Winter limits?

First off, let me just say that contrary to widespread opinion, there's nothing better than riding in the middle of winter. On a typical summer day, wearing the appropriate protective gear means coming home a sweaty, nasty mess after a long day's ride. Not so in January! After a 3 hour trip today, I came home and felt perfectly comfortable - no sweat anywhere in site. My only check before riding was a quick scan around the street corners for puddles of water. Water pools can be found near many intersections, and seeing a few at different corners is a sure sign that the ground is above freezing. It helps, but doesn't guarentee against finding dreaded black ice.

I did, however, discover a (temporary) limit of riding on my new bike. In fact, on a few occassions today, my index and little fingers felt so cold it was hard to bend them, and I had to shake my hand to get the circulation going again. It was so cold, I had to turn back, and didn't get to complete my planned trip out to CT, to the Triumph dealership that supposedly has a great stock of riding apparel.

But I have a theory. Somehow, running the heated vest at full blast draws too much power, and the heated hand grips drop in temperature enough to make riding at 70 mph too cold. I suspect this will be easy to fix, however, since I've been riding without my leather jacket lining for some time now (figuring the heated vest would be sufficient). Next time, I'll zipper it back in, which should contain heat better and allow me to run the vest at a lower setting. That will allow the hand grips to get warmer, which is the critical threshold/weakest link to overcome at this point.

So what's the limit?

Well, today was 36 degree Farenheit, and I found myself unable to sustain speeds of 65-70 mph on I-95 for extended periods of time due to my frozen fingers. Including windchill, that meant the cold limit was around 18-20 degrees, or well below freezing. Interestingly, converting 18-20 degrees of highway windchill into city riding at lower speeds means a comparable rider experience when the weather forecast predicts between 25-28 degrees Farenheit. This is also below freezing, but the ground in NYC is usually several degrees warmer than the air, so there's a better chance of making it through the day without navigating black ice.