Road ice in Auckland? WTF

[Phurrball]

damn, Langholm? are you serious??? langholm has those big grippy roads with the big stones to drain the water away though? LANGHOLM???? like west auckland??? wow, thats just purely F***ed up im confused ??

You haven't been out here for a while! Patchwork of repairs and tarsnakes, regular diesel spills on every Laingholm-bound left hand corner from the overfilled bus, clay from cars cutting corners.

Fun roads (), but require care and attention.

Have reexamined 'the corner'.

May not have been ice, as rubbing surface with hand resulted in black/brown oily crud on fingers - probably some sort of precipitate sitting on top of that caused by the cold. No drama in any case - a wee scrape on the road marks the spot.

[Weeruthie]

Cheers Guys
That helps... I'll give that a wee go tomorrow morning..... The learner strikes again

[vifferman]

Pffffftt.....

Fellow KBer at work was aghast that I rode today, said "you must have balls of steel!"
It was OK, apart from having frost AND fog in our street this morning. I had to ride much of the way with my visor up, so of course my eyes watered, which made my nose run, so I was sniffing all the way to work.
Wasn't too cold - must've been below zero, but I was waiting till the fog cleared a bit (I HATE FOG!) so it was 4C by the time I departed.

Didn't experience any slippage, but I took it easy up our street - stuck to the tyre tracks.

I was quite comfy, but my gloves have no insulation in them (just a waterproof membrane), so my fingertips were cold by the time I got to work. I guess 4 degrees + 110km/h windchill will do that, even with the heated grips on 50% heat...

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

A mate came in to work in his cage from Langholm said his outside temp gage read -3 degrees ffs.
I come in from Henderson and on the fukin coldest morning in memory my fukin heated hand grips pack up

[madbikeboy]

Cheers Guys
That helps... I'll give that a wee go tomorrow morning..... The learner strikes again

Hey, you missed out on a NASS ride last night - if you're a learner the NASS is a regular skills ride that ends up in Albany. Mix of riders, learners, newbies, old farts, and generally nice people...

I'm Shore based as well, there's quite a few of us KB's on the shore.

Find some chick riders to hang with - there's a heap of really good ones (MsKABC, Sharry etc), and watch out for the trolls!

[16silver]

Hey, you missed out on a NASS ride last night - if you're a learner the NASS is a regular skills ride that ends up in Albany. Mix of riders, learners, newbies, old farts, and generally nice people...

I'm Shore based as well, there's quite a few of us KB's on the shore.

Find some chick riders to hang with - there's a heap of really good ones (MsKABC, Sharry etc), and watch out for the trolls!

so did i but thats caue frosty still has my bike, im not sure a 50CC scooter can go on the mway to albany letalone make it to westgate from my house haha

[javawocky]

I had to ride much of the way with my visor up, so of course my eyes watered, which made my nose run, so I was sniffing all the way to work.

Right, Learners take note of this advise.

a) Take a paper towel, wet it a little and clean your visor inside and out.

b) Take a new paper towel, squirt a dab of dish washing liquid on it and rub in into the inside of the visor.

c) With the dry part of the towel, wip the visor dry without washing the soap off.

You will NOT manage to mist up your visor again until the soap wares off. Been going for a few weeks now without a single misty moment - even this mornings cold couldn't produce an out of focus moment. Only opened visor when stopped to get some nice fresh air.

[javawocky]

so did i but thats caue frosty still has my bike, im not sure a 50CC scooter can go on the mway to albany letalone make it to westgate from my house haha

Yes it can!

[Weeruthie]

Hey
Yeah I saw that thread.... think I might have to come along next week.... iron out some of these silly wee errors..... mibe catch you then

[MIXONE]

Thanks for the heads up. Whats with the damn cold weather, this winter seems a lot colder than normal. Might have to invest in some heated handgrips.

Heated handgrips are an essential winter safety device.Frozen hands mean little or no control with throttle and brake.

[vifferman]

Right, Learners take note of this advise.

a) Take a paper towel, wet it a little and clean your visor inside and out.

Meh!! Fail.
Never use paper towels on visors - only soft cloths or tissue that's soft/safe for use on optics. With paper towels, you will end up with lots of very small scratches that aren't noticeable until you're riding at night, when you'll get lots of distortion from every light source you view.

I treated my visor with Plexus (and a soft rag!) while my bike was warming up. When it fogged up, it was only momentarily, and it cleared as soon as I got some decent speed up (over 30 km/h). I have some anti-mist cream that would've done the job, however I don't care for the slight distortion of vision that results from a buildup of moisture on whatever hydrophobic treatment you use. I'd rather have a runny nose.
It's also the reason I don't just buy a FogCity or Pinlock insert.

[javawocky]

Never use paper towels on visors - only soft cloths or tissue

I think your helmet needs to harden up!

I haven't noticed any visor distortion as mentioned, just a nice clear view, but yes I concede that something softer would be preferable. Fact remains that cheap as dishwasher soap as rid helmet of nasty condensation demons

In other news... Black ice warning for central North Island

[Weeruthie]

Right, Learners take note of this advise.

a) Take a paper towel, wet it a little and clean your visor inside and out.

b) Take a new paper towel, squirt a dab of dish washing liquid on it and rub in into the inside of the visor.

c) With the dry part of the towel, wip the visor dry without washing the soap off.

You will NOT manage to mist up your visor again until the soap wares off. Been going for a few weeks now without a single misty moment - even this mornings cold couldn't produce an out of focus moment. Only opened visor when stopped to get some nice fresh air.

Another handy tip..... I'm learning all sorts today!
Mibe should do some work too though.... Boss keeps looking at me funny

[Quasievil]

Bloody Global warming eh who would have thought !!

[vifferman]

I think your helmet needs to harden up!

I think that at $86, it's worth taking a bit of care of a visor.

I haven't noticed any visor distortion as mentioned, just a nice clear view, but yes I concede that something softer would be preferable.

You will eventually. These are microscopic scratches I'm talking about. The visor will seem clear until after many applications of the scratchy 'wood pulp cloth' and you ride at night, and discover the pretty light-scattering effect it produces.

Fact remains that cheap as dishwasher soap as rid helmet of nasty condensation demons

True dat. Detergent is hydroscopic - has lots of sticky little hydrogen bonds poking out of the surface of the molecules, that latch onto those pesky water droplets, stopping them beading together. Ski/snoboard goggle manufacturers like Oakley and Smith are onto this - they coat the inside surface of the lenses with a soft hydroscopic coating. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be very robust, so it's not suitable to treat helmet visors like this.