Passes & Canyons Blog

At least the top of Monarch Pass, in the middle of the day, was warmer than Red Mountain Pass in the early morning.

I was discussing gloves last week and made the point at one spot that with my heated gloves I need never ride with freezing hands again–as long as I actually have the gloves with me. Which is a pretty significant if. You can have the best riding gear in the world but if you don’t wear it or take it with you it’s of absolutely no good.

I had a perfect example of that on the Colorado Cruise when we needed to leave Ouray early to get over Red Mountain Pass before it was closed for construction work. I had not anticipated riding is really cold weather so of course my heated gloves were sitting–uselessly–at home.

We went up over the pass and down to Silverton, where we stopped for gas and for breakfast. My hands were so cold it took several minutes warming them up before I could undo the latches on my tank bag so I could get to the gas cap, and then it took more warming before I could manipulate the key in the gas cap to open the tank.

Was I so fully loaded on this trip that it would have been an issue sticking the gloves in a bag somewhere? Oh heck no. I was on the V-Strom and besides the tank bag and top bag it has two huge Givi sidebags that are so big that even when I go on longer trips I never fill them more than half full. No, it was just stupidity.

This is a recurring theme with me. On this same trip I wore one of my mesh jackets because, you know, it was still summer, right? Mesh is for summer and leather is for winter. It was still summer. OK, but even mesh jackets have liners you can put in or take out. And it’s not like they take up a lot of space.

So I wore the mesh. Did I take the liner? No. Did I seriously regret this as we repeatedly went over passes where the temperatures were really low? You bet. Did I feel really stupid? You bet. At least in this case I finally figured out on the last day that I should just put on my rain jacket and that would provide the wind-blocking function the liner otherwise would have.

Of course I can’t count the number of times I have gone out on just day rides and figured, oh, it’s plenty warm, I don’t need to take a sweatshirt or my electric vest. And then found it much too cool for comfort but there I was out there and there was my warm clothing sitting at home. Just put the darn thing in the side bag. If you don’t need to pull it out there’s no harm done. It’s not like it weighs 50 pounds and you’re carrying it on your back as you walk across the desert.

It does work the other way. Just the other day I was out riding and out of an overabundance of caution I bundled up. And I roasted! But you know what? I stopped and took over the unneeded layers. How hard is that?

The bottom line is, I have a lot of really good gear. I’m prepared for pretty much anything. Nevertheless, I continue to find myself in situations where what I really need is sitting at home. Some people are hopeless and sometimes I have to think I’m one of them.

Biker Quote for Today

I would love to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle… But I can’t afford all the shirts.

Who knew this was a totally non-standard plug?

I talked about needing a battery cord to be able to use my electric vest on my sorta new Suzuki V-Strom; it was a beautiful weekend, let’s go shopping.

Sure, I could have called and asked, “Hey, do you have a Widder cord for an electric vest?” but that would have been cheating. I’ll just ride over and see.

So I went to BMW of Denver, knowing that they have sold Widder equipment in the past. Heck, I’ve bought Widder gear there in the past.

I also know, however, that Widder went out of business some years ago, but someone else has picked up their line. Surely they’ll have it in stock.

Wrong.

I also checked out Grand Prix Motorsports because they have a large inventory and I knew they carried electrics. Nope. Nobody carries that stuff any more.

My fall-back position was to go to Radio Shack and get the individual pieces and make my own cord. Surely this plug that Widder used (see photo above) is a standard item. And gosh, I’ll probably save money doing it this way anyway.

Wrong. The guy at Radio Shack had never seen a plug like that, and it certainly wasn’t standard.

Hey, at least I was out riding on a gorgeous day in November.

But I still need that cord. What to do?

Oh yeah, there’s this thing called the Internet. Seek and ye shall find. It turns out I was right about someone having picked up the Widder line, but who do you suppose that would be? Would you have guessed the Iron Butt Association? Yes, indeed. They sell everything you’ll need to keep your Widder gear operational through their IBA eStore.

And you know what else? I apparently knew this at one time–like probably the last time I needed something–because when I registered I got a message saying this email address was already registered; did I need them to send me my password? Yeah, I guess so.

So fine. The cord, this pig-tail thing that connects to the battery posts and then plugs into the cord going to the vest, is on its way. Maybe next time I’ll remember. But hey, I got out and did some riding on a wonderful fall day. Who can argue with that?

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Biker Quote for Today

The adventure is in the rider, not the bike.