December 5, 2010

Beemer Stats:
65.2 Miles
38 MPH Ave
40 MPG Ave

Gypsy Stats:
4 Hr 8 Min elapsed time
1 Hr 42 Min Riding Time (long breakfast!)
62.1 miles
36.2 MPH Ave

Tim: ’96 BMW R1100RS
Dave: ’03 BWM F650GS
Lindsey: '07 BWM R1200R (Grin!)

Looks like our own little BMW club today.

Up before the sun again for an early and chilly start. I checked on the internet and that beautiful, bright Morning Star in the eastern sky is Venus, not Jupiter as reported previously. It's still just as glorious. Still just as chilly out, too - around 28 leaving the house a few minutes after 7:00, dropping to 26 as I make my way across the Oley valley with the rising sun lighting the tips of the trees.

The leaves are down and the crops are in, so the landscape is a wintry mix of grays and browns with the occasional spot of green from a south facing bit of grass.

I'm suited up in what is now winter-standard wear: long LD Comfort base layer, thinsulate lined jeans, Gerbing electric jacket, Rev-It suit with liners, and Frogg-Toggs pajama top. Today, I put up the hood of the Frogg Toggs jacket under the helmet instead of the Balaclava. This provides a very effective seal at the bottom of the helmet without a lot of bulk under the helmet. With the jacket plugged in and turned up, I was toasty.

As we formed up to head over to Kutztown for fire house breakfast, Tim reported that the control unit for his electric vest was broken. He decided to try out his new layering system with the Gore Tex top layer without electrics. In the spirit of solidarity and experimentation, I headed out to Kutztown with my jacket unplugged, too. Well actually, I gotta be honest, that solidarity business is BS. It was more like stupidity; I forgot to plug in as we were heading out. The experiment was worth the trouble, though. Riding through 28 degrees relying on just layering was not too bad, except my finger tips and toes got cold. So it appears to be true, if you can keep your core warm with the electric jacket, the body pumps warm blood out to the extremities to keep them warm. If your core needs to conserve heat, the first thing to go is the toes.

Breakfast was crowded because the fire company was having its Christmas celebration, complete with grandchildren getting pictures taken sitting in Santa's lap. The local Brownie Troop was busing tables. I swear they must have been getting paid by the dish - little girls in brown vests with badges hovered around the table pouncing on each plate as soon as the last fork full of food was raised from it. Twice I had to actually wrestle my coffee cup back from an eager Brownie so I could get another cup of joe.

I was short on time and we were planning to go out to buy a Christmas tree, so I parted company with the others after breakfast and headed home. Not quite straight home, of course. I headed over the backbone of the county towards Frredricksville, then dropped down through Landis Store and Hill Church pausing long enough to take a gray winter photo of the Upper Perk Valley spread out below Franklin Hill. Short ride - long breakfast - great morning.