Its never too cold, you just have to be ready for whatever comes your way.
Cold Weather Riding tips
The cold weather motorcycle riding season is just around the corner. Here are some thoughts that might make your riding more comfortable and above all safer.
note: This is not meant to be a technical article, as aspects related to thermoregulation are way beyond the scope of this writing. But it is meant to generate thinking on managing cold-weather riding.
Why we get cold:
The main reason we get cold when riding a motorcycle, even if well dressed, is that we typically generate very little heat while sitting still on a bike. Physical exertion or movement generates heat. Sitting still on a bike does not. As an example, cross-country skiers typically wear very little clothing even in the coldest weather and still feel warm.
When we start off on a cold weather ride, we feel warm and comfortable. As the ride goes on we feel progressively colder.
We can think of our body's temperature in terms of an account in which we make deposits or withdrawals. This is very similar to a bike's electrical system (ie charge vs discharge).
Let's take the example of a bike that runs off a fully charged battery but has no external-charging source (ie no alternator).
You start on your trip with a fully charged battery. The length of time that your battery charge will last depends on the size of the against the charge and how long these draws go on for. The higher the draw the shorter the amount of time that the battery charge will last. Fewer or smaller draws will allow the charge to last longer. So far, so good.
Exactly the same thing happens when we ride in cold weather. We start off feeling comfortable or maybe slightly overheating. As we ride, we will be subject to heat loss (from wind chill). Generally speaking, how long we last before we feel cold depends on how cold the temperature is, how fast we are riding (wind chill), and how long we are riding for.
Since we have no external heat source (ie like a bike with no charging system) our body's temperature-account is continuously being drawn upon. Just like the battery voltage continuously decreasing, our body will get progressively cooler.
So what if you dress very warmly?
Dressing warmly will slow down the heat loss (cooling effect). But you will still be drawing on the account. The only difference is that it will take a little longer for you to feel cold. But if the ride is long enough, you will feel cold.
Why?
Every inch of exposed skin is a heat radiator that works on the same principle as your bike's radiator. Your neck, ears, your face (chin, cheeks, nose, eyes) even the lower edge of your forehead (where the helmet stops) all act as heat radiators. In addition, with each exhaled breath you are losing close to 100% humidity as well as body heat. With each cold breath you take, you are cooling your system. In fact, if you do nothing else but breathe, you will eventually feel cold due to the draw on your system. Keep in mind that you are not moving around to counteract this heat loss as you would be in cross-country skiing or running. You are sitting perfectly still while exposed to a constant, heat-leaching, cold windblast.
In addition, there often is cold leakage through your clothing. Cold wind (ie 60mph and more) can penetrate some fabrics and zippers. Fabric that is essentially windproof at lower airspeeds can become permeable under pressure of wind. Providing a wind-proof barrier is essential.
There is also evaporative cooling that occurs as your body loses humidity. For example, your hands produce humidity inside your gloves. This humidity travels outwards to the glove surface. As evaporative cooling takes place, your gloves are cooled. This in turn cools your hands. So there are many draws on your body temperature-account, but no deposits. Soon your account is depleted and you are in danger of becoming hypothermic.
If you ride long enough with no outside source of heat, you will get cold. It's only a question of time.
This is not only a comfort issue. It's a safety issue. A cold and tense rider is not a safe rider. Situational awareness is decreased; thinking slows down, as do reflexes. Not a good thing. In addition, a tense rider expends more energy, further contributing to the downward spiral.
Cold Weather Riding: Heated Vest
How much heat?
A heated vest or other type of heated clothing is very effective at replacing lost body heat. But how much heat do you really need?
Good question. In fact we need much less than we might tend to think we need. But we need it distributed more evenly. And it helps if we don't lose the heat through convection or radiation heat loss.
Heated clothing is basically an external heat source. Its effectiveness will depend on our skin's ability to absorb and transfer this heat to our deeper tissues and muscles. The problem arises in that our skin can only transfer heat at a certain rate. If we apply more, the skin exceeds its ability to transfer and it burns (or cooks, if you will).
Let's think of how we cook meat. Plop a steak on a very hot grill and it will sear on the outside while remaining raw and cold on the inside. Plop a steak on a pan that is not as hot and it will warm evenly throughout. The same holds true for electric clothing. It’s really that simple.
This is what happens when a rider feels that the heated vest is almost burning next to his skin but he is still not warm enough. This is also what happens when a rider gets branded by the heating elements. The usual suspects here are uneven heat distribution often caused by too few heating elements.
So, to my mind, the answer to how much heat is required from a heated garment is the following: Adequate levels of heat, as much as you can handle, but distributed over a greater surface will be more effective as well as more comfortable than higher but more localized levels. It's all a question of rate of absorption.
The ideal, and most comfortable for me, is a heated garment set on low simmer that soothingly replaces lost body heat.
The Gerbing jacket liner and G3 gloves provides me with plently of warmth down to the single digit.
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