Hi everyone,
As I mentioned in an earlier post Santa promised to bring me a set of wind deflectors and true to "his" word he came through. Or was it Mrs Claus? Anyway they're on, they've been thoroughly tested and as so many others have stated they're worth every cent.
Yesterday was the first time out with them, the temp was sitting at 37 F, clear skies with sunshine expected. I met up with my riding buddy and we rode 80 miles north to Florence where we would celebrate New Years Day with other riders at Moe's restaurant. The group we met with are all Iron Butt members (except for me, mine's more like SpongeBob's) and we spent a couple of hours socializing, talking rides, bikes, etc. This is one of the friendliest groups of riders I've ever been around, no big egos to deal with, just a common interest in riding. A lot of FJR's were in attendance plus a couple of Gold Wings; the NT drew lots of attention as few riders had ever seen one. Overall it made a good impression with typical comments being "Why hasn't that model ever caught on here in the states?" No answer for that one, I'm just happy to own one.
Afterwards when we headed home the sun warmed up the twisty passes, chasing the frosty bits away and we were able to enjoy the crisp freshness of the first day of the New Year. Several of the people who've installed the wind deflectors had mentioned how warm their hands stayed and I'm now a member of that club. As cold as it was in the morning my hands stayed comfortable without the slightest hint of frosty fingers.
To help ward off the cold I wore a pair of Lee Parks DeerSports PCI gloves, my favorite cold weather gloves. I've owned them for several years and worn them all over including two rides to Alaska and they've never let me down. I wish they were more water proof but they're not so I keep a pair of 3-fingered rain mitts from Aerostich tucked away just in case. I also wore one of Knox's Cold Killer hoods under my helmet which prevented even the slightest wind from sneaking into my jacket. Finally I had on one of Aerostich's electric vests ensuring my old torso would think it was in Miami for the winter.
It was a great getaway if only for a few hours and slightly less than 200 miles but I'm truly pleased with the way the wind deflectors worked; I'm probably not going to install Hot Grips after all.
LL75 :smile:
They only show two pieces of tape a side when there are in reality many more....
