How do I ride a hot motorcycle in July on a 95+ degrees day? And how do I do it wearing three layers of safety gear? By following some simple strategies to keep cool.
For one thing it’s all about the zippers. The way to keep cool is air flow, letting the wind cool me down. So I don’t zip my Alpinestars armored shirt but halfway, and I do the same with my Klim jacket. By keeping the zippers lowered, more air reaches to my core. We tend to think of the core temperature in the cold, but it also works in the heat. Enough air flows through the gear to keep me cool while the motorcycle is moving.
With my helmet I open the air vents, built in to allow for air flow, and I only shut the visor part way. The downside to this is pollen and leaf bits can fly into my eyes. Today in fact a bug pinged off my cheek. But I don’t mind as it does cool me down.
A final cooling strategy is to get out early before the full heat of the day, which we did. Despite our early start, the sun was already burning down. My Mom gave us a fan to put in the garage to help the air circulate as we geared up.
Now many riders can be seen out in short sleeves and some even ride in their shorts. Yes, they are way more comfortable on a hot day, but they are also way less protected. As Motojitsu said, “Better to sweat than bleed.” So our gear is more important than our discomfort.
And I did get uncomfortable. As we cruised the roads, I was fine, but I didn’t do the straightening up from a curve to stop. This drill is towards the end of our ride, so I was really feeling the heat by then. I kept riding in S-turns just to keep moving.
Today’s ride brought a new experience. Last week we brought the gas cans but forgot to fill them up. Today we forgot the cans entirely, distracted by the construction crews arriving on our street. My fuel light has been on for three weeks. When I checked the range on the remaining fuel, the bike told me thirteen miles. Of course, the computer is trying to figure out the range based on how I’m riding. Since I go back and forth between cruising at 25 mph to slow speed (6-9 mph) maneuvering, the gauge got confused. It quickly dropped to 8 miles left where it stayed for a good 10 minutes. Then it quickly dropped down to 4 miles left. At that point, I signaled Bill as we were stopped. He led us from the gravel lot to another church lot to work on S-turns before we headed down the road to the gas station.
We pumped 2.5 gallons in each bike which enabled us to extend our ride as I no longer had to fret about running out of gas and having to push a 400+ pound bike home in the heat. I did much better on my stops, remembering to check the mirrors on almost all of them. The curves were great, but I didn’t enjoy them fully as I was worried about running out of gas. I added swerving the bike with my legs as in an emergency, the arms and legs may be needed to get out of the way. My turns went very well too. I figured out that if I turned the wheel in the direction of the turn (from the stop), and looked in the opposite direction as I first began moving then quickly brought my head around, I was able to make tighter turns without sacrificing my traffic check.
I did get to ride the R Nine T. Bill asked me what kind of day I would have since I didn’t get to ride last week. Last week should’ve been an “on” week making this week an “off” one. As I set off, it looked to be an “on” day after all. I got the bike moving with no stall and drove down the field. On my way back, I remembered I was supposed to stop and restart to practice with the dry clutch. Now I started to have the “off” day. I stalled on most of the stops, but I avoided getting frustrated. Instead, I tried to focus on the feel between the clutch and the throttle. Because it is a dry clutch, it acts like the clutch in a manual transmission car. So I stretched my memory back to driving manual transmissions, and it seemed to me I let up on the clutch some before giving it the gas. I tried this method with the R Nine T and began to see some improvement. This week I’ll look for tips on riding motorcycles with dry clutches, though it really is about the feel on the bike itself.
The bright sun highlighted the crepe myrtles, brown-eyed susans, vincas, and the begonias which have all benefited from the good rain we’ve had lately. I even saw some blooms still on some magnolias. No butterflies about though there were some dragonflies lazily zipping about in the heat. I found it ironic to note a whole gaggle of Canadian geese scampering about in someone’s yard. These birds are flying south for the winter even as we are deep into the heat of summer.
As for keeping cool, when we peeled ourselves out of our safety gear (Bill had to help me out of the Alpinestars shirt as the sleeves were stuck), we compared our large sweat spots on our t-shirts. Bill’s taken to bringing a spare shirt to change into; after this week, I’ll start doing the same. Though looking ahead, next Saturday’s highs are only in the 80s–yay!
Flutterby Biker 