17-degrees and still riding to work

My co-worker is still riding his motorcycle to work. This morning, following him in, it was 17 degrees. He says that if it is dry, he will ride. I say he has a screw loose. He rides a Victory Tour, and I honestly don't see any heated clothing going on. He is former military, further proving that some people are just tougher than the rest of us.

He would fit right in in MN and him riding in the cold would just be something you see everyday. It doesn't look all that fun to me, even with battery powered clothes and heated handgrips, etc.

I had a coworker that spent loads of money building a show bike out of a soft tail deuce. Crazy money. He rode that thing to work every day that there wasn't fresh snow in the morning. He'd have a six inch layer of ice and slush kicked up from the road hanging off his beard. Said he built it to ride not look at. I still think he was crazy.

I ride for entertainment in the 30s and high 20s comfortably without heated clothes if the roads are mostly salt-free but below 20 it gets damn uncomfortable on the extremities really quick. I've done it when I got caught out somewhere and had to get home but I won't say I liked it one bit.

I could see how electric boots, mittens w/ hand warmers or those bar booties and a helmet w/o vents would make it ok though. I mean... people ride snowmobiles all day so it can be done.

Since I'm a newb if it is below freezing with recent rain or snow I take the Jeep. If it is clear but cold I ride. Coldest temp so far for me is 22. And my commute is about 20-22 miles one way.

The fam got me heated grips and they make a world of difference.

I used to ride my Cagiva when it was cold too. So if you use me as a comparison, yes, he has a couple of screws loose.

I would ride 10 months out of the year with the hottest summer months being the outliers. You can put more clothes on, you can only take so many off. That being said, I found a pair of ski gloves at the local store (so many years ago I can't remember the name) and they were warmer than my TourMasters. At 70 mph, 10 degrees outside, I could ride an easy hour in them no issue.

You guys must all have better kept roads around you than I do- or you have incredible balance skills. There will be large icy sections any time the road surface is below freezing around here, and I'd rather not encounter them on a bike.

Yeah, count me out. I have ridden in the high 30's, and although I felt ok on the bike, once I get to work I have to pull out a keycard to get into the garage. It's no fun when you have no feeling in your hands and they don't want to work. Same goes for undoing your helmet straps with frozen hands.

I really couldn't see riding in anything colder than that without heated grips, electric clothes, those things that cover your whole grip, or a combination of the above.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

It was Tennessee. As we used to say, "The kids can't read but we've got great roads!"

I wouldn't ride in icy conditions. I would wait till the roads dried. I did a few snow runs, but nothing in that slushy refreeze ice patch stage. Situational awareness. It also helped my bike was a dual sport.

I have known GoldWingers and Harley guys do the same. I just don't like really heavy bikes.

In reply to Flight Service:

I'll ride my DRZ on snow too, but we are in agreement about the ice. Hell, my car on snow tires can barely traverse the 30 feet of off camber, frozen, field runoff covering a few of the corners near my house right now.

I once rode from Central Texas to L.A. in the PRC and it never got over 15 degrees until I hit the California border. Yeah, it was a tad cool. I don't think I would do that today.

The coldest I've ride for any length of time in was about 30 last winter. The roads were clear but we had three or four inches of snow from a storm a couple days earlier. The hardest part was my hard packed uphill icy gravel driveway. Somehow the bike had more traction in it than my boots did, I couldn't even stand on it. Rode for about four hours that day, my gloves didn't do a great job but it was manageable.

I rode through the winter when I was in college, but only if the roads were dry. Even so, I found myself laying in the street one 25 degree morning when I lost the bike on a dry, low speed corner. Bike tire compounds don't grip so well when it gets cold.

Be careful. Unseen wetness and marking paint are how I ate E36 M3 10 months ago.

In reply to Appleseed:

Yeah, tough or not, a guy a work died that way a few years ago. Put it down on the highway at speed on black ice.

Guess I'm not hard core enough. Unless it's one of those warm 50-60 degree winter days and the roads are completely dry I just take the car.

I don't have much interest in freezing my ass off or going down on some unseen ice.

I ride as long as there isn't snow or ice. I think the coldest I saw on the temp indicator was 7.....of course windchill at 80-90 on i-40 feels much much worse. I don't have any heated gear, but my main bike does have heated grips. My commute is 72 miles round trip and riding like this was much easier to do when my commute was only 20 miles round trip.

I wish I could commute to work. I have a company truck that I drive back and forth. Occasionally I need it to do other things prior to going to the office. I don't ride near as much as I want to.

Oh marking paint berkeleying sucks. So does really old stripe paint.

Nick- I hope the work truck burns the right gas...free.

In reply to octavious: Yup

I have some mittens that I bought at an outfitter in Alaska. They look like boxing gloves. With a pair of snow mobile glove liners under that, my hands are good for 10 degrees and 70MPH. Getting the rest of me good for that takes a bit more.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I ride for entertainment in the 30s and high 20s comfortably without heated clothes if the roads are mostly salt-free but below 20 it gets damn uncomfortable on the extremities really quick. I've done it when I got caught out somewhere and had to get home but I won't say I liked it one bit. I could see how electric boots, mittens w/ hand warmers or those bar booties and a helmet w/o vents would make it ok though. I mean... people ride snowmobiles all day so it can be done.

Those monster fairings are like the fronts of snowmobiles, they keep a lot of wind off of you so it isn't very bad.

Another thing to watch out for is going under bridges on unseasonably warm days. A guy wiped out right in front of me on an 65 degree February day when he hit the hidden ice in the shadow of a bridge.

Nick_Comstock wrote: I wish I could commute to work. I have a company truck that I drive back and forth. Occasionally I need it to do other things prior to going to the office. I don't ride near as much as I want to.

A lot of days my commute is the best part of my workday. I really enjoy riding to work. The only times it sucks is in the worst of summer and when it's below around 20 or so....and of course if there's really bad traffic.