Dec. 14, 2025
Winter 2025: Tips for Storage and Riding in Cold Weather
In this episode, we address the needs of motorcyclists as winter 2025 arrives. We provide practical advice on how to prepare your bike for storage, including the importance of changing essential fluids and maintaining your chain to prevent corrosion. Additionally, we discuss strategies for those who choose to continue riding despite the cold. With these tips, you can ensure that your motorcycle stays in peak condition throughout the winter months, whether you're storing it or braving the chill.
F900GS First Impressions episode
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00:00 - Introduction
00:38 - Storing your bike
08:15 - Riding your bike in the cold
37:08 - Wrap up
WEBVTT
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People ask what I do in the winter when there is no riding. I tell them I hop on the bike and I go for a ride.
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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast Podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. Old man winter is and it's officially winter here in the northern hemisphere. For many, that means putting their bikes away for the winter. Others continue to ride.
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I'll offer some tips to ensure that you store your bike properly and also look at ways that you can keep riding in the cold.
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So let's start with if you choose to store your bike, and I'd say that this is probably the most common case amongst a lot of motorcyclists, especially if you're in an area of the world that actually gets real winter, meaning it's going to get down into freezing temperatures. really, the big thing is you have to think about how you're going to store the bike and what you're going to do to prepare the bike for this long slumber. So a good tip for what you want to do as you're preparing your bike is really about changing the fluids. As you've been riding the bike through your riding season, those fluids have continued to get a bit contaminated just from normal run and use, and it may be a good thing to flush them out so that any of that contamination and or even water that might be sitting in some of these fluids is eliminated for that long period of time when it's going to be sitting still.
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So the first one probably makes the most sense to most people is to change your oil. The reason why is that this will oftentimes have moisture that has gotten into it if you have not changed it in several months' time. And because of that moisture, this could actually, if it's just sitting in the engine and the engine is not actively running, that moisture could be starting to cause some internal corrosion in your engine. So changing out the engine oil as you're going to put the bike away is just a good way to extend the longevity of your motorcycle. Now another one that some people will do, and this one's maybe a little bit more debatable in some ways, because the typical time period where you're going to be changing this oil is usually extended over what you would have in an engine situation. But look at your transmission and or drive shaft oil and consider changing them. One thing to look at is look at owner's manual, see what the maintenance cycle is. Are you coming up due for changing those? Well, a good thing to do is at the beginning storage season is just go ahead and do it. This way it's already and then when you begin riding again in the spring, you are all set. Now if you have a motorcycle which has a chain drivetrain, it's a good idea to both clean and lubricate that chain, inspect it for wear. Make sure that the links aren't getting too worn out. You may also need to adjust the chain on the swing arm just to ensure that it is at the appropriate level of tension in that chain.
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And one reason why I like to clean and lube the chain when I'm putting a bike away for the winter months is that this way you're not going to allow that material when, you could have moisture on there as well, which could be buried by a layer of dirt on the exterior of it, which will again corrode the chain. So by cleaning the chain, you're able to make sure that you get any of that stuff cleaned out, and now it is fully lubricated and it's going to be protected in the winter months.
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This also gives you that opportunity to really take a look at the chain and make sure that there's nothing wrong with it. And if there is you may put that into your list for maintenance that you need to do in the winter months. Another one to check is your coolant.
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Flushing out the coolant is a regular process that you're gonna be doing on your motorcycle, and if you're not gonna be using the bike for a few months anyway, may as well take this time as a moment to get it ready, get it done, so that when spring comes around, you aren't then being, "Oh crap, now I have to go and clear out the coolant when I could just be riding." Get it all done when the bike is gonna be down anyway, and this just makes it easier.
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The last one is your brake fluid.
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Brake fluid, remember, is hygroscopic, which means it attracts water, and especially if you are in a unheated garage, you could end up having a little bit more moisture content coming in, so clearing that out and refreshing the brake fluid is a good thing. You don't have to do this every single year, usually it's about a two-year cycle for replacing brake fluid, but if you're coming up on that cycle, it's not a bad thing to do that as you're putting the bike away, Now another fluid that you're gonna wanna take a look your gas in the I like to fill up the tank this way it is as full as possible, and this will reduce the amount of air that is possible to get into the tank.
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In particular, the air, if it's filled with moisture, is going to then sit in that tank and could start to create some corrosion. So by filling the tank, you reduce this Now if it's not a metal tank, the corrosion may not be a big deal for you, but this also limits the fluid and the water that is in the air from actually mixing into the gasoline, and then when you go to start the bike in the spring, creating another issue.
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Now this also, you wanna team it with putting in and treating the gasoline. There's a lot of gasoline treatments that you can put for maintaining chemical balance that is in the gasoline while it's gonna be sitting for an extended period of time. Now the other thing I like to do is I've kinda dealt with now some of basic fluid changes. These are the things where I'm actively working on the bike.
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The next thing I like to do is just wash the bike, dry it, wax cause it's gonna be sitting still for a long while. And the beauty of this is it gets rid of any sort of road contaminants that might have been on the bike.
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Again, those road contaminants could be trapping water underneath them. So by clearing that all out, you're gonna remove that opportunity for corrosion to be sitting onto the bike. as you're doing this washing and drying and waxing and you're really looking at every sort nook and cranny of your motorcycle. Take an opportunity to look for any loose bolts, broken bits like wires, drive belt, anything that might indicative of something that you need to address and maintain. Well, this way you're already going and doing a once-over as you're washing that bike. Really look for aspects of your motorcycle and say, "Hey, what do I need to do in maintenance in the off-season?" The other thing you would do is look over your tires. make sure that the tires don't have excessive wear, which you might want to replace the tires. And a good time to do that is actually in the winter months when you're not riding actively. It's not going to take away from you being able to ride. So now you have your list of all of the tasks that you may need to do of winter maintenance. This might be replacing some tires, it might be replacing a chain. if you have the loose bolts and or, wires that might be loose.
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You've kind of got this laundry list. So now you can have that planned out and you know, hey, I've got so many months of time to be able to figure this out and get it done so that in the spring I'm ready to go. Now, many people also worry about some rodents or like mice, for example, getting into nooks and crannies on the bike. And a pretty common one is actually the exhaust. So some people will plug the exhaust just to avoid mice or any other critters getting into there, laying a nest and then causing issues as you fire up the bike in the spring. if you're literally going to put the bike away sure that you put it onto a battery maintainer. And what this will do is keep the battery fully charged because over time a battery that's just sitting will naturally discharge a little bit.
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And the last thing you'll want to do, of course, is probably put a cover on the bike. This is a good idea to do even if you're putting the bike away indoors in a garage. And there's different types of covers that you may want to use in that situation versus an outdoor cover, which has to protect against rain and any sort of snow, etc. An indoor cover is usually more breathable.
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It's meant to keep dust off of the bike. And because you've washed and waxed that bike, you're going to maintain that bike in a nice, clean, ready to go state for when you get ready for the spring riding months. So that kind of covers what you would do as you're putting the bike away for the winter and storing it.
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But as I said, some riders choose to ride their bikes year round, and I happen to be one of those. I have had many different bikes over the years, and I've actually had many bikes in my garage at a single period of time. Not all of my bikes get ridden all year round because the bike really does make a difference as to whether it is set up for it. So for many years I actually had an old classic motorcycle. This was a more than 50-year-old motorcycle. Well, that bike didn't have a windshield. It didn't have a very strong alternator, so I couldn't really run heated gear on it. It didn't have heated grips. It was basically a naked bike. That's the kind of bike that really isn't ideal for winter riding anyway. You just don't have all the protection. So that bike I would put away and I'd follow the outline that I just went through. But for the bikes that I could take and ride in the winter, here are some ways that I've found really sets the success for you to be able to ride comfortably even in those cold conditions. And I'm going to split this really into two areas. One, I'm going to focus on what you do to the bike. And the second one is what you do for yourself as a rider. So how do we protect the bike? Well, there's a few things you want to pay attention to with your bike.
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If you're going to continue to the bike in the winter months.
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most of these aren't insurmountable. So they shouldn't dissuade you from riding. But it is things that you do want to pay attention to.
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So first, let's start with its tires. The big thing you have to remember is that the pressure in your tires will drop as the temperature drops. So you want to check your pressure before each ride. it's important to do this after you've brought the bike out of your garage and it has adjusted to the outside temperature. Because let's say that garage is maybe even somewhat heated, and it might be, you 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than what the external temperature is. Well, when you bring it outside, all of a sudden the temperature's going to drop and drop inside of the air that is in those tires and your pressure's going to drop.
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So if you set the tire pressure in your garage, when you actually get out and riding, it's going to be a little bit lower. So you want to make sure that you're adjusting for that.
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Now, some people, rather parking the bike outside and waiting half an hour, an hour for it to they may choose to pump the tire up maybe a few pounds per square inch. If you're using that or measurement just to have a little bit of extra pressure in and they'll get a rule of thumb for how much more they based upon the temperature differential.
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If Now the next thing you want to do is look at your fluids and we talked about for, if you're storing a bike, you might want to change the fluids just to have a fresh set in the bike.
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Well, some bikes actually indicate in the owner's manual that you want to have a different oil weight or even coolant for use in colder temperatures. So make sure that you check your manual and ensure that you have the right fluids for the temperature range that you're expecting to be riding in these winter months. Now, as I said, for when you're storing the bike, batteries do tend to lose capacity as it gets colder.
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And starting a bike that has been sitting in much colder temperatures will put more load onto the bike. The, all of the components have shrunk down a little bit more. It's a little bit tighter tolerances because the temperature is colder. That oil that is in the engine has gotten a little bit more of a high viscosity just because of the temperature drop. This is why you might want to change the fluids. And that's going to put a lot more load as you try to start the motor. one of the things to do is even if you don't do it regularly in the warmer months, I found it's good practice to put your bike on a battery tender each time you park the bike in the winter months. This way, when you go out and ride again, it is fully ready to go. Now the last sort of bike concern really involves external contaminants. And this is probably one of the reasons that some people choose not to ride in the colder winter months.
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Now here in the Northeast U. S., if we have had snow or frozen rain, they'll usually salt the roads. this salt can help to accelerate corrosion. So if you do ride out and hit some salt, be sure to wash off your bike when you get Now you might be hearing that and saying, but it's freezing outside. There's no way I can go and get the hose and run the water and do this.
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And that's probably true. It So what I've personally found is really useful is there's a company called Griots here in the U. S. And they actually make a spray on car wash, which essentially has some built-in water to let you clean the or car without a hose. And then you use a microfiber cloth to clean up the wash and the grime all in one go. you don't actually need a full hose and bucket to be able to wash your bike. And this is great for just getting off that grime, especially that salt, right off the bike. It comes very quickly. And this is just an easy way to do it. And even I use it in the summer months, if I just don't feel like spending the time to get out the whole bucket and hose and everything, I can just do a quick wash in one little section and just clean that So that's all the things about the bike that you want to pay attention to. what usually holds back riders from riding in cold conditions is if all you have is a mesh riding jacket and jeans, that's gonna really suck in the winter months.
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You're gonna be really cold. And there's some things you can do to your bike and your riding gear that can turn a chilly ride into a warm and toasty experience. So the first one is wind protection. Now, when you're riding on a motorcycle, wind chill is the one thing you really need to pay attention to, especially when you're riding in cold weather. Even if the wind is calm, because the bike is moving through the air, the apparent wind speed will still essentially be matching your road speed. And the temperature will feel a lot colder than it actually is. So a good example of this 50 degrees Fahrenheit or about 10 degrees Celsius at 60 miles an hour or 100 kilometers per is gonna drop the apparent temperature down to about 39 degrees Fahrenheit or 4 degrees centigrade. And this is a pretty common fall temperature for me in the Northeast. At 40 degrees Fahrenheit or 4 and a half degrees centigrade at 60 miles an hour, feel more like 25 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 4 Celsius. Now the coldest I've ever personally ridden was 3 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 16 Celsius. And at highway speeds, that's gonna feel like minus 29 Fahrenheit or minus 34 Celsius.
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So really, really, really cold.
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Now, I will get into the details of how I accomplished that, but I still wasn't cold on that ride and here's how you do this. The first thing is you want to protect against that wind. So the easiest upgrade for your bike is a windshield. A more wind you can get off off of your body, the warmer, the warmer you will feel. And if you already have a windshield, look at putting on maybe an add-on extension to give you just a little bit more coverage. I add one onto both my R18 Classic as well as my GS, just to give a little bit more protection so that it's a little bit warmer for me. At least the feeling is warmer as I'm riding in cold weather. Now, hand guards are another good idea. Your hands are the interface to the bike.
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And being an extremity, your body will naturally reduce circulation as it gets cold. So keeping your hands covered can extend the temperatures that you could ride in And they're often paired with additional options that I'll cover a little bit Now, if you happen to be riding a scooter, look at getting a skirt for your scooter. Now, people may hear that and then say, what the hell's a skirt for my scooter? Well, what this is, is it's a covered area that because the way a scooter is designed and that you step through it rather than over it, you've got this kind of area that's sitting behind that front area of the So you're getting some natural wind protection on a scooter already, but some of the wind can come from the sides and then still keep you a little bit colder. So what the skirt does is it wraps around that area and fully covers your entire lower half of your extremities and usually has a little bit of a bib comes up onto your chest area a little bit more. And because of this, this is going to help protect against the and keep you a little bit warmer than you would otherwise be. Now, on my Vespa GTS 300, the radiator exposure is on the sides of the front cowl and with a skirt, they can be covered. And what this ends up doing is that the heat that's being generated by the radiator is actually then coming underneath the skirt, providing almost like a built-in heater that you would have in a car to heat that air that's underneath the skirt. And with the skirt on my windshield, I can ride in temperatures in the teens of Fahrenheit temperatures with no heated gear. so it really does make a huge difference in your ability to be comfortable even as it is extraordinarily cold and even below freezing temperatures.
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So let's go into layers, layers, layers. Passive insulation can help keep you warm with your riding gear, and what I mean by passive insulation is this is something that is not actively heating you up, but it is more of a traditional passive insulation. one good way to do this is have a windproof outer layer because you really want to keep the wind at bay first and foremost, and then you can add in insulated layers underneath it to help keep you warm. Now, Gore-Tex is a pretty decent windproof layer. It also becomes a waterproof layer, but in the warm summer months, the problem with Gore-Tex is that it will still feel a little bit warmer.
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You're not getting as much airflow, but that works to your advantage in the winter months when you want to reduce that airflow. There's also some, like, base layers or maybe a top layer that you can put in that will actually be a windproof layer. I use one by AeroStitch as a shirt that actually keeps the wind from getting and penetrating through the shirt, and then just gives a little bit more comfort to me to extend my riding Now, winter gloves will typically thinsulate to provide good insulation without being super thick gloves. If you've ever worn thick gloves, they tend to restrict the feeling or dexterity that you have in your fingertips, and because we need that to be able to manipulate the controls on a motorcycle.
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Having a thin insulation that is still effective will be better.
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Now, don't kid yourself, winter gloves, even winter motorcycle gloves are still thicker than summer gloves, so you will lose a little bit of that. So it is a balancing act of what's the right level for you. Sometimes take a look at a few different pairs, see which ones really work for you. Now another good strategy is if you're going to get some riding gear that's more winter-specific or maybe fall, spring kind of cooler temperature, maybe think about getting a jacket and pants that's a size or two larger than you normally would wear. Because what this allows you to do is to actually put more layers underneath the riding gear to help keep you warm. So if you got something that sized exactly right for you and it's going to be tight up against your body, if you were to then add in those layers, it's going to be feeling too tight. So going a size or two up can really help give you that flexibility to have a little bit more layers as it gets in the colder weather. If you go too big, of course, then it may be, if you don't need the extra layers, it may just feel way too loose. So that's why I say about one, maybe two sizes and take a look at as you're trying out that gear to see what makes sense for Now the that I want to talk about is what's really the active warming. If you think of the insulating layers that we just discussed as really passive, what if you had a capability to add heat to your body while you're riding? This is what happens in a normal car, you have the heater running and it's going to keep you nice and toasty warm inside of the cabin of that car. Well we have similar options that we can do on a motorcycle. So one of these, and this is actually pretty common now to be just stock on a lot of motorcycles, certainly BMW has been doing this for many years, but many manufacturers will offer heated bikes directly from the factory and this will really help extend your riding temperatures because keeping your hands warm, remember that extremity, your body's naturally going to try to reduce circulation if it starts to get too cold. So having these hands be nice and warm really makes a difference. And even if you don't have heated grips on your bike from the factory, there are some options where you can get them after the even if you choose not to ride in full freezing weather, but maybe you want to ride on a cool spring day or a cool fall day, this can extend it. Maybe it gets down to the fifties and you're still comfortable riding because of that, just the heated grips alone. And when it gets to be really, really cold, you're going to be wanting to look at heated gear. Now, personally, I use a brand called Warm and Safe.
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I have used things like Gerbing's in the past, but the thing I like about the Warm and Safe is they have it in a shirt as opposed to being a jacket liner that you would put over clothing. The advantage of this is the shirt in real essence is a base layer. So it sits right up against your skin. The beauty of that is then I can put the insulating layers on top of it.
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So the heat is directly against my skin. I have the insulating layers that are going to retain that heat. And this allows me to be far warmer than I would be with something where the heat is being added, a few layers separated from my skin. Now, the pant liners are gonna be kinda similar to the Gerbing where they're really more of a looser thing. I would advise wearing some base layer pants underneath these, just to avoid some of the hot spots that can happen from some of the heated elements. And I typically will do this and put on my riding pants on top of that, providing the windproof layer. Now, Warm and Safe and other brands do make heated gloves. The beauty of these is that they can plug directly into the same circuit that you're using to heat your other elements. And therefore, that is plugging into the bike and you're gaining electricity from the bike to keep this gear running warm for very extended periods. I also have heated socks. These will keep your feet warm, of course, and the same scenario works. You're gonna be able to keep your hands and your feet nice and toasty warm as you're riding. Now, all of these will require that you add a pigtail, which is usually directly connected to your battery. Now, the thing you have to be careful if you're adding in an hour, amperage or wattage devices onto your bike is really be aware and mindful of the bike's alternator rating in watts and the watts for all of the heated gear that you plan to use. And what your bike uses just in its normal day-to-day running. So how does it keep the electronics for the bike running?
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How does it keep the headlights on? Turn signals. All that type of stuff. Now, many years ago when I would always add heated gear to my bikes and I added a heated gear plug to a naked sport bike that I happened to have bought in November.
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I went for a ride with my riding group and here it was, you know, a very cold fall day, you know, getting into late November, almost into December. you know, we were riding in the 30 degree weather and it was cold, but I was nice and warm because I had all the heated gear. Even though I didn't any sort of wind protection on this bike because it was a naked sport bike. So it didn't even have really much more than a tiny fly screen on it. But when I stopped, the bike wouldn't start again. what had happened is that the drain from my heated gear was more than what the alternator was able to provide. And therefore, what was happening is I was basically sucking any energy that was in the battery out. I did have a jumpstart battery, so I was able to then jumpstart the bike and get it going. And then I had to basically not use the heated gear to get back home. But sport bikes are probably more of an exception. They usually have smaller alternators as fewer accessories are expected to be added onto a sport bike. But big ADVs, cruisers, they'll usually have larger units of alternators.
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But do the math just to make sure that you're not going to overwhelm the alternator on your bike. Now, on BMWs, many of them will have a DIN plug and this allows you to add accessories, including heated gear, into them.
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But again, be mindful that because you are using a single circuit, they may have limited amps that they can support. So I use this on my BMW R18 Classic and it is limited to 5 amps, which means I can't use all of my heated gear at once. So I'll usually use like the heated shirt and the heated socks and then I'll use a battery heated pair of gloves. And the shirt and socks is less than 5 amps, so I don't trip the circuit and it works on that specific bike.
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But just be mindful if you are going to use a specific circuit as opposed to directly connected to the battery, you have to mindful of the amp draw. So let me give you a few examples of how I've managed to ride in cold weather with some of my bikes over the years. So let me start with my 2012 BMW R1200 GS Adventure. Now as I mentioned before, the GS variants have a ton of wind protection. And this is caused because it has a larger windshield than the regular GS does. It also has a couple of side wind blockers.
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And it has a big inset for your legs in the tank, which gives even more protection from the elements. Now, I typically add a windshield lip for more coverage in the winter months. And the huge alternator that is on this bike gives plenty of power for heated gear. I believe it's about 720 watts of power. it's not really gonna be affected by much of anything. And I've ridden as low as 3 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 16 Celsius and still been toasty warm the entire day of riding. And my heated gear wasn't even on full.
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So I could have gone even colder.
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It just doesn't typically get that cold or colder where I happen to live in the northeast.
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Now I've also used it with some Bark Buster Blizzard hand guards.
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And these offer a little bit more protection from wind than the stock Bark Buster off-road guards that I had on that bike.
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And now with your heated gloves, your heated grips, and that wind protection, you're not going to have any worries whatsoever on your hands. So let's talk about my 2021 BMW R18 classic. Now, classic, as opposed to the base model R18 or any of the fairing type bikes, does have a quick release windshield. this allows you to have a little bit better wind protection than you would have with a fully naked bike.
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the other thing is on this particular bike, one of the downsides of the R18 models is that they have a very tight, very tight battery compartment.
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And so adding in a plug to provide power for your heated gear onto there is a little bit more challenging. It's not that it can't be done, but it's just so narrow you're more likely going to chafe the wire. So what I tend to do is I use a DIN plug on the side of the bike. Now, I do have more limited output from that DIN plug. It's only about 5 amps. So what I use is just my heated shirt and heated socks.
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So I don't have any heated pant liners. I don't have any heated gloves. I'm a little bit more limited of the heated gear that I have on that bike. What I do is I use a windproof base layer on my pants. wind that did tend to through any of the riding pants that I was using is protected and keeps my legs a little bit warmer than they normally would be. I also use heated gloves that are not plugged into the bike power.
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These have their own dedicated battery directly on it. And what this does is it lets me have the advantage of heated gloves, but without having extra bit of drain on the circuit, which would put me over that 5 amps.
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The bike also has heated grips, which combined with the windshield and heated gloves does keep me a little bit warmer.
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Now, I did get a taller screen to give me a little bit more protection. I'm also about 6'4", so the stock screen would have a little bit more buffeting, so the taller screen does help. And then I add another lip onto the top of the screen in the winter months just to give me a little bit more coverage. I will use just the windscreen in the spring and the fall, but as it gets into real winter, I'm going to give a little bit more. Now, without any handguards, I've typically found that about 20 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 7 Celsius is the lower limit where I can ride it. And it's mostly because my hands would get to be too cold below that. Even with heated gloves, even with heated grips, they're still exposed and that wind chill starts to have an impact. Now, this year I'm gonna be adding some hippo hands onto the bike to extend the temps further. Now, it hasn't gotten quite that cold yet to really make a difference. I mean, the coldest it's been, I think maybe this morning it was about 35 degrees as I'm recording this, not super cold quite yet. I've certainly ridden in colder weather than it was early this morning, and now it's probably 45, 50 degrees. I'll see how those work as I get into the colder weather. My hope is that this will extend it, so I'll update that with you guys in a later episode. Now, another bike, and I did mention this, this was my 2015 BMW S1000R. Because of that limited heated gear, I couldn't really have heated gear without draining the battery because it didn't have a strong enough alternator. I really was limited to just battery-powered heated gloves and the heated grips that came stock on the bike. Now, I did have a slightly taller fly screen that I would put on in the winter months, which helped a little bit. It's not gonna block a ton of wind, but I kind of found with that bike down to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 4.5 degrees Celsius was about the limit for that bike. Now, this is a fully naked sport this was using that same thing that I'd done in like on my R18. I did have the windproof base layer pants along with my riding pants on top of that. you have to kind of think of it as a combination of your heated and your layers to extend this. my 2025 BMW F900GS, which I just got this year, we do have some episodes where I did discuss my initial thoughts on that bike. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. This will be my first winter with this bike. So I'm not really what to expect. Now, it has a much smaller amount of wind protection than I had on my R1200 GSA, which it replaced. So I expect that I probably won't be able to go quite as cold. I'm not gonna have all that wind protection that let me get down to that three degrees Fahrenheit.
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I unfortunately wasn't able to just transfer over my old Bark Buster Blizzard handguards.
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there's also a little bit of a different shape to the stock handguards that are on there.
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They kind of dip down a little bit lower, which is good for protecting the bike in your hands, but doesn't make adding in the handguard over this quite as easy. So I'm going to be trying out the hippo hands this year, and I'm using the medium sized Rogues. There is also a larger one that gives you a little bit more coverage, but I'm going to try the Rogues and see how that works. Now, I already have a pigtail for heated gear, but on this bike, this only puts out 416 watts while my older GS put out 720.
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So I might not be able to use all of my heated gear at one go.
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But I expect I'll be able to do at least as much as the R18 in terms of temperature. So I'm hoping I can get down to at least 20 and probably down into the teens. Again, it has a smaller windshield than my R18.
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So this is where I'll kind of see as it gets into colder temps.
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But pretty much down to freezing, I think no problem whatsoever.
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It's just how much below freezing is the real question.
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Now, the last one I want to discuss is my scooter. This is a 2020 Vespa GTS 300, in the fall and in the spring, I put on a tall windshield. It gives a little bit of coverage over the hand. So even in those fall temperatures, it's going to be helping a little bit. I also put on as it gets into the winter months, I'll put on a skirt which covers my lower half. I pair this with the battery powered heated gloves that I use on some of my other bikes. And this allows me to get down to the in Fahrenheit or maybe about negative 10 degrees Celsius with this particular bike. Now, it's usually for shorter trips or errands where I'm just going into my local town and picking up some stuff. So I found that that's pretty much fine over the years for these pretty cold temps. Now, I did add on the Barkbuster handguards that I had previously used on my R1200GS for this year because I couldn't use them on my F900GS. So we'll see. That may extend my range a little bit more. Maybe I get below the teens. But realistically, it's not very common for it to get below the teens where I am. And even usually, like, even below, like, 25 is not a super common occurrence in the winter. And I think for most listeners, realistically, if you can ride down to freezing, you're pretty much okay. Some people might be worried about getting below freezing, I think realistically, my scooter, it's okay 95% of the riding conditions that I've ever experienced where I am. So I want to share a few rules of thumb for riding in the winter months. Now, all the tips that I've just shared can help you to extend your riding season even as the temperatures But you need to be aware of precipitation.
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Snow or ice on the road isn't something you really want to experience on two wheels. If it snowed several days earlier, I found that generally the roads are clear of snow or ice. There could be some of that salt on the road. So as I said, you may need to clean the bike afterwards. But generally, there won't be any snow or ice on the road. But here's where I tune my go or no-go decision as I'm thinking about whether I'm going to go If it's below 40 degrees Fahrenheit or about 4.5 degrees Celsius, and there's active precipitation, I don't ride. Now, I don't mind if it's wet. I ride in wet weather all the time. And I don't mind if it's cold. I just don't combine the two of them because the chance for black ice, the chance for ice to form is just too great. And so if it's below 40 and wet, I'm just not going to go for a ride.
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as I mentioned, if the roads have been cleared and there may even be some snow on the sides of the road, well, you might think that you're in good shape.
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But look at the temperature. And if it's hovering either just above or just below freezing, it's likely that in some spots of sun, some of the snow could melt, stream across the road, and then refreeze in the shade.
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it like 40 degrees Fahrenheit or above, or I want it below 25 degrees Fahrenheit. the other important thing with this is look at what the temperatures are expected to change out over the day. So you may leave early in the morning and maybe it's 25 degrees and you say, oh, I'm all good, but it's going to warm up to about 35. You could have in the middle of your ride where the likelihood of that sort of melt and freeze situation could occur. So just be mindful of this. generally, as the day warms up, you could be in that plus or minus 5 degree Fahrenheit range around freezing where black ice can form. If you're in doubt, you can always ride another day. while these tips can help you ride more in the winter months, generally the good rule of thumb is if it's completely dry and there's precipitation like snow or ice on the sides of the road, yeah, just go out and ride. It's going to be totally fine. It's only a caveat if it's actively precipitating or if there was still some snow on the sides of the road. That's where you have to be a little bit more mindful of it.
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So we covered some tips for storing your bike in the winter months and how to ensure that it will be in good shape for the spring. We also covered some tips if you want to keep riding your bike through the winter months. And we looked at things to look out for on the bike and ways to enhance your riding gear to help keep you warm. I shared some specific examples with bikes that I've had over the years and how they were set up for winter riding and the temps that I've been able to ride into. So my question for you this week is, do you put your bike away for the winter? Or do you keep riding? Share your thoughts through the text to show link in the show notes, or leave us a voicemail at throttle and roast dot com slash Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week.
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