Another holiday lights ride

This was a shot ride, so much to do before I leave next week. Just to the tree and back, next suburb over.



I got to the tree too early, it wasn't dark enough yet, so I had to waste some time



My new key chain for the ST3

Holiday lights day ride

I haven’t ridden the 954RR since November 5th. Been so busy breaking in the XT lately and there is only so many weekends and so many good weather days in November and December in Chicagoland not to mention, I was in Germany for a week.

And I’ve been so busy planning my Texas trip lately that I haven’t even gotten the trickle chargers out yet, the 954RR has been sitting over a month with so many nights in the single digits last two weeks I was worried the battery would be dead. The garage is only like 5 degrees warmer than outside temps. But it started right up, it’s the new battery I got this Spring.

I only had a few hours to ride today, so I decided to stay near the burbs and search for more holidays lights. This heat wave continues here, it was 49 degrees when I left the house and I way over dressed. I was a bit warm at times, with the balaclava on and my Widder vest, which I didn’t need to turn on at all. I thought it would be cooler on the outskirt of town, but it wasn’t.
The day was so dreary even though the warmer temperatures. The clouds were hanging low and it even sprinkled on me a bit, the roads were wet in places from the melting snow and from the moisture in the air.



Even though we’ve had a whole week of above average temperatures, there is still a lot of snow around that hasn’t melted.

I took a ride though one of my favorite towns of St. Charles but their holiday lights weren’t on in the day time, so I headed down to Geneva.

I didn’t find any cool lights in Geneva, there was a tree in the middle of town but I couldn’t get my bike close enough to it for pictures and it was too busy in town to even stop and linger, I don’t like crowds. I did pass this weird sculpture on RT38 that appeared to look like a moose… a moose in Chicagoland? I had to turn around to investigate.

I really love art, especially really cool outside sculptures. This moose was made from all kinds of bicycle parts.





It was getting darker now, I stopped by Fox River for a look-see.



And on the way home I stopped by the same tree I photographed a few nights ago. It was big, bright and totally secluded. Decided to take some more pictures. The air was very misty now and so was the pavement, although the temperatures have climbed to 51 degrees now. When I got home it was warmer than when I left.

XT hand guards & break in service

With the weather cooperating and my departure for Texas only a week away, I needed to get the XT in for break in service, it has 640 miles on the odometer now. It was 40 degrees this morning when I headed out to the Yamaha/Honda dealer 18 miles away from home. It was a bit windy and overcast but not too bad for mid December.



Posing with the XT and new MSR hand guards

Before I left for the dealership I look some pictures of my new MSR Dflector hand guards http://www.msrhp.com/. The install was done on Monday with the help of a friend, mostly because I don’t own a dremel tool.

It was straight forward install, had to move some wires out of the way, and on the throttle side the throttle plastic has to be shortened in order to clear the metal mounting. Having bar ends on these bikes would eliminate the need to cut the throttle end and cut the grip, this would make it so much easier. From all the research I’ve done on-line on installing hand guards, most people mount theirs this way. It’s not esthetically pleasing but it’s quick and easy. An option to move the whole throttle housing a bit inward was presented on the hand guard packaging, but we stripped the screw holding it in place so we couldn't move it.

Why did I choose the MSR hand guards? No real reason, I liked the way they looked, with the metal deflector part wrapped around the outside. I’m actually not sure if that’s a better design, it might save the plastic shields in crashes/falls, or maybe not. I’ll have to see. I wanted large plastic hand guard shields to keep my hands warm in the cold weather and these covered a large area, but not too large for the little XT.

I’m actually a bit upset with MSR and not sure I’ll buy any more hand guards from them, I also won’t shop on-line anymore at the place I bought these from. The metal deflectors didn’t come with pre-drilled holes, which I thought was weird, since I ordered a set, the metal and plastic parts together. But the metal had no holes on the on the website picture either. And no where did it say t drill the holes in the metal, I guess you can use the metal Dflector without the plastic hand guards so if you want to use the plastic guards you drill the holes for them. That’s fine, but my vendor kept saying that the holes should have been pre-drilled for this model that I bought, and I could not get in touch with MSR or Tucker Rocky. Sorry, but I don’t want to deal with any manufacturing company that I can’t reach by phone and ask questions. My vendor didn’t seem to know much about the product and neither did his rep.

I was pressed for time, didn’t want to return this set and buy a new set, and since I have access to a machine shop along with a machinist, I asked for a favor, to have the metal Dflectors drilled for me. The holes had to be threaded. After it was all done, he said it was a pain, especially drilling the curved part, and especially since the holes didn’t go all the way through. Does MSR really expect consumers to do this at home? I wish I could ask but they don‘t post their phone number anywhere.

I’ll try these out and see what happens. I really do like the way they look on the bike.

I also got after market Spider Grips http://www.spidergrips.com/ much thicker then the stock grips the XT came with. And it was an open end design so I didn’t have to make a hole for the Dflector end.



Outside left



Outside right



Inside left



Inside right



Inside right showing the trimmed throttle and grip end

Holiday lights night ride

Can you believe this amazing weather we’re having? It was in the upper 40’s yesterday, but I didn’t get to ride, too busy working late trying to wrap up some projects. But today it was supposed to be 50 degrees, I wasn’t planning on working too late so I made sure to ride the bike to work hoping for a nice lunch ride.

Unfortunately my lunch ride got rained out. I was kind of bummed out when the sun came out at 3:30PM just in time to set. And then when I left work after 7PM the roads were all wet, so it had rained again, but it was warm, still in the upper to mid 40’s. Regular high temperature for this time of the year is 35, so this indeed was a heat wave.



My lonely XT225 at work in the parking lot

This was my first ride on knobby tires on wet pavement, the bike did squirm around on the wet pavement a bit but nothing that bad, although I was only going about 35MPH.

Also, this was my first ride with the MSR Dominator deflectors, and I could tell the difference right way, less wind hitting my hands, although it wasn’t that cold today, I’d really like to try it out when it’s colder.



In search of adventure in the western suburbs

The night was so pleasant, that I decided to ride around and look for cool Christmas lights to photograph my bike with. It’s not very often that I get to ride around on my bike at night at Christmas time.

First snow ride on the XT225

Today’s temperature was in the high 30’s. I wanted to ride, I wanted to try out my new BMW Santiago boots and my new MotoGP textile pants. I got home late from the party last night so I woke up late today, and even though the temperatures were warmer today, it was cloudy and nothing was melting.

At noon I couldn’t take it any more. I grabbed a shovel and I went in the driveway to see if I could clear a path just so my bike could reach the street. The ice was hard in some places so I ran some hot water on the ice to soften it, so I could break it away easier. After about 1.5 hours I had a path.



Chunks of snow and ice cleared from the driveway so I could ride today

I got geared up but I couldn’t start the XT. It turned over but wouldn’t stay running. I’ve read posts on message boards about people having problems with cold starts after the bike sits for a while. I haven’t ran the bike since Thanksgiving weekend and it’s been very cold in the garage. After about 15 attempts, it cranked over and stayed running. I was off.



Getting ready to take off



Most of the main roads were dry, but I did find some small residential streets that were not plowed really good and there was still some snow on the road.



My favorite gravel parking lot where I practice off roading, check out the snow piles.



Only half of the parking was paved, so I got my first opportunity to ride a bike on snow. Shallow snow wasn’t a big deal, but I did run into ice under snow that made my back wheel spin out and then I got stuck in some deep snow. My back wheel kept digging in deeper so I decided to get off the bike and push it out.



So you could say my first snow experience was fun and I’ll be back for more. I just have to install my brush guards to keep my hands warm.

My MotoGP Overpants kept me warm, the zip-in quilted liner worked fine, I didn’t have any other layers underneath even, although upper 30’s isn’t even that cold. I rode though some big puddles too, the pants are waterproof. I originally ordered size 4 of these pants since I usually wear size 3 in jeans, but since these pants go in to the boots, with the puffy zip-in liner, I couldn’t zip the pants all the way down around my ankles, they were too narrow, so I had to return the size 4 and got size 6. I haven’t tried these pants on yet without the liner, but I’d imagine that they might be a bit loose, they fit perfect with the liner.

The BMW Santiago boots are comfortable although the soles are noticeably made of harder rubber than my ST boots. Also waterproof, as I tested them out in some puddles. This is the gear I’m taking on my Texas trip in two weeks. Although I was out riding for only 2 hours and I went only about 30 miles, I’m pretty sure this gear will work fine. Not sure if I’ll get another opportunity to try it out before my trip. I leave in 12 days.



Back home in my driveway

New boots and icy driveway

Last weekend we got a foot of snow. Usually, when it snows this early in the year, it melts rights away. But not this time, the temperatures fell and everything froze, many nights last week it was only in the single digits and some of the days the high temperature was in the teens or low 20's in the daytime. The snow in the driveway got packed in to ice.

Today was one of the warmer days all week, low 30’s but the driveway was all thick ice. At noon nothing was melting even though the sun was out.



I was bummed, I wanted to ride but with the company holiday party this evening, I needed to get some stuff done and start getting ready. I was hoping some of the stuff would melt today so I could tomorrow.



But when I got home from the party, this is how the driveway looked. Same as before.

On the bright side, my BMW Santiago boots arrived today, they fit great, I love them and I can’t wait to try them out.

Dual-Sport boots for small feet

Getting good motorcycle gear is not easy for a 5’5” woman, although in the last few years there has been more gear available in smaller sizes then ever before as more women get in to motorcycling. All the sudden I don’t have to look really hard for good gear, there are many choices and woman’s gear no longer is a stripped down version of the men’s gear. But that’s for street riding.

Off road riding is a whole different game. Plenty of boots for motocross for women, but not Dual Sport riding. I had no idea that getting Dual Sport boots for my size US 7 Euro 38 foot would be so difficult. A lot of Dual Sport boots just didn’t come in small sizes. I only found a hand full of boots that would fit me.

My first boot order was in the beginning of October, I wanted a pair of boots dedicated to riding my dual sport, because I didn’t want to get my sport touring boots all muddy and dirty plus I wanted taller boots, with more ankle protection and a stiffer sole for standing on pegs.

I ordered a pair of Sidi Canyon Sypatex, but my size was on back order and after 4 weeks I started looking for something that I didn’t have to wait for.



I ordered a pair of Gaerne Explorer boots next. But after a week, the vendor contacted me and told me he couldn’t get my size, they were also on back order.



My third boot order was for the AXO SR4 boots, but again, a week after I placed the order, I was told that my size was not available in the US, even though they had it listed on their website and AXO does have the boot available in Europe.



Oxtar Infinity boots didn’t even make it to an order, even though they are made in my size, US doesn’t import the smaller sizes.



I was now getting very annoyed. I had a dual sport bike but not boots. I wanted boots for my Texas trip at the end of December, so I ordered a pair of motorcross type boots, that I could use for trail riding in the future, and maybe touring? I got the Alpinestars Tech 4 boots.



I took them out for a ride, but being tall and really stiff, I didn’t see how I could tour with them, they were not comfortable to walk in.



Yea, I’m making a fashion statement, leather pants and motorcross boots. Still waiting on some textile pants, but that's another story.

So I still wanted a pair of Dual Sport boots, out of all the boots out there, only these were available in my size.



Four VRX boots… never heard of the brand.



Daytona Trans Open GTX, I love Daytona boots and have two pairs for sport touring but at $450 I was having a hard time with the price tag.



BMW Santiago, not the cheapest but not that expensive either. All leather and waterproof, these seemed like the best choice from the three. I placed my order and they will be delivered tomorrow. Will they work? I hope so, I'm out of choices.