Riding Withdrawal

I am having a serious case of riding withdrawal. Winter has finally hit full bore in the mountains of Northeast, TN. I've only been able to ride once in the last two weeks. I am considering the possibility of a thermal riding suit. If nothing else, it would keep me warm enough to ride the Helix to work each day and save a few $$$ in gas/wear & tear on the car but from the way the reviews sound, a man could do some long distance touring with this thing and be plenty comfortable. May have to try it on the swing for a nice ride atop the APPS......

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/42/36/ITEM/Firstgear-Thermo-One-Piece-Suit.aspx

This one looked affordable and has good reviews. Anyone here tried this or know of a simlar product in the price range of $150.00. A lot of these suits are insanely expensive. Neither could I afford nor would I spend 400.00 or higher for similar product but I would do it for the price they are advertising.

ronjr009 wrote:

I am having a serious case of riding withdrawal. Winter has finally hit full bore in the mountains of Northeast, TN. I've only been able to ride once in the last two weeks. I am considering the possibility of a thermal riding suit. If nothing else, it would keep me warm enough to ride the Helix to work each day and save a few $$$ in gas/wear & tear on the car but from the way the reviews sound, a man could do some long distance touring with this thing and be plenty comfortable. May have to try it on the swing for a nice ride atop the APPS......

http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/42/36/ITEM/Firstgear-Thermo-One-Piece-Suit.aspx

This one looked affordable and has good reviews. Anyone here tried this or know of a simlar product in the price range of $150.00. A lot of these suits are insanely expensive. Neither could I afford nor would I spend 400.00 or higher for similar product but I would do it for the price they are advertising.

About 30 years ago , I used to ride a 50cc moped class "c" moped that for some reason would travel at 37.5 MPH even thought.

I would travel all year round in temperatures as low as -30 F before wind chill , can still be very cooold at -30 F after working third shift. I rode in a one piece snowmobile suit without any fancy heaters and the moped had very little wind protection.

The one piece provided the wind, water and insulation protection, plus I could use additional layers underneath as needed.

The primary disadvantage was the snowmobile suit was very bulky and the moped had no storage space. I used an old heavy cloth sack to stow my suit and gear.

I am not sure how your suit http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/1/1/42/36/ITEM/Firstgear-Thermo-One-Piece-Suit.aspx compares to a snowmobile suit??

Another inexpensive tip is to use nitrile or latex gloves under your existing gloves to get more protection ... which makes them water and windproof and helps to trap your heat better.

We have had some pretty serious winds hitting the south coast of the UK over the past few weeks. Because of the geography of where I live I gave up riding the Wing for my own safety. Mainly cross winds! On many an occasion I have ended up being blown into the lane of the opposing traffic. Fortunately with no traffic coming along. So I elect not to commute to work on strong gusty days. Of late the winds have been with for us longer than usual. As a result I too started to suffer 2 wheel withdrawal. All that warmth and music in the car was making me soft and lazy. :flower:

The last three days I have taken opportunity of calmer winds albeit hammering down with rain. My work colleagues think I am one cog short of gearbox but they don't ride so are devoid of the experience of two wheeled travel.

I wear a Gore Tex suit made by Hein Gericke, not one piece but has the ability to be zipped together making it for all intents and purpose a one piece. When the liner is fitted, as it is during these colder months it makes me nice and comfortable. Add to that the Wings protective element and hey ho back on two wheels we go! However the price of my Gore Tex suit was a serious financial investment. Over £600GBP, (Nearly a thousand $US), but I have to say whilst it is a lot of money it has lasted four years to date and appears to have many years ahead of me, so as an investment to make my environment on the bike better it has/was a good choice. They can be found on ebay once in a while.

I rarely wear anything more than a tee-shirt under the jacket in all but the most extreme UK weather. In the years I have owned the suit it has never let water in. I may leave puddles on the floor but once the suit is removed I am bone dry beneath.

Before my HG suit I really hated that cold trickle down my back or as with my Belstaff jacket and the spreading wet cold across my chest as the water soaked through via the poorly designed front zip and so called rain seal.

Good luck with your search for suitable protection. Being properly covered makes all the difference to an enjoyable ride.

Doug

I broke down and bought the suit that I posted a link to above from Motorcycle Superstore. I got a medium and it fits as advertised. I have no problem putting the suit on over my regular clothes. If I wanted to dress even more warmly by wearing thermal undergarments, that would be no problem either and would extend the temperature range of this suit (I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt under the suit). I have to say that I am pretty amazed by how warm it kept me. I went riding last night night in 32 degree weather for a half an hour on a 4 lane highway at 65 MPH and I was very comfortable and warm. Absolutely no wind comes through the suit. I had thermal gloves on to protect my hands and the only part of me that ever got cold were my hands. I am very impressed with this suit!!! If I was wearing thermal undergarments and a fleece shirt along with this suit, I could go quite a ways in the cold with no problem whatsoever. What is interesting to note is that I am very cold natured and always complaining about the cold so I would be more critical of "the warm factor" than most.

In the past, I have worn thermal unders, fleece, and my Honda Joe Rocket Jacket with the Thermal liner installed and it is not anywhere near as warm as this suit. So I can reccomend this to anyone who is wanting a less expensive cold weather riding solution. If you go to the link above, you will see dozens of reviews with almost all reviewers giving positive feedback on this product.

When ever I can’t ride for a few days or weeks I usually relive some of my past rides just to keep the fire burning. I go to my photo album or video file on the pc and look at some of the places I’ve been to and it keeps me going for a while. So go ahead and get some coffee and cozy up and watch my new photo story video of an old ride. Enjoy!
I hope it helps w/your riding withdrawal.

Carson Pass Nat’l Scenic Byway, Hwy 88 6-21-08



Also, check out my ride around Lake Tahoe.



james

Ron,

Thanks for this post. I'm sure there a lot that could really use one of these. It doesn't really get cold enough where I'm at. James (Just4cruzn) can attest to that, unless he is going up in the mountains. What are these suits like if you need to go into a store for awhile? Do you think you would overheat? I used to do what Bill does when I lived in Illinois. I had a nice snowmobile suit, since I had a snowmobile, and would wear that too while riding or working outside. But it seems your suit would be a bit more comfortable though. The old snow mobile suits were kind of bulky.

Doug,

How cold does it get in England? Does it stay a bit warmer than the rest of Europe since you're surrounded by ocean?

James,

Great videos. I want to do a very long day ride to Lake Tahoe next year sometime. I'm not able to do overnighters but can take a very long ride. I have 28,000 miles now (my SWing will be 3 years old in March '10) and I have never been out of California yet.

JeffR wrote:

I used to do what Bill does when I lived in Illinois.

does should be did when I was a teenager.

Now I live in a warmer climate and still use an electric liner

"James,

Great videos. I want to do a very long day ride to Lake
Tahoe next year sometime. I'm not able to do overnighters but can take
a very long ride. I have 28,000 miles now (my SWing will be 3 years old
in March '10) and I have never been out of California yet."
_________________
Ride safe,

JeffR

I love to join you when you do do that ride, hopefully I will be available. This ride to Tahoe was an all day ride and I was home b4 7pm. I left real early, though.
james

JeffR,

Regarding the weather in the UK. It is quite mixed with no real pattern of late. Up top two years ago most winters were wet and cold, circa 0 to 5 deg. C range.

The past two years the temperature has been lower. With a tendency for wet days and a sharp drop in temp overnight, we end up with very icy conditions. This is what grinds the communication routes to a halt and makes national news.

In the south we get little snow, however in the more mountainous north the snow may stay on the higher ground throughout the winter months.

England suffers from a few centimeters of snow and the rest of the planet laughs at us. However it is the ice under the snow that stops us in our track - literally.

I personally have the advantage of literally being surrounded by sea/water. If you Google Portland, Dorset. You will see my little piece of England sticks out into the English Channel and is connected to the mainland by a bi-product of a major event at Krakatoa!!! Namely Chesil Beach, a eighteen mile stretch of pebbles connecting Portland along Lyme Bay.

Geography over.

Happy Holiday!

Hey Just4Cruzn,

Those are some nice pics you took out there in Tahoe and Carson Pass. When I get the chance to head out to that part of the west, those areas will almost certainly be on my itinerary. I was impressed with how sandy the beaches appear at Tahoe. Very few of our lakes have any sand on the beaches in the Apps.

Jeff, the suit is not bulky at all. It is like wearing a motorcycle jacket with no armor. It is very light and I feel like my body has good mobility. I've not had a chance to try it indoors for any length of time but I can say this. There is a huge zipper down the middle. You can unzip this and the suit should stay on with no problem due to the way it fits in the shoulder area. This should eliminate any potential over heating problems. I can also tell you that some of the reviews I read about this suit were from guys in California talking about riding in the suit during the cold mornings on the way to work and also on the way home in the afternoon in the seventies and saying how they were not too hot.

Ron, I have an Edco snowmobile two piece suit that I purchased in the mid 80's while living in upstate NY that I still use most of the time in the winter. I also have a bright orange "Killer Chiller" brand one piece snowmobile suit I purchased in 1973 that is still used by my wife or myself during the winter. I had an opening installed near the crotch area to allow my Eclipse electric vest wires to exit which was hooked to the battery. I also purchased a one piece electric suit in the early to mid 90's which we use also. I did purchase this suit to bulky and you don't get the effect of the heating elements next to your body as you should with a more snug fit.
I did have the Eclipse vest go up in smoke under the orange snow suit while riding home from work not long after I purchased it. Actually put a whelt on my back where it burned me. It was so cold out I didn't feel it untill it really burned me good. Eclipse replaced the vest and it has worked good since. They did say it was probably to small and they sent me a size larger so I wouldn't stretch the wires as much.
A good combination for gloves for me was cotten five fingers under leather 5 fingers with snowmobile mittens with only two fingers over this. On top of this I would wear a bread sack. The ink from the sacks would come off on the hand grips after a while but it did a good job of stopping the wind. I also found that putting a plastic shopping bag over the boots and sliding rain boots over them helped a lot with the feet. Then you have to keep the air from striking the exposed skin which duct tape applied around the face shield worked pretty well with the darth vader face mask underneath the helmet and I use a Throat Coat that tucked in to the snow suit and comes up and around the bottom to the helmet. I would duct tape this around the side and rear of the helmet also. The face shield would no doubt fog up from time to time and I would lift out the front of the Throat Coat to help this. As you can see trying to stay warm doesn't mean your going to look cool, at least in my case anyway.
Since moving to VA we don't do as much fridgid riding as we did back then but we still will get out in the winter from time to time.

Well, I just ordered a Firstgear Cold weather riding suit. I'm just getting fedup with not being able to ride now that the cold weather is here. The suit should be here this week and then I'm going riding.

Come on down Dennis.. no snow here yet... it is kinda cold...36F right now.

I'm suffering with a different form of withdrawal. The Swing had a bit of metal strap kick up from a track and puncture the radiator, 90 km from home. My son in law came and picked me up with a trailer and we are now home, but unfortunately I wont have time to fix it for about 3 weeks till I get back from the trip to Melb ... AAAARRRGGGHHH!

Hey Kurt, sorry to hear about your radiator. Hope the fix can happen quickly. Dennis, you couldn't stand it longer huh? I tried mine out as soon as the UPS lady dropped it off. Let me know how you like it when it arrives.

Hi Ron,

It arrived today. They shipped very fast.

My first impression is good quailty and made well.

Now just waiting for the ice to melt off the streets and roads to give it a try.

For those of you so inclined to ride in the winter, but looking for hand protection: http://www.barkbusters.net/products/155.html

This may be a solution.

Two Wheel Oklahoma ( http://www.twowheelok.com ) has started a TV show about traveling Oklahoma on motorcycles.

You could watch all the shows ( http://www.twowheelok.com/TV/watch.asp?show=all ).

There were some nice riding roads in Oklahoma worth more traveling.