Masochistic Pleasure

[DGS49]

When I traded my cruiser last Summer for a Goldwing ('99 - old body style), I was giving up a fun bike with a huge "cool" factor for one main reason - I wanted a bike that would extend the riding season. I wanted a fully-faired bike so that could ride a little bit earlier in the Spring and a little bit later in the Fall. I also liked the idea of being able to take the bike on trips (large luggage capacity and a stereo/CB), not that I've ever done any overnighting on a bike.

So on Sunday afternoon, with the thermometer hovering in the 35 degree F range, I took the dust cover off, disconnected the trickle charger, and rode around for an hour or so, careful to avoid the remaining patches of ice and snow on the roadway. I had the stereo blaring hits from the 70's (listening through my wired headset).

The Goldwing diverts essentially all of the ambient air around my body, and with the heat vents open, directs a devil's breath of mildly warm air onto my boots, not warming them, actually, but taking the bite off the cold. The only part of my body to start to feel the cold, after 45 minutes or so, was my hands. The best insulation in the world, after all, doesn't generate any heat, it just allows you to retain the heat that your body naturally generates, which with the hands sitting still on the handgrips, is not much. I have a set of electric gloves, but I haven't had time to install a plug on the GW yet, so I couldn't use them on this trip.

Not surprisingly, I didn't run into any other bikers on Sunday afternoon, and I got a few stares from people as they considered What Kind of Crazy Fuck Would Be Riding a MC in These Conditions? A Goldwing is almost a compromise between a "real" motorcycle and an open-top roadster, but under such conditions, it is a fine vehicle to experience a mid-winter respite from the shitty-cold weather we have been experiencing for the past three months.

Why even own a vehicle that can only be ridden from April to September?

My trade is vindicated.

 

[SSDD]

I can stay relatively comfortable on my wing (08) down to the mid 30's. It is tolerable down to the high 20's. My club takes frostbite rides every new years and I have to say, after a few hours, the look of the guys on the cursers makes me glad that I am riding a wing. They are stomping around with their hands in their crotch trying to get some circulation back and their faces look like corpses. Not so with the wing riders.