Motorcyclists are wimps

[LisaLisa]

I haven't seen motorcycles for weeks.
This morning was no rain, but cold- it was the warning ride. Time to break out the quilted chaps and the liner for the jacket. Find that chin skirt for the helmet. Close the helmet vents, put in the nose piece. Yep, it's cool weather again.

[DennisD]

Owning both a scooter and motorcycle, when the weather turns bad I always opt for the scooter. A lot of valid reasons have already been mentioned, but another critical one is that the scooter protects you from the elements better than a motorcycle (at least my motorcycle). So, when it starts to get colder, the scoot is the best choice. Obviously, there are many bikes out there that are fantastic all-weather performers, but a naked sport bike isn't one of them.

If it's wet, the scooter is the only choice. The motorcycle is fine in the rain but splash-back can be horrendous and the odds of something bad happening increase with the increased speed of the motorcycle.

Last, but certainly not least, I don't ride my bike in the rain because even a 10 minute joy ride will require a 2-3 hour cleaning. Honestly, that's the best reason for keeping the bike home and taking a car or the scoot. I can hose off the scooter in less than 30 minutes.

When it comes to foul weather riding, comparing motorcycle to scooter is pretty close to an apples and oranges thing. It's pointless.

AMEN! And when it comes to protection from the elements I haven't ridden a scooter that comes close to doing the job as well as my old Honda Helix other than the newer copycat maxi scoots.

[Kaos]

Just to show the other side of the fence, its cold out today and has been pouring most of the day. It took just a little break, which I used for some winter carburetor tuning. I was shooting down a local highway and shot past two harley riders all geared up for the cold.

They caught up to me at a light, and one of them pulled up next to me, and said with a chuckle, "Beautiful day for a ride!" I replied back with, "Is there any other type?" The rear rider was cracking up the whole time, I looked back and said, "What's so funny?" He only replies with, "You scooter boys are a damn crazy bunch." I replied with "Wouldn't have it any other way", and we all rode off in formation. They waved as I finally split from them.

[Vic]

Another thing about riding in the wet and cold, you more susceptible to getting ill.

Sorry but I have to comment on this. Cold and wet do not make you ill. That is a very old wives' tale. Contact with germs and viruses make you ill. More people get sick in cold weather because more people are inside in direct contact with one another. I can't stand it when someone is sick because of the weather.

I do agree that saying that being in cold or wet "makes you sick" is not true and that pathogens are what cause these types of illnesses... However, there have been studies that have shown that things like the flu virus (for example) survive longer on surfaces that are colder than warm surfaces.

So...a combination of people being inside and packed in together sharing the same air and the viruses surviving longer on shared surfaces, cause people to get sick more frequently in the cold months.

But, just going outside with damp hair on a frosty morning is not going to make you wake up the next morning with a case of pneumonia (unless you were already going to come down sick with it anyway), but that virus may have survived on the doorknob longer in January than it would have in July and had the opportunity to expose more people and made more people sick.

What drives me crazy is that everyone has become so germphobic, at my work they have these little alcohol hand cleaner dispensers and people are using "anti-bacterial" wipes all over the place.

Alcohol is extremely drying, cracked hands are a wide open door for all sorts of nasty bugs. Those idiotic wipes can not possibly destroy all of the bugs on a surface, so (as Darwin taught us) the strong survive and thrive now that the weak are no longer taking up resources. Those bugs get to continue to do what they do best and continue to evolve to be stronger and resistant. Then what?

I have had to deal with 2 different "superbugs", MRSA struck my mother when she was down and I fought a nasty variant of Pseudomonas myself. People think they are staying safe when they are really contributing to the problem!

/rant

-v

[DennisD]

Sorry but I have to comment on this. Cold and wet do not make you ill. That is a very old wives' tale. Contact with germs and viruses make you ill. More people get sick in cold weather because more people are inside in direct contact with one another. I can't stand it when someone is sick because of the weather.

I do agree that saying that being in cold or wet "makes you sick" is not true and that pathogens are what cause these types of illnesses... However, there have been studies that have shown that things like the flu virus (for example) survive longer on surfaces that are colder than warm surfaces.

So...a combination of people being inside and packed in together sharing the same air and the viruses surviving longer on shared surfaces, cause people to get sick more frequently in the cold months.

But, just going outside with damp hair on a frosty morning is not going to make you wake up the next morning with a case of pneumonia (unless you were already going to come down sick with it anyway), but that virus may have survived on the doorknob longer in January than it would have in July and had the opportunity to expose more people and made more people sick.

What drives me crazy is that everyone has become so germphobic, at my work they have these little alcohol hand cleaner dispensers and people are using "anti-bacterial" wipes all over the place.

Alcohol is extremely drying, cracked hands are a wide open door for all sorts of nasty bugs. Those idiotic wipes can not possibly destroy all of the bugs on a surface, so (as Darwin taught us) the strong survive and thrive now that the weak are no longer taking up resources. Those bugs get to continue to do what they do best and continue to evolve to be stronger and resistant. Then what?

I have had to deal with 2 different "superbugs", MRSA struck my mother when she was down and I fought a nasty variant of Pseudomonas myself. People think they are staying safe when they are really contributing to the problem!

/rant

-v

Thank you. I am in complete agreement. How do those dirty little two year old boys ever survive? My wife used to be paranoid about germs until we had our first child. That fear went away pretty quickly when she couldn't keep up with my son after he started crawling. A little dirt, a few worms, a frog, oh look, the dog is taking a dump in the back yard, think I will too! What fun!

I do have a few shares of stock in consumer product companies so I encourage everyone to buy all of this crap that will protect you from everything that was ever thought to be harmful. Its the new millenium snake oil.

[Vic]

Thank you. I am in complete agreement. How do those dirty little two year old boys ever survive? My wife used to be paranoid about germs until we had our first child. That fear went away pretty quickly when she couldn't keep up with my son after he started crawling. A little dirt, a few worms, a frog, oh look, the dog is taking a dump in the back yard, think I will too! What fun!

I do have a few shares of stock in consumer product companies so I encourage everyone to buy all of this crap that will protect you from everything that was ever thought to be harmful. Its the new millenium snake oil.

Just do a little research on the Polio epidemics and you will learn a lot about the effects of this paranoia about germs. It really is quite simple, our immune systems were designed so that they develop as a result of being challenged. It truly is a case of what does not kill you makes you stronger. They are currently doing research (and finding a lot of very interesting stuff out) about allergies and people that come from farms and people that come from neat-freak homes. Folks that live close to the earth tend to have stronger immune systems that are generally healthier.

Yeah, I hate being sick, I hate it when my kids are sick, but I think of it as exercise for the immune system.

I worked with a nurse that I highly respect, she was a 20 year breast cancer survivor and one of the things that she did when she was first diagnosed was to go out and get lots of immunizations. She got immunized for everything she could find someone with a needle full of something to give to her. The reason was to jump start her immune system for the battle ahead. She believed with all her heart that doing that was one of the reasons that she survived it.

-v

[TVB]

Those idiotic wipes can not possibly destroy all of the bugs on a surface, so (as Darwin taught us) the strong survive and thrive now that the weak are no longer taking up resources. Those bugs get to continue to do what they do best and continue to evolve to be stronger and resistant.

But these superbugs are helping to produce a strain of superbug-resistant superhumans!

[Kevin K]

Yes, wimps. Every one of us.
-K

[laxer]

Yes, wimps. Every one of us.
-K

Ok, your bike rides naked in the snow, do you?

[Kevin K]

Sometimes..........

More often than not, it's a little overkill....

-K

[myras_girls]

It wasn't even cold this morning and 2 motorcycle riders told me I was crazy for riding in the "cold". It was 45 degrees! That ain't cold.