Cycle Gear

The Freeze-Out collection has been redesigned and things just got a lot Warm’R. The outer materials are lighter and more flexible than ever before with a new 3D honeycomb fleece inner structure and the essential Freeze-Out windproof membrane.

www.cyclegear.com

 

[peabrain]

One thing that made a huge difference for me is heated grips.
Now i am looking for a pair of not so bulky winter gloves, that are good in rain and have good feel.

 

[ChesterBurnet]

78 Days
37° and Rain. Enough said.

There is a weird Yamaha quirk that I can't understand about the heated grips for the CP3 bikes. The XSR900, FZ/MT 09 and FJ 09 are all almost identical bikes. Yet, the FJ 09 uses a different heated grip than the other 2. The one for the FJ 09, see link is plug and play and integrates right into the stock dashboard screen. It also gets quite a bit warmer the unit for the other 2 bikes.

FJ-09 Grip Heater

Electrically-heated hand grips are a welcome addition for cold riding conditions. The FJ-09's multi-function instrument panel is configured to automatically activate the grip heater's control functions when installed. This gives the FJ-09 Grip Heater a factory looking installation with no need...

www.shopyamaha.com

The heated grips for the XSR900, MT 09 and also MT 10 are a universal factory accessory that is not plug and play and does not get as warm as the other one. I'm curious as to why they did this and also if the FJ 09 model would work on the others. The universal model is still a lot more integrated than the other aftermarket grips.
Universal Grip Heaters

 

[PinoyRider88]

One thing that made a huge difference for me is heated grips.
Now i am looking for a pair of not so bulky winter gloves, that are good in rain and have good feel.

as much as that May elongate my physical riding ability as well, the roads are absolutely annihilated in salt. Therefore rendering even the warmest days unridable unless I want to make my Fionah look like Mars by the summer.

gotta wait for a couple solid rain storms in the spring