Friday, January 29, 2010

Winter Commuting – January 29

ural in -5F

It was –5F this morning which seemed colder than –10F from a few weeks ago. I thought I was getting wimpy until I noticed my heated vest wasn’t on. I stopped by the sign above to get the photo and check the cabling on my vest. When I looked down I saw this:

broken heated vest cable

With my left glove still not working and now no heated vest, it was a cold ride. I pulled over a couple times to warm up my hand.

With some spare electrical tape and my knife, I managed to fix the cable for the ride home. On the way home it was 10F, so I took the extra long scenic route past a number of different lakes. The stops gave me plenty of opportunity to warm up my hand. At the Lake Como stop in St. Paul I took this:

ural at lake como

I noticed a wall near one of the lakes and took this one:

shadow

With a little help from picnik, I touched it up to the version below.

picnik shadow

5 comments:

  1. I've yet to use the electric vest, even during the cold snap we had a while back when we had the kind of temperatures you guys get in winter.

    I love my heated grips, until they fail, then it's laying of the gloved hands on the Ural's jugs when its safe to keep them from freezing....

    I've hooked up my heated grips to my main battery now, so I'll be able to monitor their drain on the battery's voltage.

    Riding in the snow is pretty "cool" though isn't it? : )

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  2. bro.... you are... nutz! -5 !!!! hahah.. its 31F in my garage until I turn the little heater on and I have to let it warm up a bit before I go out and even work! on the bike.. ! Love your passion man.. I need heated riding gear!

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  3. Charlie6: Yes, riding is winter is "cool" :)
    I have heated grips on my SV650 and I REALLY like them. I was asking myself yesterday why haven't I installed some on the Ural yet...

    Bash3r: Thanks. My garage is about the same. I'd suggest Gerbing over Tourmaster for heated gear.

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  4. Both versions of your shadow are quite nice.

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