Frost is not . . .

your friend



All week my plan was to take my scoot for a ride on Saturday morning, but was thwarted with ice and frost. It was exceptionally heavy in the morning when I went outside to test the asphalt and car windows. So off to breakfast in the cage. By the time breakfast was finished, back home to grab the scoot. Temps are hovering around freezing so many layers of clothing, boots, gloves, fleece undergarments and the fog was still dripping wet. Murphy's Law I suppose working against me. The scoot refused to start. It started very easily on Wednesday evening. A quick turn of the key had the engine purring like a contented cat. Warmed it up and shut it down. Today was a different story. Chugged the starter many times and only a few "coughs". I didn't want to run the battery down so I connected my 100 amp commercial duty, engine start battery charger to the battery posts and Voila, after a few seconds the engine finally came to life. I disconnected everything, shut the motor off, and attempted another start. And again, it came to life so all I could think of is that somehow it must have dragged in some 'wet' air and iced-up.


(scoot has finally seen the light of day, after being couped up for about a month)


It felt good to be back on 2 wheels. There is still ice and snow piled around the roads so you have to be on the watch for slippery sections. Today a few of us are meeting for Capuccino and a short group ride.


(the regulars getting ready for takeoff)



The fog was "biting" cold and it quickly penetrated into your gloves so that your fingers were nearly numb. It would have been great to have heated grips or heated gloves, or even a handguard to block the air. Of course our ride took us around Stanley Park, where the fog was more dense. The fog has a way of covering the inside of your visor making it very difficult to see. All of our fingers were getting cold so we had to stop and warm up (to stop the wind chill)



Vancouverites are not used to these cold temperatures and our winters are usually very warm and moderate but we learned quickly that your exhaust is "your friend" . While we were stopped, many of us were attempting to thaw out our fingers by placing them near the exhaust/muffler, and it worked. Too bad there isn't a way to route the warm exhaust air into the handlebars to obtain "free" heat for our fingers. It's something that I had been thinking about for a while now, or perhaps a valve to re-direct the hot water from the radiator through the handlebars.



Someone suggested a hot beverage after our ride around the park and we ended up parked on Robson Street for internal warmth.



you can see the fog trying to reclaim more territory, and feel the chill of the air.



It was our first group ride after the snow, and the first group ride of 2009 . It was very cold, our fingers were freezing, but it was good to be back on 2 wheels.