Monolith
Member
Wow, easily the hardest ride I have done. It’s a lesson learned. Recently my wife and I purchased a vacation home in Arizona. I had a great idea that putting my bike there instead of here would result in us not having to rent a car down there and the weather in Bullhead City is 70 degree’s even in December. Year around riding. So I put on my leathers and rode down last week. No heated gear. Bike was a 2006 Harley Heritage Softail.
After checking all the passes and options for routes I opted for I-5 since the weather was the warmest (38 degrees) instead of high 20’s like some of the other passes. I decided that in order to give myself the best possible chance to cross the pass without snow and during the warmest part of the day, I would leave here at 4am. This put me at the Oregon/CA border pass roughly 2pm, warmest time of the day, but 10 hours of riding already behind me. No stopping other then Gas. The weather was freezing, raining, and just miserable the whole way. The pass was snowing, with slush on the road and snow on the sides. All the water on my bike and windshield turned to ice as I was riding through the pass. I was beyond shivering and cold, I was easily on my way to hyperthermia.
When I hit Sacramento at 6pm, I got a room and spent an hour in the hot tub, just trying to feel human again. Jeans, leather chaps, leather jacket and leather gloves are NOT adequate for 14 hours on the bike through 30-41 degree weather. Sure looking back there are things I should have done differently, but in my zest for riding and the adventure I figured I could just “cowboy up” through it all and be fine. I pulled into Bullhead City at 5pm the next day. ~1400 miles in 38 hours is not all that impressive, but that fact I was completely inadequately geared for it, made it one (edit) of a ride.
Lesson learned – Heated gear might be annoying and a pan in the behind, but 8 hours down the road you will surely be kicking yourself if you’re not wearing it.
After checking all the passes and options for routes I opted for I-5 since the weather was the warmest (38 degrees) instead of high 20’s like some of the other passes. I decided that in order to give myself the best possible chance to cross the pass without snow and during the warmest part of the day, I would leave here at 4am. This put me at the Oregon/CA border pass roughly 2pm, warmest time of the day, but 10 hours of riding already behind me. No stopping other then Gas. The weather was freezing, raining, and just miserable the whole way. The pass was snowing, with slush on the road and snow on the sides. All the water on my bike and windshield turned to ice as I was riding through the pass. I was beyond shivering and cold, I was easily on my way to hyperthermia.
When I hit Sacramento at 6pm, I got a room and spent an hour in the hot tub, just trying to feel human again. Jeans, leather chaps, leather jacket and leather gloves are NOT adequate for 14 hours on the bike through 30-41 degree weather. Sure looking back there are things I should have done differently, but in my zest for riding and the adventure I figured I could just “cowboy up” through it all and be fine. I pulled into Bullhead City at 5pm the next day. ~1400 miles in 38 hours is not all that impressive, but that fact I was completely inadequately geared for it, made it one (edit) of a ride.
Lesson learned – Heated gear might be annoying and a pan in the behind, but 8 hours down the road you will surely be kicking yourself if you’re not wearing it.
Last edited by a moderator:
