Author Topic: How cold is too cold?  (Read 1550 times)

Offline Scout63

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How cold is too cold?
« on: January 07, 2022, 04:46:55 PM »
I was pulling SP1000 cylinders between leaving the house for work and getting into the car this morning and it felt pretty cold in the garage.  There is no heat and it was about 30F.  I’ll work down to about 25 but shorten up the time to an hour or so.  Time for a heater.
Ben Zehnder - Orleans, MA USA

Offline 9fingers

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2022, 04:50:41 PM »
Ill ride down to 30F but I am not working on a bike in my garage unless at least 40. Those portable electric heaters do a pretty good job after an hour or so, depending on the size of ones garage of course.
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Offline JJ

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2022, 04:53:36 PM »
Frozen?!?  (Yes.....FROZEN!!)  :rolleyes: :shocked: :huh:

My refrigerator stopped working recently....turns out the heater / defroster was encased in a solid block of ice...

Had to replace the entire control panel also....





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Offline Ncdan

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2022, 05:21:36 PM »
May I offer a suggestion 🤔


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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2022, 05:21:36 PM »

Offline Motormike

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2022, 06:24:09 PM »
I promised myself in retirement I'd have a conditioned garage/workshop.  So now life is good when it comes time to service a bike.  No more numb hands in the winter or leaving the garage door open in the summer only to be devoured by mosquitoes!  A garage is not ideal to heat and cool though.  Lots of gaps around the doors let cold air in.  So in the winter, when the temps drop well below 30 degrees (like tonight as I write this...low teens!) I set the thermostat to 50 in an effort to keep my utility bills under control.  Still, it's wonderful not to have to wipe the sweat out of my eyes in the summer or worry about bikes that are too cold to start in the winter. 

Offline John A

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2022, 06:40:57 PM »
I promised myself in retirement I'd have a conditioned garage/workshop.  So now life is good when it comes time to service a bike.  No more numb hands in the winter or leaving the garage door open in the summer only to be devoured by mosquitoes!  A garage is not ideal to heat and cool though.  Lots of gaps around the doors let cold air in.  So in the winter, when the temps drop well below 30 degrees (like tonight as I write this...low teens!) I set the thermostat to 50 in an effort to keep my utility bills under control.  Still, it's wonderful not to have to wipe the sweat out of my eyes in the summer or worry about bikes that are too cold to start in the winter.




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Offline fotoguzzi

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2022, 07:01:13 PM »
19 below zero F is too cold, I have not left the house all day. Dogs can't go to the off leash park either.

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Offline Canuck750

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2022, 08:02:31 PM »
We have had daytime high temperatures of -25C ~ -27C since before Christmas and night lows of -32C ~ -36C, windchils below -40C,

Too damn cold for way too long now, hopefuly it breaks by early next week.
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Offline chuck peterson

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2022, 08:21:58 PM »
Propane tank…

Burner..

Closed garage..

A balmy 32f at the peak today…black asphalt melted snow

Removed the nytimes from my snowblower for 2.5 hrs

Resorted to a handheld propane burner to melt the compacted and frozen 64 pages of newsprint with plastic bags

Thank heavens it wasn’t the weekend edition

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Offline Scout63

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2022, 08:42:57 PM »
19 below zero F is too cold, I have not left the house all day. Dogs can't go to the off leash park either.



That is way too cold.
Ben Zehnder - Orleans, MA USA

Offline Chuck in Indiana

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2022, 06:27:32 AM »
When I was a kid on the farm I told myself that I was never ever going to freeze my ass off doing chores, milking cows, etc. again. <shrug>  I literally fell off the tractor one time from hypothermia. Could barely make it to the house.
The shop is 68 degrees in the Winter, 74 degrees in the Summer.
Chuck in (Elwood) Indiana/sometimes SoCal
 
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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2022, 07:10:41 AM »
When I was a kid on the farm I told myself that I was never ever going to freeze my ass off doing chores, milking cows, etc. again. <shrug>  I literally fell off the tractor one time from hypothermia. Could barely make it to the house.
The shop is 68 degrees in the Winter, 74 degrees in the Summer.

Ahhh…reminds me of days on the farm in northeastern Wisconsin when I was young.  Brrrrrr….

Offline Motormike

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2022, 09:11:33 AM »
"Motorcycle Cold" quote.  Maybe you've read it:


"There is cold, and there is cold on a motorcycle. Cold on a motorcycle is like being beaten with coldhammers while being kicked with cold boots, a bone bruising cold. The wind's big hands squeeze the heat out of my body and whisk it away; caught in a cold October rain, the drops don't even feel like water. They feel like shards of bone fallen from the skies of Hell to pock my face. I expect to arrive with my cheeks and forehead streaked with blood, but that's just an illusion, just the misery of nerves not designed for highway speeds."


Offline yogidozer

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2022, 09:17:14 AM »



Offline Royce

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2022, 09:24:04 AM »
As a young man working construction, we always stopped working at -5 F but would often go play in it after the tools were picked up.  :)
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Offline Jack Straw

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #15 on: January 08, 2022, 10:00:27 AM »
I'm probably the biggest sissy on this forum about cold weather riding.   If it's under 60 degrees I likely won't get on the bike.

There, I said it :cool: 

Offline blackcat

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #16 on: January 08, 2022, 10:24:53 AM »
I've worked in the garage for short periods of time wearing my electric jacket and pants. Yeah, I was hooked up to a battery but it was better than nothing.

Now I have a propane tank and one of those open flame blasters, fan operated and it heats up the garage really fast.
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Offline Scout63

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2022, 04:19:54 PM »
Decades ago I rode from Charlottesville to NYC in a freezing rain. The toll taker on the GW bridge had to unzip my jacket, take out the money, put the change back in and zip it up. He didn’t miss a beat.
Ben Zehnder - Orleans, MA USA

Offline Motormike

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #18 on: January 09, 2022, 10:17:03 AM »
Many years ago, I was with a group of Harley riders leaving Atlanta for Daytona Bike Week in March.  The day before we left, an Alberta Clipper brought in sub-freezing temps as far south as Jacksonville.
Nobody had heated gear or grips back then.  We all looked like the Michelien Man, bundled up as we were.

I know just how this kid feels:
https://youtu.be/QqQWg30BtdE

Offline Stretch

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #19 on: January 09, 2022, 04:09:59 PM »
My first long ride in the cold was from Keesler AFB in MS to Andrews Air Force Base in DC in 1979.

I started out in 40 degree rain, and ended up in 20 degree temps in VA and DC.

It took me three days  on my old XS-750. Full fairing and bags, but I froze my a$$off!!!

I've always thought that the two biggest temperature changes were below 60 and then
below 32.  'Course I've never lived in the desert......

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Offline xackley

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #20 on: January 09, 2022, 07:17:17 PM »
Cold was the only reason I ever drafted a semi, staring at those taillights hoping a retread didn't come flying at me.
That was in the Poconos. I was working in New Jersey and knew it would be 10 degrees warmer if I could make the low lands.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2022, 07:21:42 PM by xackley »
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Offline Roebling3

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #21 on: January 10, 2022, 10:26:23 AM »
Cripes! We may know one another. And I may have been driving (mostly tank work), or riding. Either way, most often in the dark.  R3~

Offline yogidozer

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #22 on: January 10, 2022, 10:54:26 AM »
Cold was the only reason I ever drafted a semi, staring at those taillights hoping a retread didn't come flying at me.
That was in the Poconos. I was working in New Jersey and knew it would be 10 degrees warmer if I could make the low lands.
I did that during a torrential downpour coming back from camping in the upper Adirondacks.
Looking back it wasn't very smart, if he hammered on the brakes.

Offline berniebee

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #23 on: January 10, 2022, 11:13:43 AM »
I promised myself in retirement I'd have a conditioned garage/workshop.

Same here. My garage is very well insulated and sits on a massively thick concrete slab, which acts as a thermal mass. It takes a long time to get hot or cold in there. We are on time-of-day electrical rates, so in winter I set a 1,000 watt baseboard on a timer to go on part of every night. Then in the day when high rates take effect and the heater is off, the temperature drifts down maybe 10F degrees from peak, even with me opening the overhead door several times a day. In the summer, it just doesn't get very hot in there. But if there are three or four days of really hot, humid weather I'll leave the doors open in the cooler evening till I go to bed. 

As for biking in the cold, well, I wax my skis.

Offline DesertPilot

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #24 on: January 12, 2022, 10:13:03 AM »
At Russia's Vostok Station in Antarctica -- the coldest place on Earth occupied by humans year-round -- winter temperatures can drop below the freezing point of carbon dioxide.

Compared to those guys, we're all slackers  :grin:




Offline Tiki Joe

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #25 on: January 12, 2022, 11:03:35 AM »
I can't handle working out in the cold.  My 3 car garage is insulated and drywalled so even in the dead of winter when the temps dip down in the single digits; the garage is still at least 35 degrees and actually rarely below 40 degrees.  Luckily I have a basement with a walkout that I can fit the Italian bikes through the door.  The Harleys are too wide so they stay in the garage. 

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Offline Jorg66

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #26 on: January 12, 2022, 11:48:01 AM »
Polar Vortex finaly phucked off, like Canuck said it was cold up her.For us in Manitoba, .....-39 C with a Windchill of -51 C . Yesterday -1C .
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Offline SSGG Geezer

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #27 on: January 12, 2022, 11:23:45 PM »
Rode to work this afternoon in balmy 45 degree  F weather, with it being 33 F on the way home. 1C for my metric pals!  My thermometer on my V85 read 2 degrees F when I hit the driveway, so I think the salt on the road combined with frost created a wacked out temperature sensor.  The ride home was a bit chilly but worth it for the ride in.

Offline Scout63

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #28 on: January 13, 2022, 06:57:33 AM »
I can't handle working out in the cold.  My 3 car garage is insulated and drywalled so even in the dead of winter when the temps dip down in the single digits; the garage is still at least 35 degrees and actually rarely below 40 degrees.  Luckily I have a basement with a walkout that I can fit the Italian bikes through the door.  The Harleys are too wide so they stay in the garage. 



Is there another bike next to the Superlight?  It’s too pretty to look away from.
Ben Zehnder - Orleans, MA USA

Offline normzone

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Re: How cold is too cold?
« Reply #29 on: January 15, 2022, 07:56:55 AM »
Decades ago I rode from Charlottesville to NYC in a freezing rain. The toll taker on the GW bridge had to unzip my jacket, take out the money, put the change back in and zip it up. He didn’t miss a beat.

Circa 1980, I rode across the Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito into San Francisco on my Kawasaki H2 in a rain and wind storm. The bridge was swaying so much it affected my ability to stay in my lane, but I was the only one on the bridge. When I got to the toll booth to pay my dollar, the uniformed men and women there were roaring with laughter, and they waved me past, refusing to accept my dollar toll.
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