March 13, 2011

Gypsy Stats:
149 miles
7 hrs 12 min elapsed time
3 hr 52 min riding time
38.5 MPH ave.

Beemer Stats:
158 miles
43 MPH ave
44 MPG ave

Gas was $3.80/gal for 93 Octane, $3.50 for regular, at the Redners Quick Stop this morning.

Tim: ’96 BMW R1100RS
Dave: ’99 Triumph Sprint ST 955 Triple (aka Smokin’ Red)
Lindsey: '07 BWM R1200R (Grin!)

The morning got off to an early start having switched to daylight savings time in the middle of the night last night and losing an hour as a result. Simple clear, concise, easy to follow instruction to Tim on how to reset his clock last night ensured that we all gathered at the appointed hour of 8'ish EDT.

Heading out around 7:15, the sun was just climbing above the eastern horizon as a bright red ball. Temperatures were in the low 40's, where they remained all day.

I got two new pieces of gear which I was trying out for the first time. First, my new Aerostich fleece neck kerchief, shown below. This has a Velcro strip for fastening around the neck. The hypotenuse is 24" which makes it plenty roomy. It can be worn just around the neck or up over the chin and provides an effective wind seal at the bottom of the helmet. This proved to be a real winner. It comfortably protects the chin and lower cheeks from cold breezes coming under the chin bar of the helmet and unlike the balaclava, does not cause glasses to steam up. This gets a definite thumbs up and a permanent place in the tank bag.

Next, I was wearing my new Aerostich Goretex jersey windbreaker. This is a good looking and comfortable pull-over alleged to be windproof that I bought to fill out the choice of layers. This morning I layered up with LD Comfort long sleeve base layer, Tee shirt, Gerbing electric vest, new Goretex jersey, and Revit riding suite with liner - no Frogg Toggs over top. My thought was that the jersey would provide complete wind break over the electric jacket. It worked OK, I guess. I was warm enough in the low 40's weather, but I do not think I was as warm as when I used the Frogg Toggs as the ultimate wind break. Also, every time I got off the bike, I wound up having to take the jersey off so I could take the electric jacket off, which was a bit of a pain. This also subverts the "good looking for normal wear off the bike" feature of the jersey. So, it worked pretty well, but I am not completely sold on this set up. Maybe I have to work on the layering, try the jersey under the electrics. We'll see.

Breakfast this morning was Haag's Hotel in Shartleville, family seating all-you-can-eat buffet for $8.48 each. No shoo-fly pie today, but there was a big bowl of home made applesauce which hit the spot and was much healthier to boot. Usually there is a crowd of bikes in the lot but today we were the only ones there. By the time we got there the sky was a pretty solid overcast and the temperature was lurking around 42 with no sign of improving. Maybe there was another party somewhere else that we didn't get invited to or maybe it was just the weather keeping everybody home.

After breakfast we headed north and west, crossing the mountain on 501 up through Pine Grove, Ravine, and Mollystown, over the mountain towards Tremont to pick up Rt 125, always one of our favorite local rides. No surprise this time of year, the roads were full of winter grit especially at intersections and in turns, right where you need the most traction so caution was called for.

We did not go as far as Shamokin, but circled back east to Pottsville. After a coffee break at Dunkin Donuts in Pottsville, we slabbed on down 61 to Port Clinton, then wandered the back roads through Hamburg and Windsor Castle and on home by mid-afternoon.