Passes & Canyons Blog

Out on my first ride of 2013.

Finally the weather has warmed up and melted the snow and ice off our street. I was able to get out on the Kawasaki today, though efforts to get the Honda out failed because the battery was dead. It’s on the charger now, but it will be next weekend before I can get out on that one.

And what a beautiful day. As always in winter, I stayed down here on the prairie. Clear roads down here do not at all mean clear roads up there. As it was, even down here there was a spot where I ran into ice due to shadows blocking the sun.

So this ride gave me another chance to continue testing the new heated gloves. Still not a really cold day but let’s face it, most of the days I ride in the winter are not really, really cold. They’re mostly like today, with highs in the 40s or so. Still, next weekend, even if the temps are in the 30s or even lower, as long as the road is clear I’ll be out on the Honda. But at the moment next weekend looks like it will probably be even warmer than this weekend. So much for Stock Show weather.

And how are the gloves doing? Terrific. I started out with them set at 75 percent power but didn’t go too far before I cut back to 50 percent power. Plenty warm. And they’re comfortable, too. Many years ago I got some similar–non-electric–gloves and I’ve almost never worn them because they’re just so clunky. I can’t really do anything with my hands while wearing them. These Gerbings are serious gloves but they’re also flexible and allow me considerable dexterity.

Of course one of the things I like about the idea of battery-powered gloves is that I can wear them off the bike as well. I’ve been doing that; like taking the dog for walks. There’s just no reason at all to have cold hands now.

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Biker Quote for Today

Nice bike. Have you taken her to Mexico? All bikes want their owners to take them there. – tricepilot

Who knew the bulb blew?

Safe riding promoters tell you to ride as if you were invisible, because for the most part you are. Well, I took that one step further recently, I almost really was invisible, although I didn’t know it at first.

I recently started a regular day job–something I hadn’t had in nearly four years–and frankly, I don’t expect to ride to work very much. The direct route takes me up I-25 to 6th Avenue and then west. The part on I-25 is a bear, with really bad stop and go traffic. That kind of thing is murderous on your wrists on a bike, as I’m sure you know.

But I have ridden twice. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I knew traffic would be light, and it was supposed to be a beautiful day. It was, and I rode.

Then the following week, also on Wednesday, it was going to be another gorgeous day so I decided I would take a longer route that would help me avoid the really bad traffic. That worked out OK.

So that evening I was heading home, and it was dusk, getting darker all the time. I started noticing that my headlight wasn’t doing all that good a job illuminating the road in front of me, but I could still see OK so I wasn’t concerned.

But it kept getting darker. And I was starting to have a suspicion that something was wrong. I suspected that my headlight was out. I flipped on the brights and there was definitely light. I flipped them back off and there did not seem to be any light. I wanted to pull up close behind a car and see if I was shining a light on it but couldn’t really do that at highway speed. Finally I just decided that oncoming traffic, I apologize, but I’m running with my brights on. And when I finally did get off the highway and pulled up close behind a car there was nothing when I flipped the brights off.

So essentially, I had been riding in the dark with no light to tell other drivers that I existed. Talk about invisible. And how long do you suppose the light had been out? I don’t ride at night a lot so it could have been a good long time. Now I know; all I have to do is remember to do something about it.

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Biker Quote for Today

When in doubt, PIN IT! It may not help, but it’ll sure end the suspense…

This new Hawk helmet with the front flipped up. And hey, it has built-in Bluetooth communication.

Seems like every day is Christmas lately, and I have a lot of near gear to try out. In addition to the new heated gloves I’ve been writing about, I also just received a new helmet. The full name of this helmet is Hawk H-6607 Glossy Black Dual-Visor Modular Motorcycle Helmet with Bluetooth. OK, that’s a mouthful. Let’s break it down.

First off, it’s a modular, flip-up type of helmet. I’ve never used one of those before so that’s something to get familiar with. It’s also dual-visor, which is to say that it has a separate flip-down sun visor to use during the daylight and to flip up at night. And third, it has built-in bluetooth. I like that idea.

So I rode to work on Wednesday and had another chance to try out this new stuff. Wednesday was a beautiful, warm day to ride so once again it wasn’t much of a test of the heated gloves but it was an incremental advancement. This time I set both gloves to 75 percent power and that was probably more than I needed. Then on my way home the right glove, which I had been running at higher power the previous times I had worn them, ran out of juice. And as I pulled into the driveway the left glove was flashing to indicate it was about to go kaput, too. So I’m sure it won’t surprise anyone that when Gerbing says 2 hours on full power that truly does mean you’re not going to get more than 2 hours.

For the helmet it was my second test run. On Sunday I had gone out with it and had been surprised how noisy it was. One person I spoke with said that modulars are always noisier than regular helmets so I guess I need to factor that in. Plus, when I wore earplugs it was no problem at all. Beyond that, it is comfortable and doesn’t seem to take the breaking in that other helmets I’ve had have required.

The tinted visor needs some tweaking. It doesn’t want to stay up. When it insisted on falling down on Sunday afternoon that was no problem, but coming home Wednesday evening after dark I didn’t want that happening. Fortunately, it seemed that because I left the visor open a bit because it was so warm, that stopped it from falling except just once. I may just stick a little piece of tape on there or something, just to add a wee bit more friction.

I like that this helmet has a little chin shield that closes up the forward bottom portion of the helmet, blocking drafts. That will be nice in very cold weather.

I haven’t had a chance yet to try out the Bluetooth communicator. Maybe we can get out this weekend with Judy using our other Bluetooth communicator and see how that goes. And my experience up to now is that these communicators do work fine even if you have earplugs in. In the meantime, not to have to hassle with keeping the speaker/mic in place should be wonderful. I think built-in communicators is likely to become just standard equipment in a lot of helmets from now on. It makes so much sense.

So I’ve got a lot more testing to do on both these items, but there’s no hurry. In the meantime, a couple other packages arrived in the last couple days as well, so I may be giving my impression of some motocross gear–provided I have a decent chance to try it out. Which may not happen soon. It is December, you know. We’ll see.

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Biker Quote for Today

It’s better to ride a boring bike than push an interesting one.

Along the Peak-to-Peak.

Saturday was a gorgeous day so I had to ride. And it was really too warm to give my new electric gloves a test, but I figured they needed to be broken in and I could still try them out and see how warm they get. I also wore my electric vest just in case, but as I suspected, I didn’t need to plug it in.

So how were the gloves? First off, these Gerbing Core S-2B battery-powered gloves are a little stiff brand new, so breaking them in by wearing them is a good thing. I checked out their heated gloves that are powered by wires from your bike’s battery and they’re not so stiff. Presumably the latter gloves can carry more power and so need less of the fine wiring woven through them. The battery-powered gloves need to conserve energy to extend battery life, so they don’t use the brute force approach the others use.

I put the gloves on and turned them on and the feeling of warm all over my hands was instantaneous. For testing purposes, I turned the right glove up to full power and set the left at a lower level. In the process I found that it is easier to turn then on and set the level before you put them on your hands. It’s just clunky trying to do it with them on, though they are designed well enough that it can be done without too much difficulty. Still, it’s easier to do it with them off.

Riding on this warm day, you can bet my hands never got cold. And as you might expect, after awhile my right hand started getting too warm. It never felt like it was roasting–they don’t get that hot–but I did feel the desire to turn it down. And after awhile I turned the left glove completely off. My hand never got cold but I was aware that it was no longer receiving external heating.

The gloves themselves are quite comfortable. They seem to be extremely well made and could serve as just a regular pair of riding gloves if you chose. The one thing I had expected that proved correct was that the battery, which mounts in the gauntlet, was uncomfortable sitting right on top of my watch on my left wrist. So I took the watch off and put it in my pocket.

The gauntlets are not as wide as on my regular gloves, so it was a bit more of a trick getting them over my sleeves, but not a real hassle–just not quite as easy. But then they were nice and snug to help keep cold air out.

So far I rate them very highly. Of course, the real test will come when it gets colder. Just from my experience on Saturday I suspect I’ll end up running them either at full power or 75 percent power most of the time. At those levels the batteries are good for either 2 hours or 4 hours, and if it’s really cold I don’t expect I’ll be out longer than that anyway, so why not be as warm as possible?

More to come.

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Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if, when the weather is too bad for riding, you start your bike and sit on it in the garage.

My new Gerbing Core S-2B heated gloves.

It’s a done deal, and an early Christmas. I’ve got a pair of Gerbing Core S-2B battery powered heated gloves.

I checked around town at all the shops that carry Gerbing gear and only one, Performance Cycle, on south Broadway just north of Evans, carries the battery powered gloves. As it was, they only had size Small and XXL in stock, but this weekend, the weekend of Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, they were on sale for only $170. That’s a bargain.

So we went over to the shop on Saturday because I wanted to see them for real and try them on. I figured I needed a Medium but if I bought them I would pay the sale price and then just wait for them to come in.

Turns out Small seems to be the size I needed. Judy whipped out her credit card and wished me a merry Christmas a month early.

At home, I immediately plugged in the batteries to charge and then last night we went for a walk to give them their first test. One thing I noticed immediately, as I had suspected might be the case, was that the battery in the gauntlet sits right on top of my wristwatch. For comfort I figure I’ll need to take the watch off when I wear the gloves. No big deal.

The controls work very easily. You plug the batteries in and insert them into the pouches on the gloves. Through a mesh window you can see the setting, so you push the Power button and then keep pressing it until it gets to the heat level you desire. What Gerbing says is that at 100 percent power the batteries should last you 2 hours. At 75 percent you should get 3 hours, at 50 percent 5 hours, and at 25 percent 10 hours.

I figure in the winter I’m not likely to be riding longer than 5 hours so 50 percent should do me well. On our walk they were set at 25 percent and though it was pretty cold, my hands stayed warm. Nice.

So we’ll see. Of course I want to take a ride and give them a real test as soon as possible, but Sunday was a warm day, in the 60s, so that didn’t seem like a good test. I’m sure we’ll have plenty of cold weather soon enough. Of course I’ll report the results here. Stay tuned.

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Biker Quote for Today

I say, there’s no such thing as a bad day’s riding. — metaljockey

Gerbing offers battery-powered heated gloves.

My wife, Judy, was reading this blog and told me last night that I had better not go running out and buy heated gloves because that would ruin her plans for a Christmas gift. Then she thought a moment and said that actually, she probably ought to do some of her Christmas shopping early, before Gerbing realizes they lowered the price on their gloves to meet the competition, while the competition raised their price. I think I’m going to have warm hands when I ride this winter.

I also heard from my friend, Dan Leffert, in regard to his experience with heated grips and heated gloves, and I figured I would pass that along. Here’s what Dan had to say.

I have Gerbing heated gloves and I have heated grips on both bikes. On the Harley, with a full fairing, heated grips are enough down to about 40-45*. Heated gloves are much more comfortable below that for any extended riding (more than about an hour, not the Iron Butt stuff). But I hear ya about what a PITA all the cords are!

Riding the BMW 650 with OEM hand guards, grips are enough for me for rides less than an hour and only down to about 45-50*.

I just bought a pair of ridiculously expensive Lee Parks Design heavier weight gloves that have some magical insulation that changes phases and is supposed to be good in both heat and cold, and to work better with heated grips. I’ve worn them in 80* temps and switched back to my summer weights, while the jury is still out on the lower limits since it really hasn’t gotten that cold, yet. I have worn them in temps in the higher 30s and they’ve been fine, just haven’t done lengthy rides in those temps.

So there you go. Hey, why have cold hands when you can have warm hands? I look forward to sharing my experience with all of you.

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Biker Quote for Today

Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.

Mobile Warming's website showing the LTD Max gloves.

I’ve had my eye on getting some battery-powered heated gloves for winter riding, and I thought the time had come, but things do change.

I am specifically interested in battery-powered gloves because I tested a pair awhile back that had cords plugging into the bike and those cords were a pain in the butt. I know some companies make heated jackets where you can just plug the gloves into the sleeves of the jacket, but that means you need to buy the jacket, too. Now we’re talking expense.

So last winter I ran across this company called Mobile Warming and they were new in the market with battery-powered gloves that were much cheaper than their main competitor, Gerbing. I decided to ask them to send me a pair to test and review, and I added what I figured was a sure-fire selling point, I said “If I really like them I’ll buy them.” The woman I reached replied that she’d love take me up on that, but late in the season as it was, they were all out of stock. Get back in touch in the fall, she said.

So OK, I got back in touch with her recently and this time she said she can’t handle this, I need to contact someone else. Now I don’t know about you, but when someone offers me an opportunity to sell a product and generate some significant favorable publicity, I would tend to do what I could to bend the rules a little to make it happen. Oh well.

Then, I don’t recall how this came about, I checked their website again and found that they have raised the price of the gloves substantially. Checking Gerbing’s site I also found that they–perhaps in response to competition–have lowered their price substantially such that the two have completely shifted positions. Gerbing now sells for what Mobile Warming was asking while Mobile Warming is now selling for what Gerbing used to cost. Obviously, if I’m going to buy I’m going to be interested in the Gerbings.

But there is a third option, though it’s not as good an option. My friend Jungle recommended getting some Aerostich Warm Wrap Grips, which are pads that wrap around the grips and connect to the bike. One huge difference is the price. They only cost $45, whereas the Gerbing gloves are $200 and the Mobile Warming gloves are $270. Heating the grips instead of my hands would mean no fuss with the wires once they were installed on the bike. And at that price I could get the wraps for both my bikes and still pay less than for either pair of gloves.

The disadvantages would be that the heat would only be on the palm side of my hands, and I would not be able to walk around with warm hands as I would with battery-powered gloves. I mean, I figure that with battery-powered gloves I could take the dog for a walk in the dead of winter and keep my hands warm. That’s part of the appeal.

So I don’t know. I do intend to do something, I’m just not sure yet what. But one thing for sure is that I won’t be buying the gloves from Mobile Warming. They had their chance and blew it.

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Biker Quote for Today

There’s no adventure in turning around. — Shoganai

The following is a guest post provided by ProTool Warehouse.

Using the correct tools helps ensure your bike is safe.

When discussing motorcycle safety, we usually only think about riding gear. There is another aspect of motorcycle safety that isn’t thought of as often though, and that is to make sure that you use the right tools when repairing your motorcycle. This is a very important part of motorcycle safety that when done correctly can help to prevent mechanical failures that could lead to an accident that could have easily been avoided. This article will touch on some of the most basic points to ensuring that you are using the correct tools to do the job.

Be Prepared for the Job Before Starting

To start, you want to make sure that your area is uncluttered and it helps to have the tools that you will need for the job set out beforehand. If you are unsure about which tools to use, you can always check with your repair manual, or find a guide online. Also, you will want to make sure that you have your motorcycle sitting safely upright, using a motorcycle wheel chock stand. If you don’t have one you can find them easily on the internet for under $200. Just make sure that you have the motorcycle locked firmly so as to avoid a tip-over when using force to remove a part or tightening and loosening nuts and bolts.

Use the Correct Sized Wrench

When using wrenches, make sure that the part of your engine that you will be working on is clean and free of oil. There have been many sore knuckles as a result of the wrench slipping off the bolt. And make sure that you always use the right size wrench that the job calls for. If it is a metric bolt head, it would be best not to substitute it with a standard sized wrench because it’s possible to strip the head of the bolt, leaving it looser than is required; not to mention that it would make the bolt harder to remove in the future.

The Benefits of Using a Torque

Speaking of tightening, it’s best to use a torque wrench when tightening nuts or bolts on your motorcycle. Your repair manual should give you the specifications of each nut and bolt. This is important because engine vibration can cause bolts to loosen if they aren’t tight enough to withstand the vibrations. If you can’t find the torque specifications in your manual, you can always call your local shop. They will be glad to help you.

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Biker Quote for Today

I always pack the bungee net. You never know when you might pick up something that needs to be strapped down.