I rode the bike up from Christchurch to Picton to get the ferry last weekend. I stopped at Murchison for the night as planned. Hampden Hotel is the best...they let me use their garage so the bike would be undercover.
Left Murch Monday morning and it was -3 at 9.00am with claggy fog/drizzle. I was warm enough, but heres the kicker...as I headed into the hills going North, I had to keep wiping the helmet visor as it was fogging over. Only, it wasn't. The damn thing was actually icing up because of the cold! Never, in my 45 years of motorbiking have I had that happen! Just had to keep wiping it with a free (?) hand and hoping for the best. Did ride out of it after about 1/2 hour, but was scary. Couldn't stop as on the hills, in the fog in the middle of nowhere. No traffic around. Left the helmet open a crack, but was worried my glasses would go the same way!!!
Has anyone had that problem? Helmet is Shoei with pinlock visor, so no probs there. I guess in the future I could use anti-icing stuff like you use on car windscreens, but who would carry that around on the off chance? And besides, I dont intend to be riding in that cold too often... hmmm..never been to a Brass Monkey or Cold Kiwi...hmmm.
On another note, I have a new pair of winter riding gloves but dont like them as I find they are too bulky. I bought a pair of overmitts (Rainoffs) especially for the trip and wore them the whole way over shorty summer gloves. They worked a treat. Fingers a bit cold, but was really impressed with them.
My bike was the only one on the ferry on Monday. Ferry crew (Interislander) were really helpful and tied down the bike!
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