Commuting – December 4

Today was my first day commuting to work on my new Ural Patrol. It was a blast! I also have set my new low temp riding record at 13F (–10C). I am amazed how much more comfortable I am with a fairing and windshield as none of the rest of my bikes have a windshield.

When I was riding my SV650 to work at 25F, I had my heated vest and gloves on high. With the Ural I am, only at low on the vest and high on the gloves. My hands did get a bit cold on the way to work, but then I mounted my hippo hands after work and I had to turn the heated gloves to medium or low! I hated the hippo hands on my scooter, but they work really great on the Ural.

I went for a long ride around town after work. It took a few hours and I went just over 100km. I was quite warm and comfortable. My visor kept fogging, so I kept it open slightly which seemed to solve the problem. My feet also started to get chilled after about an hour, so I bumped the heat up on my vest from low to medium which solved the problem.

After a couple hours, my shoulders and upper back were getting quite tired, so I headed for home along the river. Pushing the hack around corners is quite tiring! The pic below is of the new 35W bridge over the Mississippi. I had never seen it at night from below. I l love the blue lights. The top is also covered in blue light when on the freeway.

In total, I spent about three hours riding around in 20F! I put just over 100km on the Patrol during that time. I now have about 170km with just another 230km to go. Then I can ride it the 100km to the first 500km service.