Is it Really the End of Riding Season? Let's Reflect

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It's Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer. But does it also have to mean the end of your riding season?

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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. In this episode will reflect on what it means now that September is here and the warm months typically associated with motorcycle riding are coming to a close in the Northern hemisphere.

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Now, many people think of the period between April and October as the outer edges of the riding season. It's warm enough that you don't need specialized gear and fall leaves or even snow aren't a major concern. But that means you only have six months a year to get your riding in and then your bikes sit idle for the rest of the year. Some might even narrow that to as short a period as June to September, giving just three months for all of the riding to avoid even a little bit cooler temperatures. Now, in the northern hemisphere, we typically think of September as the end of summer vacations.

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We're getting the kids back to school. So there's a there's a large bit of us just changing and transitioning from that summer, which might have been a little bit of a different activity for it. The temperatures will also start to drop and This is when they really start to think of like, oh, it's a little too cold for me to actually go riding And of course, fall starts to begin and we start to see some of the fall foliage changing. We start to see some of the leaves actually coming off of the trees, which can create a little bit of a hazard to some motorcycles on the road. And this is typically what we think of for September.

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But. But I'd love to know what you think. Is this what you consider the riding season and do you wish that you could ride more? Text the show through the link in the show notes and we'll share your feedback in a future episode.

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Now, if you are going to be getting ready for the off season, there's a few things that you can do to prepare your bike for that storage portion.

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Now, we actually have an article on the website going into a lot more detail about this and I'll share a link for it in the show notes that you can actually review that if you'd like. But a couple of big things that are really good for you to do. Just as a general rule of thumb, if you're starting to put your bike away for the season. So one of the first things to do is just make sure that your fuel tank is full and add in any sort of fuel stabiliser that you prefer. The reason for this is that by keeping the the fuel tank as full as possible, you're going to prevent any opportunity for moisture getting into the tank, which can then start to create some corrosion and get some more water into your fuel. So the more full that the tank is when you put the bike away, the less likely you're going to have a problem in the future. Now I have a 1972 R75/5 now being more than 50 years old that bike, of course, has carburetors. And with carburetors, it's really important if you're going to put the bike away for a little bit of time to make sure that you drain the carburetors. So one of the ways I like to do this is just when I'm doing my I do this actually on every single ride with that bike, just in case it's going to sit for a little bit longer is I'll just close off the fuel petcock just as I'm getting closer to home and essentially just burn off whatever fuel is in the carburetor, allowing it to get through the engine, and then the carburetor is fully dry. There's no fuel that's going to sit there and gum up the works. It's just going to make the bike easier to deal with when the spring comes. You're not going to have to then clean out all the needles. You're not going to have to take all the come out.

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It's really going to just set you up for a much better situation. Now, another one that I like to do with all the bikes is you've been riding for the whole season. You're about to put the bike away. And what's going to happen is, as the bike is being used during the season, that oil is actually beginning to get a little bit of moisture into there. It's getting a little bit of other contaminants in there. And if you leave that oil in for that period of time in the winter months, it's going to start having an impact and could cause some corrosion into your engine. So if you want to maintain the life of your bike as long as possible, changing that oil is a really good idea.

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Now, the same thing goes, although it's a little bit less critical for coolant if you happen to have a water cooled bike flushing the coolant, getting that all cleared out is also a good way to just make sure that you've kind of gotten a good check. The other reason why I like changing the oil and the coolant as you get into the winter months is it gives you a moment to sort of review your bike, check over the bike, make sure that you see any leaks. Are there any sort of issues because you're getting under the bike and you're looking at all these things, you're checking for any hoses. Are they leaking? And this can then start to add in for any of your to do list for the winter where you may have to do some maintenance on the bike, maybe have to fix some things, whatever. Now, the other part of your bike that you're going to want to deal with is your battery. And the reason for this is that your battery is what's going to maintain your ability to start the engine. Typically, if you have a electric start bike, which pretty much any bike made in the past 20 years, it's going to be electric start. And put your battery on to a tender depending upon your bike and how you've set this up. You might have actually set up a little battery tender plug. This is a little SAE plug that is connected directly to your battery. And you can plug that into a battery tender, doesn't have to be a Battery Tender brand. I happen to like the Optimate ones, but you can get that going and start to charge it up. Now, I like to do that actually any time that the bike is going to sit for more than like a week or two, but certainly when you're getting into the off season, you're going to want to make sure that you have that battery on a tender. The other thing that I would also encourage everyone to do is to take a look at your brake fluid and probably consider changing it as well.

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Now, brake fluid is a hygroscopic, and what that means is that it attracts water. And when you get water into there, it's going to start to make the brakes feel a little bit more spongy. and especially when you're sitting in a garage, a lot of garages tend to be more humid So I always like to check the brake fluid before I put the bike away Also, while you're doing that, just like we did with checking all the bolts and any sort of fluid leaks that are coming in from the oil and the coolant is make sure that your brake pads are right at the right level. This is a good time to take a look, see if they need to be replaced. If you're in the winter months and you're not going to be riding your bike, take the time now. Now you can have the bike down, do some work on it. Make sure everything's all ready to go for your spring.

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Now, another thing that I like to do in the winter months is, as I said, you're going to do some of that maintenance that we talked about. And hopefully when you're preparing the bike for storage, you're able to find that. But start to think about what are some bike upgrades that you might want to do. So are there some farkles that you want to add in any upgrades or are you thinking of putting on a new mount for a G.P.S.? Or even if you wanted to mount a phone, are your tires shot? Do they need to be replaced after the end of the season? And remember, tires can be shot not just from being worn down. Obviously, you want to check to make sure that you have appropriate tread depth in there.

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But you also want to think about do you have dry rot? And for a lot of motorcyclists, I think we talked about in an earlier episode that in the U.S., as much as half of all motorcyclists ride less than a thousand miles a year. So you're probably not going to get wear on the tires over a period of time, but you could be getting some dry rot. So take a look at your tires, Make sure that they look still smooth, in terms of that rubber feeling into there that they haven't started to harden and you start to see some cracks. And if there are, that may be a good chance to actually then replace those tires. But think about any other upgrades that you'd wanted to do. So as I said, we have an article on the website where we go into a lot more detail onto this, also have a lot of links on various tools or things that can help you with this. I'll put that into the show notes, but I'd love to know what you think. Do you always think about how you're going to put your bike to sleep for the winter months? And if so, what are some of your tips for maintenance? Please text the show through the link in the show notes and we'll share your feedback in a future episode.

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Now, of course, you can put your bike away. As as I said, end of summer is typically when a lot of motorcyclists, do this, but you don't have to limit your riding to being just in the warm summer months. In fact, there's a lot of reasons why you might want to consider extending your riding season. And there's some things that, especially in the next couple of months, are going to be some wonderful things that you can do is something like a fall foliage ride. Now, where I am in the Northeast, we have some beautiful, beautiful foliage tours that you can take.

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You can go up to Vermont, you can go on to New York, up into Massachusetts, and, you know, find all these places where the foliage colors are coming through. You're riding through some beautiful mountainous areas and you just see this natural view. And it is something that you might find a local riding club that does that. For example, the Ramapo Motorcycle Club, that's local to me. They actually do an annual fall foliage ride that's open to the public A lot of dealerships will tend to do things up at the ski mountains. This is a way for the ski mountains to have something as they're transitioning from the end of summer when they have a lot of mountain biking on to them into getting ready for the winter months with skiing is they may have some, you know, Oktoberfest events, they may have some fall foliage events.

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You know, you can go and take a chairlift and see the foliage from there. So look around for those. one huge advantage, and especially if you're in a wooded area where typically you would be concerned with wildlife running across the road for example, deer as the leaves start to come down, you actually have more visibility into the sides of the road. They're not going to be hidden by some of the greenery. So you actually have a little bit better view on the sides of the road as the leaves start to fall down. Now, this leads you into where you can actually start to ride your bike into even colder conditions.

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a lot of bikes nowadays have heated grips either from the factory or you can get them as an option where you can add them onto your bike. And this is a great way, even if it's just a cooler summer morning or into a summer evening or into the fall, or just, you know, maybe fifties and into low sixties Fahrenheit, you might want just a little bit of extra warmth and into your hands. That really helps because they're typically exposed. So they're going to be the most exposed for or affected by that cold air hitting onto them. Now you can also add in a windshield.

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And if your motorcycle already has a windshield, you're probably very familiar with that.

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But a windshield actually can protect you from cold air. Now, in most of my bikes, I actually take the windshields off or I put on a smaller windshield in the summer months because I actually like the airflow. While some people will say, Hey, I don't like all the buffeting, the buffeting is really where it's shaking the air. It's not that you feel wind on your helmet, but it's really more about where it's shaking up and it's unsettled air. But the other thing is that in the summer months, you get more air flow. So I actually find it is cooler when you're riding in the hot summer months. I actually take off the windshields in the summer months, but as it gets into the fall and into the winter, I'll add them back in.

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So I have an R18 classic. It comes with a quick attach and detach windshield from the factory. It takes about 30 seconds to put it on or take it off. So very, very easy to do.

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And as it gets into the colder months, I'll pop that on to the bike. Now, this really helps because it keeps that cold air blast off of your chest and can really extend the temperatures into which you can ride. I find for myself that usually just with a windshield and with the heated grips, I can typically go down into the fifties with no problem whatsoever. Maybe you'll throw on a little bit of a thicker shirt under your riding gear, but you're going to be pretty much okay into those temperatures. But when it starts to get a little bit colder, this is where you have another tool at your disposal that can help you extend that riding season.

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And this is heated gear. Now, I got my first piece of heated gear more than 20 years ago, and it was a heated vest. And it was wonderful because that's where your core temperature is. And if you can keep your core warmer, it's going to keep your overall body warmer. I remember taking that on a naked bike with no windshield whatsoever. And I rode up to Vermont for an Oktoberfest one year and just thinking, hey, it's October, not a big deal. I was leaving from New York City, going on up and I had the vest. But as I continue to get further and further north up into Connecticut, into Massachusetts, and up towards the Vermont border, the temperature kept getting colder and colder and colder. So it's starting to get dark. It's starting to get cold. And I actually ended up pulling off to the side of the road and putting on a sweatshirt just so I had something to keep it a little bit warmer. And by the time I pulled into the restaurant where I was meeting my friends, it was about eight degrees Fahrenheit up in Vermont, in Southern Vermont this was. So it can get quite cold. And while the heated vest did help and I had heated grips on that particular motorcycle, it was still a naked bike. So all that cold wind blast was hitting me. And there's only so much that that heated gear was able to do at that point. Fast forward and now heated gear has advanced dramatically. You're not limited to just a heated vest anymore.

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You could actually get a full heated jacket or and pant liners.

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You can get socks. You can get gloves. What I actually like really now is from a company called Warm and Safe, where you can actually get a heated shirt.

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So this is actually very similar to when you would wear is in a undergarment when you were riding in the normal in the normal riding season. And this is just something that is very thin. It's right against your skin and therefore the heating elements on that are even more efficient. So you don't have to have as high as you would for something that you've got another layer in between you.

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The other advantages, I can have that heated shirt on and then I can throw a sweatshirt over it.

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And that's going to now that heat is going to be further insulated within that sweatshirt, keeping me even warmer. And they make the same thing for heated pant liners. So instead of it being the traditional older pant liners that you might have seen from, for example, Gerbings, these are actually directly against your skin. So you don't need to have them over another piece of clothing and they will keep you a lot warmer. And I've done with on my R1200GSA, of course, which has a much larger windshield with the large tank in there. It's got a lot of wind protection surrounding you. Of course, I have hand guards on there protecting me. And with all of the heated gear and the heated grips, I've actually ridden as cold as three degrees Fahrenheit on that bike and still been perfectly comfortably warm. I didn't even realize it was that cold until I walked into where I was meeting. Some friends are like, Wait, you rode here? Yes, of course. It was not it was not bad on that particular bike. But your particular bike will make a difference so that GSA has a lot of wind protection. Maybe if you were riding a full fairing like a Harley or an Indian, you'd have a similar situation. But on my R18, which is more of a a simpler cruiser, it's got a windshield. Yes, but it doesn't have a full fairing. On that bike, even with the heated gear, and I'm only using it through the din plug so I can only do a little bit of amperage. I don't have as much as I could do on to the GS. I find I can get down to about 20 degrees Fahrenheit and still be comfortable. But below that, once again, in the teens, it's a little too cold. But heated gear overall is a really great option if you're riding certain other bikes like I have a sport bike, the alternators on sport bikes are very, very minimal. If you put heated gear on while you physically could connect it to the battery and do so, I would be very cautious on that because that alternator is not going to have enough power to be able to take the load that you're doing for all of your heated gear and charge the battery at the same time. So what you can actually run up to is draining the battery. So when you pull over to stop, your bike's battery is totally dead.

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They also tend to be a little bit more naked so you don't have as much wind protection, therefore you want to run the heat a little bit hotter. So you have to be thinking of the right bike for the conditions. So I tend towards using my GSA or my R18 with the windshield mounted on. I also have a Vespa I put on a full very tall windshield and then I also put on a skirt that covers over the seating area I have a GTS300, which is their little bit larger motor. But that bike has the radiators right on the front. And so the skirt actually covers over that and allows the heat from the radiators to actually get under that skirt. And has a little bit of fur lining in there. It actually keeps you really, really toasty warm as well as being a wind block. So I've gone way down into the teens, no problem on the Vespa as well, even without heated gear, because that's just encompassing you so effectively, so awesome.

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Awesome. The option is to leverage some of the heated gear if you want to extend your riding season. Now, the other reason why I think of you may want to consider taking your bike out even in the colder weather months is every once in a while there's a relatively warm day and you want to be able to just take your bike out, which is why if you got everything ready, you've got the oil changed, you've got the carburetors all set up, everything's ready to go on your bike. You don't have to do a whole big effort to get your bike ready to go. It's ready to go at any moment's notice. That warm day comes along. You just take the bike out and you can go and enjoy it, even if you're not using some of these other tips that we've given. if you want to get into a little bit more detail about some of these steps, We also have an article on riding in cold weather, and we go through a lot of different gear options that are available for you to help you. You know, we touched on a few of them, such as heated gear, windshields, etc., but a lot of those can really, really help you out. So I'll put the link in to the show notes that can allow you to see that article But I'd love to know what you think. Do you ride year round? Do you ride only in the summer months? Do you extend it maybe a little bit into the warmer part of spring and the warmer part of the fall and if you do use gear to extend your riding season, what's your favorite and what do you like to do? So text the show through the link in the show notes and we'll share your feedback in a future episode On today's episode, we talked about what typically happens as that, you know, summer starts to go away and we start to get into the cooler temperatures of the fall. We spoke about some things that you can do if you're going to prepare your bike for storage in the off season, as well. As we talked about some bike upgrades you might want to consider leveraging in the winter months And we even talked about some ways that you might be able to extend your riding season and continue to ride even in those cooler temperatures. This is one of my favorite things to do. I do ride year round, so I am a little biased but I do think it's a great way that you can get some extra, extra miles and experiences with your bike that you would not normally have had.

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thanks for so much for listening.

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If you do like this episode and think there's a friend who might enjoy it, please share the link to the episode directly over to them. And as always, we'll see you in the next time. Thank you.