The first half of my ride home from Georgia was great. I was moving along at a good clip, and the sun was bright and shining.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Fayetteville seems to be the tipping point for bad motorcycle weather. On my trip down, my route south of Fayetteville was completely covered by rain. I guess the northern part of my return trip got jealous and wanted to get in on the “fun.”

It rained non-stop, and hard, all the way home. It wasn’t as bad as my trip down, but it was a soaking rain. Paranoid (and hopefully wiser) from my gear problems on the way down, I adjusted my waterproofing strategy slightly.
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As mentioned earlier, I spent four days on a motorcycle trip to see two of my friends outside of Savannah, Georgia. It’s almost five hundred highway miles, which winds up being between eight to nine hours depending on traffic, weather conditions, and the bike I’m on. My best time was on my first trip on my FZ6 because I had great weather and a very comfortable saddle.

This time I took Raider, my BMW R1150R. In theory, it should have been the best of both of my trips: the comfort of my old K1200LTE touring bike, and the mobility of Cylon. Thanks to the weather and an extremely hard seat, it was really the worst of both worlds.

But I still had a kick ass time. ;)
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Yesterday I rode Raider, my BMW R1150R down to Savannah, Georgia to hang out with some friends of mine. I took I-95 for most of the way. Eventually I will take a less-traveled route and enjoy myself, but I like making this trip all in one day.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how courteous cars are on the highway. I think it’s because the majority of drivers this time of year are elderly snowbirds, driving south for the winter. They tend to stick to the right hand lane, and I pass them with ease. Every once in awhile, though, you get an asshole behind the wheel.
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I was supposed to go visit my family up in Syracuse, NY this weekend. I was going to ride Raider up there and then putter around with my stepfather. I quickly encountered two monkey wrenches.

1) The bike my dad owned does not have a state inspection. Neither does Raider, but he won’t ride without a 100% legal bike. So a paired ride is out of the picture.

2) It is supposed to rain the entire time I am there. The thing about Syracuse is that the temperature could drop at any time. I’d go from rain to snow in a hurry. Who wants to be caught in that?

So, tell me what you’d choose:
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Almost four months ago, I was killing time in a coffee shop in California. I was visiting family and had a PT Cruiser rental car instead of my motorcycles, and I was missing my two-wheeled friends badly. I made up for it by reading motorcycle gear reviews, and found read Web Bike World’s review of the Rev’It Cayenne Pro textile jacket and pants. I wanted it.

At the same time, my friend Fish Sprout was researching Motoport’s kevlar textile gear, mostly because her friend owned a set. The Cayenne Pro, despite ingenious venting options, was still a three-season jacket. Motoport owners reported wearing the jacket in temperatures from the 30s to 120s. The lure of a strong, four-season textile suit that wouldn’t melt to your skin like most mesh led me to order jacket and pants from Motoport in late June.

It was a huge mistake. For a product promising a “custom” fit, my Motoport jacket was put together for someone who weighed an extra twenty or thirty pounds. I sent it back twice for alterations, and am still in the process of getting my money back.

Cold temperatures were fast approaching, and I hadn’t solved the problem of a weather-resilient jacket that would hold up well in a crash. My Tourmaster Transition 2 jacket fit well and had nice features, but claims of the jacket disintegrating in crashes as slow as 25MPH made me nervous.

I bit the bullet, and bought the jacket from Beach Moto, run by a member of the ADVrider.com community. Dennis, the owner, was everything Motoport wasn’t, and should have been — responsive, personable, professional, and efficient. Did I mention that dealing with Beach Moto was easy and didn’t make me feel like an idiot? Motoport, take notice.

However, I’m getting ahead of myself. On to the jacket.
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With the American economy in a supposed state of free-fall, I’m trying to limit myself to one stupid purchase per pay period. Yeah, I know, challenge, but let’s assume I stay strong and abide by it.

This pay period’s contenders:

Tour Master Synergy heated jacket
About $200
I ride just about year ’round, and I may be going up to New York state later this month. It’s already in the 30 - 50 degree range up there, and my mother said they’ve had their first “big” frost this year. That means it’s already colder than most days here in Virginia.

The Synergy jacket (with adapter, about $12) will plug right into the auxiliary outlet on my BMW R1150R. I won’t have to do any wiring, and the jacket gets great reviews on sites like Web Bike World (see their review of the Synergy heated vest).

Cardo Scala Q2 Multiset Bluetooth motorcycle headset
About $300
Most times I ride alone, but some times I ride 2UP (with passenger), or with a buddy, like Donut. For times when I am riding with others, it would be nice to be able to communicate with them aside from frantically pinwheeling my arms at 80MPH. I could listen to music, get directions from a GPS, or make a mobile phone call without removing my helmet when riding solo.

The Cardo Scala Q2 Multiset has a pair of these guys in it, and features incremental improvements over the Q2 headset available singly. The Multiset version has a direct jack for an audio device and a longer microphone boom. The former allows for easier connectivity, the latter allows for better mic positioning.

So, what would you buy if you were in my shoes? Staying warm, or staying connected? Keep in mind I have a very capable winter riding jacket (Rev’It Cayenne Pro), the heated jacket would be used for extended rides in lower temperatures.

Mimicking the success of last winter, I hoped to log another 3000 miles on my motorcycle Cylon before April of 2007. Due to bad weather grounding opportunities to motor to DC and the fear of reoccuring exposure on my foot suffered during 2005 I barely managed 1800 miles during my “winter miles” challenge of 2006/2007.

The bright, shining spot amidst my failure was my motorcycle trip to Tybee Island, Georgia in March. A thousand of my winter miles were accumulated on this trip. Thanks to some thick SmartWool snowboarding socks my feet stayed nice and warm, even when the temperature was down to 10°F.

Now that it’s warming up, I’ve been taking Cylon out for more “fun” rides of an hour or less like I did or last year. It’s amazing to see all the construction along the semi-rural routes I found. I will continue to strike out and find new roads to play on, and hopefully I will join my stepfather on a mid-distance trip later this year before it gets too hot. Winter miles may have been a failure, but I’m not hanging up my leathers just yet.

Final 2007 winter miles: 1876.

When I was sixteen or seventeen, it was a big deal when my father let me drive his truck. I was visiting him in Oklahoma and he sat in the passenger seat while we rumbled around in his big red Ford F-150. I had just come to the “big road” in town (two lanes each way), and a county police officer drove past me, coming the other way. I did the “Oklahoma wave:” left hand atop the steering wheel at the 12 o’clock position, lifting my first three fingers. The officer rolled by, without so much as a nod. I was at a loss. What was this guy’s problem? “You might want to wait until you’re a little older to do that,” my father said, “most folks your age only wave to cops with one finger.”

And so it came to pass that I did not wave to a law enforcement officer in traffic for almost sixteen years. Until today, that is.
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My struggle with frostbite/exposure from riding last year has been well documented on Gibberish (here, here, and here, chronologically). Despite trying to put together better cold-weather gear, such as better fitting boots, thicker Cool-max socks, and heated hand grips, once bitten, twice shy. I’ve ridden a lot less this season.

With my trip to Tybee Island, Georgia looming, I was desperate to get something to protect my feet. I had read positive things about SmartWool around the Web and was willing to give their custom Merino wool and synthetic fiber blend a try. I ordered a pair of SmartWool snowboard socks from Sierra Trading Post and hoped that they were all the same size this time. Like always, my order was processed quickly and my socks arrived within a few days of ordering. Sierra Trading Post has really good turnaround.
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Lady Jaye and I are both sick today, so I’m going to post up some pictures that other folks took during my trip to Tybee Island, Georgia. These pictures are all courtesy of bc from Ars Technica.
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