Bombing up past Camp Adair and back again

This morning I backed my motorcycle out of the garage for a quick jaunt up past Camp Adair and back again.  The air was cold and I was a bit concerned that my bike wouldn’t turn over.  Three cranks and it was fired up.  After about five minutes of warming the engine in the 40 degree F air, I was ready for a ride.

My thermal layers consisted of spandex tights, spandex cycling bibs, long johns, ski socks, a long sleeve shirt, my motorcycle jacket, a neck warmer, fleece undergloves, and my normal riding gloves.  I was only slightly chilled even when keeping up with the speeding traffic along 99W.  For a colder or longer ride, I think I will wear my fleece pants and maybe one more layer under my jacket.  A baklava might also be handing to keep my chin from getting cold.

The clear visor on my helmet kept fogging up today.  Every ride it gets a little more bothersome.  I’ve got some anti-fog stuff that I use on my SCUBA mask and my snowboarding goggles that I’m going to give a shot.  Does anyone have any other ideas of what I should try?

One sad note of the ride was the loss of my left plastic side panel.  I have a note on that over in my maintenance log.

In total, my ride was about 33 miles long and very fun!

My Route Map

Lost plastic side panel and trickle charger for winter

Today on my motorcycle ride I managed to loose my left plastic side panel.  New ones aren’t available at any price so far as I can tell.  On ebay I can get a used panel, that is if I can find it in the right color and without too much damage, for about 50 USD.  The bike doesn’t strictly need that panel to function but it does decrease its value and its astetic qualities.  Maybe I will see about making my own cover instead.

Last week I bought a trickle charger from NewEnough.com for a very reasonable price.  I chose the Deltran Battery Tender Jr.  It cost me 30 USD plus a few bucks in shipping.  I credit the charger for the easy time I had this morning starting my bike in the cold.  Unfortunately, it was also partially the reason why I lost my left side panel.  The panel has to be removed to access the battery terminals for charging.  When I went to replace it, I must not have done a very good job re-securing it.

The rest of the winter I believe I will be riding around without any extraneous plastic bits that can fall off.  Earlier in the summer I already lost one of the mini bullet bolt covers for my license plate holder.  That time, the piece wacked Carl in the leg.  This time I have no idea what happened to my poor plastic side panel.  After I realized it fell off (as soon as I got home), I jumped in my car and drove the route to see if I could find it.  Alas, it was all for naught.