Sunday, December 12, 2010

My Harley Davidson Softail is Crying in the Garage

Seriously, I am considering moving to LA or Tampa Bay...  We just finished a blizzard for the last 24 hours, snow on the ground, ice underneath, the attached garage is about 30 degrees and the temperature outside is about 0.  My Harley is crying. 
I go out to visit it several times a day and just look at it.  I think it looks beseechingly at me to get on and ride, but I cannot this month, or next month, or probably next month....   ever since I began riding my own, the winters have seemed longer and longer.  I long for a 50 degree day, when I am aching for that freedom and power underneath me, traveling with the semis on Interstate 80.  I will gear up eagerly, putting on as many layers as I can, come March. 
For my comfort, I cannot physically stand to ride in weather colder than about 45 degrees.  At that temp, the interstate provides too  much wind chill but I can make it short distances in town.  To gear up I will wear long johns under jeans and perhaps my chaps (I found them in the closet today thank goodness - they had been awol for several months),  I will put on long sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, and leather jacket.  A hat on my head does the trick and I have not resorted to a full face mask yet but may consider it soon.  It is usually my hands that get the coldest.  I have glove liners that I wear inside of my thickest riding gloves but without the fairing, my hands seem to take the brunt of the windchill.  I have been shopping for some heated gloves that heat up independently with a battery pack in the wrist sections that is rechargeable.  I think those will do the trick for next spring.  Any heated gloves start at about $200 and up, but they will be worth it, for that is the only thing preventing me from riding below the 50 degree mark.  After all, I live in Iowa.  We spend a great deal of time below 50 degrees so I spend much too much time hearing my Softail crying in the garage without me.
I can't wait until spring!

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