The Paulcb Memorial Coldest Ride, Winter 2023-2024

[centralMN]

Interesting point. I had to do a little checking around to see that the large number at the top is the air temperature. Here is the afternoon temp when we have a mild wind blowing. Air was beautifully calm this morning on departure, so air temp and wind chill would have been the same. Other two numbers must be the high for the day and the low for the upcoming night. Seems we are about to have a heat wave! And we are looking at above freezing temps and occasional icing of roads so the salt will be spraying all over everything on the road unlike this morning where only a few shade covered corners and intersections had damp salt. Not sure that it sprays much below zero though?

For the web weather concerns...I have no better way to measure temperature. My analog thermometer sensor is just barely outside my kitchen window so feels a little heat from the house I think. And reliability of alcohol thermometers from China? 2002 ST1100 doesn't have temp sensor, nor does the 1987 Volvo 740...etc. My nose thermometer said properly cold as those outer nose hairs started to crystalize when I was pushing the bike out of the garage.

Now back to my task of figuring out how to keep those heated sock connections connected. Probably will pick up the chaps from Gears Canada to match the socks. It wasn't terribly uncomfortable, but the last 40 minutes of riding had no electric heat to my left foot. Heck those toes are still feeling cold. Maybe I'll have another year of healing the damaged circulation on some extremity that got damaged by mild frostbite?

 

[rogo]

I got out today for my coldest ride.
28F on departure. Temp' never got over 30F.
I could have moved higher up the board if I left at sunrise.
But dang it was cold!

 

[rjs987]

Not many time/temp signs around any more so I carry an aquarium/terrarium thermometer with my when I ride just 'cuz I like to know what the temp is. I can refer to it anytime during the ride and see how the temps change depending where I am. On my ST1100 I put it in my jacket pocket with the probe hanging out. Same on my CTX1300 and Burgman 650. Now I use Kemimoto handlebar muffs instead of heated gloves and there is a pocket in the top of the right side so I put the thermometer in that with the probe hanging out in the breeze. I can easily read it while riding through the clear pocket. This thermometer is waterproof and can read temps from -58F to +158F... plenty of range for this game. I have another one at the window in my home with the probe hanging outside on the north side of the house so the sun doesn't skew the reading. They are rather accurate. I recommend.
https://a.co/d/b7IwKxC

You can see the probe wire sticking out of the bar muff in this photo from last year.


This is what I can see while riding.


Unfortunately bikes that have an ambient air temp sensor cannot read below +14F so are no good for games like this... unless you never ride that cold.

 

[W0QNX]

I think the phone screen is a bit crazy but it was at least -8 to -11 when he was out and about. I'd say make a claim and stick to it centralMN. It's a gentlemens game of honor and trust. You tell us what you had and that should be it.

National Weather Service : Observed Weather for past 3 Days : Little Falls, Little Falls/Morrison County Airport-Lindbergh Field

From NOAA Little Falls, Little Falls/Morrison County Airport-Lindbergh Field. Next after CLR was the actual temps this morning. So at 09:35 it was -9. the second temp is dew point temp.

 

[rjs987]

The problem with web weather services is that the actual temp where you ARE can be 6-10 deg different than what they report. I'm looking at wUnderground right now where the maps shows the temps at stations all over the city and the official temp on the local news station says 5F but 2 houses up from me (where a reporting station is located) it is 9F and 3 miles away it shows 3F. Web weather services simply cannot show what the temp is on the road where I ride unless there is a temp sensor right there where I rode past and I look at it at the moment I rode past. 20 minutes later the temp can be different by 5-10F. That's why I carry the sensor with me so I actually know and don't have to guess that some web service is the same as where I was a half hour ago.

But as was mentioned this is being handled on the honor system so what is said is what it should be accepted. I just believe that part of being honorable is knowing. There have been rides I've taken over the years where the weather service showed 10 deg colder than where I rode but I reported what it was where I was rather than claim something colder... or warmer (since it can go either way).

 

[centralMN]

I'll have to just go with the -14 F on phone app that I pressed this morning because it's about all I have and usually go with. Little Falls looks about the same. Between 9-11am temperatures change as sun warms the earth. So it's a crapshoot. Being that I could care little about fame and glory and more enjoy reading and posting....well, actually it was even more fun to talk to a few people this morning and get that "you're nuts" look or even those complimentary words being uttered.

BTW I saw that same Oscar Meyer Wienermobile near here a few years ago. Living in Madison WI a couple decades ago that was not an uncommon sight, and it always makes me sing...."Oh I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wiener......" Play that and then the McDonald's line "You deserve a break today...." and the joys of youth start abounding. Cheers!

 

[the Ferret]

Regardless, a good cold ride. Congrats.

I always use the sign down at the bank. How accurate its it? Who knows? It doesn't read the same as the gauge in my wife's car or the weather app on my phone which don't agree with each other either.

A couple years ago I bought an indoor/outdoor thermometer. You're supposed to mount the thing in the house and stick the probe out the window. For the last year it has been sitting on my dresser with the probe just laying beside it and the two temperatures never agree. How can that be? lol

On the 6 PM news tonight, our local WKRC TV weatherman said we got down to Zero this morning. "The coldest Jan 20th in 40 years " he said. The coldest I saw on my outdoor thermometer was 6 when I got up at dawn. If I had ridden down by the river a couple miles south it might have been a couple degrees colder. Our official temp comes from the CVG Greater Cincinnati Airport located in Northern Kentucky lol, some 30 minutes south of where I live.

Thermometers are like tire air pressure gauges. Sometimes they are actually accurate, most times they are not.

It's just a game.

 

[Willsmotorcycle]

@centralMN as previously stated, it's a gentleman's game, the -14° is real feel... what temp are you entering?

 

[the Ferret]

btw I have the exact same temp gauge as @rjs987 has on his bike, but I have the probe hanging down in the fairing tunnel. When I'm rolling the temp reads just fine, but when I stop the heat from the engine immediately starts raising the temp on the gauge. I have about 1 second to take a pic before the temp is no longer valid. I could find a new place to stick the probe, although I'm afraid to stick the probe out in the open where the sun can hit it, figuring that would raise the temp too.

Outdoor thermometer is reading 3 here this morning. This cold snap ends today here, starting tomorrow it's going to be highs in the 40's and 50's for the next week to 10 days.

 

[centralMN]

@centralMN as previously stated, it's a gentleman's game, the -14° is real feel... what temp are you entering?

Above I edited just now to state -14F. It was woven in an early response the real feel equals the actual temp when there is no wind.

 

[W0QNX]

Above I edited just now to state -14F. It was woven in an early response the real feel equals the actual temp when there is no wind.

Can't disagree with that. Just look at the Gentlemen's coffee in his avatar pic.

Good job, it might be the coldest for the year.

 

[rjs987]

Looks like the next 2 weeks will not allow any opportunity for me to advance in this game.
There will be a few mornings that drop just below freezing but high temps will be mostly in the mid 30sF to upper 40sF during this time with the possibility of even seeing 54F in early February.
So unless the middle to late part of February brings along another blast from the North Pole we won't be seeing anything cooler than I've already posted here. That would make this the first year of the last 18 years of riding that I didn't make it even to zeroF.

We did have almost a week when both the low and the high temp stayed below zeroF but we also had 2 big snowstorms during that time. Yesterday late the roads were finally clear enough to ride on but there was also a light drizzle and overnight temps below freezing resulting in lots of icing on the roads. Rain continued today with thick fog and mist tonight to continue the next few days as temps stay in the 30sF and never drop below that.

In a way I really look forward to the temps staying up and the rain going away so I can just ride. I don't mind riding in the rain but not so much when the temp is close to freezing. Maybe the temps will drop again after the next 2 weeks. Some years the coldest temps did happen near the end of February. We'll see.

 

[the Ferret]

We have lots of fog last night and this morning but at 8:45am we are already at 51 degrees and may go up near 60 today. We've had inches and inches of rain over the last couple of days

 

[centralMN]

Looks like the next 2 weeks will not allow any opportunity for me to advance in this game.
There will be a few mornings that drop just below freezing but high temps will be mostly in the mid 30sF to upper 40sF during this time with the possibility of even seeing 54F in early February.
.......

Looks like we are doing the same. But with barely any snow we'll be maybe riding on the gravel roads in another week. Of course these are the sketchiest for packed ice/snow in the shady stretches. Tar roads not so inviting because they tend to get salted when we get the freezing fog and mist that comes with near freezing temps. Not too many folks use snow tires on their cars to survive driving on a mirror...so we salt and make cars rot and motorcyclists protect their equipment from the same by not using them. And I'm envious because we didn't get a snowmobile season like our southern friends between Des Moines and Madison WI. Some kids from here went south to southern Wisconsin to snowmobile last week. When was the last time someone went south for good snow?

 

[rjs987]

Only kinda bummed...

Between Jan 3 and Jan 29 we had the coldest temps of the season so far, but also had several smaller snow storms and 2 big snow storms that left the streets thick with compacted snow/ice until last weekend. The reason for the roads finally clearing was a week of relatively warm temps in the upper 30sF and low 40sF. Before that temps stayed well below freezing so the snow stayed on the streets.

Now it looks like the rest of the season is beginning to look how I would wish it always would be with temps in the upper 40sF and low 50sF... at least for the next 2 weeks. I usually like to get at least one ride in the season in temps below zeroF but I'm thinking this year will be an exception.

I suppose I don't mind so much.

 

[the Ferret]

We got one night at zero this winter (none below zero so far). I rode every day in November and December. There were 3 days in January I couldn't ride due to snow accumulation, the 19th, 20th and 21st, and 7 days I missed to all day rains.

Last night on the news the weatherman said we've had 6 1/3 " of rain in January. A usual Jan is 3". Been a wet one, but luckily now a snowy one.

Coldest they are predicting for the next 14 days is 28 for a low (high of 41 with rain/snow showers) on Feb 13th. Rain on 5 of those days.

Going to move the quad with snow plow back to the back of the garage, and my bikes back out front.

 

[rjs987]

Our next 14 days...


Thursdays and Fridays are out for riding due to daycare duties. I also am just getting started on a project on the bike that will interrupt riding off and on but I will be taking my time over the next few months so hopefully not keeping me too much from riding.

 

[Donk]

The heck with my standings in the contest I'm loving riding in this weather! Maybe I will rethink my opinion on Global Warming

 

[rjs987]

Yeah, we've got a heat wave happening here too. The temp has been noticeably higher than in the forecast I posted above. Today I went for a ride and the temp stayed at about 59F. Will be warmer tomorrow but chance of rain... in February... which just doesn't happen around here at this time of year.

 

[centralMN]

I suppose happy Spring is in order! It's all possible on two wheels here as well, possibly until November or December when La Nina brings greets us with plentiful snow? A bit blustery today and maybe getting above freezing. Doubtful we will see even low temperatures below zero. The brown road is not soft, slimy, or icy when it's just below freezing and not coated in snow. Won't need agressive tires to feel confidence with traction until the surface melts again or even more exciting when it rains and only the surface layer is slime and the frozen layer below. But for me it is only 1.5 miles of the gravel road required to access the paved roads, so without solid ice it is always possible to ride. Happy Trails