FJRiders.com

Riding in the rain the other day I was reminded I don’t have any decent rain gloves. Gas station had disposable gloves at the pump so as not to get gasoline on one’s hands when dispensing self-serve gasoline. They didn’t last long.

40+ miles later my Fly lightweight dirtbike gloves were as wet as if I had held my hands under water.

escapefjrtist wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:30 pm

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:30 pm Ordered some new three season gloves (fall, winter, spring) from Racer, to replace the maggot infested gloves.

Next on the list: new warm and safe glove liners and a cap to replace the ill-fated FJRiders cap.

Wish you'd have said something Wheatie. I have a brand new set of Racer Eska Gore Tex Pilot GTX. Followed their charts, Size L but slightly too small for me. Stupidly I stripped the tags off before I was sure they would work. Couldn't return them. Beautiful gloves, just a tad too small...

~G

I appreciate the thought George, but my hands are small - good for violin-bad for palming a basketball...so even mediums would be too big.

I have one of those.

extrememarine wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:45 pm All you need is one of these, and that tumbler will always be within reach...

bill lumberg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 01, 2022 2:24 pm Rode it to work in the dark, with the flamethrowers on.

Got home and put this on it. It was way easier to put on the bike than the clearwaters:

Every year when it turns cold, I’m surprised, like an idiot, at all the awesome stuff I have to keep warm. Stuff I forgot I bought since I haven’t seen it all summer.

Ken Phenix gloves and my TLTec windblocker jacket are huge game changers when it’s cold.

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:18 pm

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:10 pm

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 1:47 pm She goes, "wow, that's a lot for gloves." I go, "how much did that last ER visit and surgery run?" She turns and walks away murmuring.

Oh man, that's some dangerous territory to tread into right there and requires some careful skilled navigation. So many ways that particular conversation can go very wrong. I've been married a long time and I'm not sure I would trust myself to navigate those waters.

I guess I'm a thrill seeker and love the adrenalin rush!

Back on topic...punched the warm n safe glove liner button, so my hands shall be toasty if needed...like at EOM. I heard it gets cold up north. Sometimes.

Nah, that would be surprised, like a forgetful oldtimer. Surprised, like an idiot, would be if you forgot to replace the gear so you had nadda to keep yourself warm. I'd rather be a forgetful oldtimer than an idiot.

bill lumberg wrote: ↑Wed Aug 03, 2022 1:15 pm Every year when it turns cold, I’m surprised, like an idiot, at all the awesome stuff I have to keep warm. Stuff I forgot I bought since I haven’t seen it all summer.

Ken Phenix gloves and my TLTec windblocker jacket are huge game changers when it’s cold.

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:18 pm

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Tue Aug 02, 2022 3:10 pm
Oh man, that's some dangerous territory to tread into right there and requires some careful skilled navigation. So many ways that particular conversation can go very wrong. I've been married a long time and I'm not sure I would trust myself to navigate those waters.

I guess I'm a thrill seeker and love the adrenalin rush!

Back on topic...punched the warm n safe glove liner button, so my hands shall be toasty if needed...like at EOM. I heard it gets cold up north. Sometimes.

Decided to solo ride the loop that I crashed on in 2019...kind of a getting rid of that ghost thing. Forecast was for scattered thunderstorms... which is pretty typical in the summertime here. Awesome riding, vacant roads due to weather, and temperatures perfect with the cloudy skies, cool down drafts and water cooling when the rains did arrive... which happened three times, but for not very long, considering.

178/215 to BRP , 276 to Canton, then north to a squiggly road to Hot Springs, another squiggly road to Erwin, 19W past the crash site, 226 to Bakersville, then a double helping out and back on Roan Mtn and Mr. Del McCoury's Highway. Took a break at Erwin and at Bakersville. Sky turned ominous during my snack/coffee break. No matter...I can ride in that and will enjoy the cool shower. Of course, I am a rain pussy, and slow way down, but on Rt 80 SB, I came upon a group of 4 Canajuns with Ontario plates. 3 adventure bikes and a cruiser. As hard as it was coming down, I don't blame them for taking it slow...but as slow as they were going, it was obviously their first time on Rt 80. I felt bad for them...here they planned this trip, were on this REALLY twisty road, and it was literally raining buckets on them. I could almost hear them thinking "f@$k me!" as I passed each one of them.

Awesome primo 375 miles, 70s and low 80s in a South Carolina August day is worth celebrating. Yeah, I didn't set any speed records today, but I enjoyed every single mile.


Stopped at BRP to clean the shield of big bug splatter. Took a few picherz...









Its a great day to be alive and ride an FJR.

Rode it to the park for a run, then to the base of a major elevation hike. Put a couple of nice reflective decals on the topcase from 3Decals. Nothing nearly as panoramic as Wheaton’s ride.

Rode with the boy. We don't have as many chances to ride together as we would like. Just a few hours this morning. Chatting on the comms about stuff. Teaching him 178/215. Riding the cool hours on an empty BRP. Talking about our friend - who he met when he rode a certain "Lucky" 13 to me.

Thank God he looks like his mother! Or the mailman....

Short ride to a "celebration of life " for a former coworker and friend.

A few days late to report, but rode it on a nice 450 mile loop into WV and back. Ran over to Cass and Snowshoe, to Marlington for lunch.

Forecast for almost 100 degrees at home, dropped to a cool 69 degrees in the mountains. Riding was spectacular. Not sure where everyone was, but we had a great day of riding.

Then a quick shower, riding in the rain for a 1/2 hour or so, and back to sunshine. Rain gear taken this time Great day of riding.

Had the tank off to re-route some accessory wiring and decided to really spend some time cleaning up under the hood. I always believed that I had one of the updated CCTs, but now that its all cleaned up I can see that I don't. Looks like I've found myself a winter project!

Festus wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 7:40 am Forecast for almost 100 degrees at home, dropped to a cool 69 degrees in the mountains. Riding was spectacular. Not sure where everyone was, but we had a great day of riding.

There's lots of places where people will comment to me "It gets hot here too, we see almost 100 degrees" but the difference is you can ride a little bit and find 69 degrees. Only places I can ride to that are close to 69 degrees are indoors and it's not even that cold in there unless it's a walk in freezer. Yea, I'm jealous. I'm totally ready for September 15.

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:58 am

Festus wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 7:40 am Forecast for almost 100 degrees at home, dropped to a cool 69 degrees in the mountains. Riding was spectacular. Not sure where everyone was, but we had a great day of riding.

There's lots of places where people will comment to me "It gets hot here too, we see almost 100 degrees" but the difference is you can ride a little bit and find 69 degrees. Only places I can ride to that are close to 69 degrees are indoors and it's not even that cold in there unless it's a walk in freezer. Yea, I'm jealous. I'm totally ready for September 15.

Same for me when I lived in Florida.
Highest altitude I could get to on a day ride was 342 feet.

danh600 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:47 am

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:58 am

Festus wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 7:40 am Forecast for almost 100 degrees at home, dropped to a cool 69 degrees in the mountains. Riding was spectacular. Not sure where everyone was, but we had a great day of riding.

There's lots of places where people will comment to me "It gets hot here too, we see almost 100 degrees" but the difference is you can ride a little bit and find 69 degrees. Only places I can ride to that are close to 69 degrees are indoors and it's not even that cold in there unless it's a walk in freezer. Yea, I'm jealous. I'm totally ready for September 15.

Same for me when I lived in Florida.
Highest altitude I could get to on a day ride was 342 feet.

Yeah, it gets up to 6000+ft in your state now.

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:50 am

danh600 wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 9:47 am

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 8:58 am

There's lots of places where people will comment to me "It gets hot here too, we see almost 100 degrees" but the difference is you can ride a little bit and find 69 degrees. Only places I can ride to that are close to 69 degrees are indoors and it's not even that cold in there unless it's a walk in freezer. Yea, I'm jealous. I'm totally ready for September 15.

Same for me when I lived in Florida.
Highest altitude I could get to on a day ride was 342 feet.

Yeah, it gets up to 6000+ft in your state now.

I mean, not to brag but in Texas it gets up to 8,751 feet. I'd just have to endure 110F temps for over 8 hours to get there.
Still at 5400' in the nearby town of Pine Springs it'll be 88F today, which is chilly by our summer standards.

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:20 am I mean, not to brag but in Texas it gets up to 8,751 feet. I'd just have to endure 110F temps for over 8 hours to get there.
Still at 5400' in the nearby town of Pine Springs it'll be 88F today, which is chilly by our summer standards.

Hey, we understand that being a Texan means braggart, so no need for the preamble. Still...you must love the place, otherwise why would you live there...right? My condolences on your annual summer.

Hey, it gets up to 5400ft in elevation in Nebraska. Still hot as hell. But that 5400 feet along the Blue Ridge Parkway feels might fine this time of year. Yes sir, mighty fine.

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:41 am Still...you must love the place, otherwise why would you live there...right? My condolences on your annual summer.

I'm married and my wife's family is all here, thus I'm stuck. Gotta play by the rules, but she lets me ride off and play in far away places so there's that.

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:22 pm my wife's family is all here, thus I'm stuck.

Just get them all riding motorcycles, they'll all want to move together

EOM is just over 4 weeks away...

gixxerjasen wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:22 pm

wheatonFJR wrote: ↑Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:41 am Still...you must love the place, otherwise why would you live there...right? My condolences on your annual summer.

I'm married and my wife's family is all here, thus I'm stuck. Gotta play by the rules, but she lets me ride off and play in far away places so there's that.