Scooter in the Sticks

Exploring life on a Vespa Scooter and Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle.

Cold Riding

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Vespa GTS scooter with chrome front rackCold and grey this morning for my weekly ride into Saint’s Cafe where I attempt to keep a creative flame alive — if only a flicker.  The 35F temperature provided another opportunity to try the new First Gear jacket and test my Gerbing electric gloves to make sure they’re working.  The jacket was great and has a little more room making it much easier to manage the wires to the gloves which must be fished through the sleeves. Cold riding requires me to embrace a gear ritual that at the beginning of each season seems unbearably tedious.  Here’s the ritual I have to learn (again) to be tolerant of:

  • Layer, layer, layer.  Depending on the temperature it can be up to five not counting the jacket and thermal liner.  It’s a damn nuisance.
  • Overpants. I hate fussing with the pants, those long zippers and then trying to get the Velcro secure at the ankles to keep the air from rushing up towards my bellybutton.
  • Wires and jacket.  I have to say the new jacket is much, much easier to manage the wires though they still hang up at times.
  • Balaclava. Think ski mask.  This thing keeps the frigid air knife from my jugular vein.  Absolutely essential when the temperature nears freezing and below.
  • Earplugs and helmet.  I like riding quiet and want to continue hearing birds sing hence the earplugs.  Foam, -32dB contractor plugs.  Then the helmet.  I hate getting this out of order by doing the gloves first only to find out I can’t secure the helmet with gloves on.  I’ve tried many, many times. (Insert appropriate curse word)
  • Gloves.  After securing the ends of the sleeves and having the wires in the right config, I attach each glove and then pull them on and make sure they are securely over the sleeves to make sure no cold air rushes up the arms.

I think I’m now ready to ride in the cold.  I do this every ride when the temperature is below 40F.  That’s a lot of rides.  This ritual requires about 10 minutes time.  After months of quick departures it is the longest 10 minutes of my life.  Luckily for me, it fades after a few weeks and seems simple and easy.

Scooter riding jackets hanging in the garageI have all three riding jackets hanging in the garage.  From the left is my mesh Triumph jacket, old First Gear, and new First Gear Kilimanjaro.  I’ve been considering the fate of the middle one.  Someone suggested I give it to Junior to lay on and soak up some daddy mojo.  I was leaning towards the landfill option.  I mush note a saw a comment on a forum about how much trouble Hi-Viz is to keep clean.  My first reaction was, “What?”.  After a moment to think I realized not everyone is like me and never washes their riding jacket.

Junior is going to love my old one.

Scene from Saint's Cafe in State College, PAGordon and I had a fine conversation on our collective creative trauma and entropy.  Neither of us had any solutions on how to flame the photo fires but it is nice to know you’re not alone.  He brought a new book produced by one of our graduate school advisors who has remained remarkably productive his entire career.  I suppose it’s how you get your work in the Whitney, MOMA, and receive Guggenheim Fellowships.  The book was a collection of photos made at proms and titled “Prom”.

Steve Williams with his Vespa scooterThe new jacket is brighter than the neon Public Parking sign across the street.  Chalk one up for modern pigment and textile technology.

Hi-Viz glow on Vespa scooter.

Hi-Viz changes the riding experience — take a look at the glow in the headset reflection. It’s like riding a Day-glo scooter.

Vespa scooter on dirt and gravel road

Wasn’t a lot of time for riding but I did manage to find some dirt and gravel roads to play on.  The little street tires are not ideally suited for this kind of riding nor are the shocks but it’s still fun to see what sort of trouble you can get into.  More on trouble in a future post.

First Gear Kilimanjaro Jacket Review

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Vespa window reflectionAs the Excalibur Grey Vespa moves through central Pennsylvania its rider is now clad in Hi-Viz yellow.  I feared it would be the yellow green color, and it is, but I was surprised how cool it looks.  I may be quiet in person but my jacket is loud and obnoxious!

The new First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket is great.  Compared to my old one it’s better built, better fitting, warmer, and more functional.  So far it seems a near perfect solution for my cold weather riding.  I’ll share more as time and cold marches on.

Steve Williams in First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket with Vespa scooterThe first ride with the jacket was to work on Thursday morning with the temperature hovering at 35F.  I was toasty with a t-shirt, sweater, old pile liner, and the new jacket with thermal liner.  I suspect that combination will get me to 20F.  Below that point I’ll replace the t-shirty with polypropylene long underwear, a warmer sweater, and perhaps another layer of some sort.  All those layers really mess with a company’s sizing scheme.  When I was looking at sizes based on my body measurements I fell squarely between LARGE and X-LARGE.  But you always need to remember they are thinking you’ll be wearing a shirt under the jacket and nothing more.  Experience has guided me to bigger sizes.

In this case, considering the temperatures I would be riding in, I chose XX-LARGE TALL, or 2XT.  Good thing I did.  The coat has plenty of room to layer and with no layers the cinching systems allow a person to snug it up nicely so it doesn’t look like you’re wearing a tent.

The best feature so far is the collar.  Much more comfortable and better fitting at the neck and high enough to cut out more of the cold air that normally would knife into tender flesh and blood.

Vespa scooter on a cold autumn morningThe polar vortex is hear I suppose.  The ride home was as cold as the ride to work and autumn seems like nothing more than a doormat to winter.  Like the squirrels in our garden madly preparing for winter I’m doing the same with the Vespa.  Yesterday a pair of Tucano Urbano handlebar muffs arrived — spacious neoprene covers to keep the cold winter from my hands.  After years of electric gloves I’m surrendering and moving to the next level of warmth with the muffs.  To complete the upgrade I’ll be installing Koso heated grips.  Protection from the wind and head beneath fingers and thumb equals contentment in the cold.  At least that’s my hope.

Vespa GTS scooter in the evening

The difference in outlook and well-being between cold and warm is striking when I ride.  If I’m just a bit chilled, or worse, a ride is something to endure and wish to end.  But warm, well, it can go on forever.  I’ve complained for years of cold, numb, painful hands.  With great hope I feel they will soon be vanquished.  The jury is out on whether I have the proper electrical skills to make grips hot or whether I’ll be posting a picture of the GTS in flames.

For a closer look at the First Gear jacket check out this Revzilla.com review:

Winter Riding Protection

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Steve Williams in First Gear Kilimanjaro jacketAfter eight years or so my First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket which serves through most winter riding has reached the end of it’s life.  The main zipper has been replaced twice and is broken again, the seams are coming apart, and the fabric is thread bare and retains no water resistance.  Have adequate winter riding protection is critical to being able to comfortable endure cold weather on a scooter or motorcycle.  Finding a replacement jacket exposed so many choices that I found myself going down a variety of choice roads. Aerostich Falstaff jacket

The Aerostich Falstaff jacket was a long time favorite, at least in terms of look.  It has the classic 60s appearance I always associated with Steve McQueen and the Isle of Man race and Triumph motorcycles.  This is where my brain took me in assessing a new winter riding jacket.

Aside from the fact that I’m not Steve McQueen, I don’t race at Isle of Man, and the Falstaff is a waxed cotton jacket providing far less abrasion protection than a textile jacket, it seemed a perfect fit.  Had there not been a delay in Aerostich providing their sizing solution to me I probably would have put the $527 jacket on my credit card.

Fast foward several days.

First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket

After a bit more sober thinking (thinking driven by facts not vanity) I purchased a First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket from Revzilla.com.  Why? There are a few considerations I factored into the decision:

Visibilty
I ride a lot in bad weather and at night.  A bright yellow HiViz jacket makes more sense than the dull green Falstaff.  I know some people think it doesn’t matter but it can’t hurt.

Abrasion and Impact Protection
The Kilimanjaro seems the clear winner in abrasion protection should I find myself sliding along the pavement.  The 640 and 400 denier nylon fabric will provide more protection than cotton. The First Gear has D3O T5 CE Armor in the shoulders and elbows and a thick foam pad on the back.  The Falstaff has similar protection except a back pad is an extra $100.

Weather Protection — rain and cold
Not sure which is better and the reviews I’ve read say they’re both great in rain and cold.  My own experience with the Kilimajaro bears out that judgement.

Fit
Buying a jacket online is frustrating when it comes to fit and I hate sending things back.  Last time it took three attempts to get to the right size with the Kilimanjaro because they size them assuming you wear a shirt under the jacket, or at least that’s what it seemed like.  Riding below zero means I have lots of layers.  A large would fit me with a T shirt, but I need an XXL to accommodate cold weather layering.  I know what size I wear in the First Gear line.  Or at least I hope they haven’t changed a lot in the past eight years.

So on Tuesday or Wednesday a package should arrive with a new jacket.  I’m hoping the HiViz is more yellow than green, the water resistance is good, and the thing fits.  If those come to pass I’ll be a happy camper and can forget about which jacket to choose for another eight years.

I am a creature of habit.