Old school ride

[Cormanus]

Great post, Ferret. When I started riding my 3/4 helmet had no shield. I did have a pair of goggles that I wore only when it was raining. Occasionally I might have worn sun glasses. I remember getting a shield and having to attach the male end of the fittings to the helmet myself. It was such luxury!

Funny thing is I don't remember being assaulted by bugs the way I am these days. Maybe they hadn't been invented then? I can't imagine riding without a visor now; it would be too painful.

On a slightly unrelated matter, for a man who is wont to describe himself as careful with his funds, the Ferret has the most remarkable collection of motorcycle gear. It remind me a bit of Imelda Marcos's shoe collection.

[Guth_imp]

For todays ride I wore a little more. 3/4 helmet and perforated Tecnik leather jacket, perforated gloves with padded palms and work boots. No more sandblasting and since it was only 77 I wasn't burning up. The jacket had the added benefit of hiding the gut that Chip alluded to, well he didn't allude to it, he just pointed it out. lol, Ohhh to be young and skinny again sniff sniff

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/CB%20ride%20May%2010%202015%20002_zpskik3eveh.jpg.html]

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/CB%20ride%20May%2010%202015%20011_zps4nt4nnee.jpg.html]

I just try to pass this off as mass centralization. They tell me that it's all the rage these days.

And to Cheryl as well.

Amazing how the grit and bugs felt like little needles hitting. I had to laugh as I was headed home from this mornings ride, a guy passed me going the other way.. Wearing a white tshirt, jeans and sunglasses, and I thought dude, I feel your pain lol

[Novice_imp]

I think Ferret is just being modest, which is a refreshing change from some other forums.

[Stichill_imp]

Awesome post, ferret. I love the old school photo! What a cool dude you were on that bike back then! And...still cool on a similar bike now!

You can ride like you want to ride, whenever you feel like it. You are obviously a careful and extensively experienced rider. I doubt you exposed yourself to 0.000001% more risk than usual. Plus, you were still helmeted so that's really the only indispensable piece of gear.

[the Ferret]

Great pics! That lid from 78 reminds me of the one I had when I used to ride around on a Suzuki DS80, although I only wore it when I thought my dad might be watching.

I found it's easy to forget about the practical side of wearing a jacket etc once you're in the habit of always wearing it. When I only wore a t-shirt while riding, I found the constant slap of it irritating/fatiguing at freeway speed.

While riding outside of the city I've hit bugs that I felt through my jacket. I would rather not take one of those while wearing a T-shirt and sunglasses.

Novice brings up something people rarely think about. Clothes flapping. If you are not wearing a jacket, wearing a loose shirt or one with a collar while riding will get those clothes flapping setting up what can feel like a vibration in the bike, or the collar tips can flap against the edge of your helmets making a constant rat a tat a tat a sound, or it can actually make you itch.

Been wearing a jacket for so long now, I had forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder Novice.

[veech_imp]

Great pics. You've aged well Ferret.

Great pics! That lid from 78 reminds me of the one I had when I used to ride around on a Suzuki DS80, although I only wore it when I thought my dad might be watching.

I found it's easy to forget about the practical side of wearing a jacket etc once you're in the habit of always wearing it. When I only wore a t-shirt while riding, I found the constant slap of it irritating/fatiguing at freeway speed.

While riding outside of the city I've hit bugs that I felt through my jacket. I would rather not take one of those while wearing a T-shirt and sunglasses.

Novice brings up something people rarely think about. Clothes flapping. If you are not wearing a jacket, wearing a loose shirt or one with a collar while riding will get those clothes flapping setting up what can feel like a vibration in the bike, or the collar tips can flap against the edge of your helmets making a constant rat a tat a tat a sound, or it can actually make you itch.

Been wearing a jacket for so long now, I had forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder Novice.

Novice brings up something people rarely think about. Clothes flapping. If you are not wearing a jacket, wearing a loose shirt or one with a collar while riding will get those clothes flapping setting up what can feel like a vibration in the bike, or the collar tips can flap against the edge of your helmets making a constant rat a tat a tat a sound, or it can actually make you itch.

Been wearing a jacket for so long now, I had forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder Novice.
Speaking of flapping, let me share a little story. Years ago I when I was still in college (ok, MANY years ago) I was riding up from school to visit my Mom for Mother's day. That year the temps were in the 40's and raining, but that never stopped me before. I didn't have the proper rain gear but I WAS TOUGH after all...

So I rode it out, bracing the near freezing temps, soaking wet, but kept on riding. The trip home was usually about 3 hours. Well, after a couple hours into it I finally realized nothing was looking familiar. I hadn't noticed earlier because of the intense shivering I was suffering. What happened was that I had actually gotten hypothermia-the first thing to go is the ability for rational thought. I never made my turn onto the other expressway once I got on the highway and ended not one bit closer to home, in another town far away.

I pulled into the nearest gas station where the female attendant saw the pitiful state I was in. She brought me a cup of coffee to warm up which I couldn't even drink because my hands were shaking so uncontrollably I was spilling it everywhere. This lasted for over 45 minutes. She eventually let me go into the back room to change into some dry clothes for the trip back to school (never did see mom that weekend)

Of course, I still didn't have rain gear, so I improvised. I bought a roll of Saran Wrap and literally wrapped myself up in plastic like a mummy! This worked well-for about 2 miles. At that point, the Saran wrap started flapping itself to shreds, eventually turning into long streamers waving from my body as I rode back. Must have been quite the sight.

I'll never forget that ride...

Edit: Now that I think about it, it was Mother's Day 1985, so this is the 30 year anniversary of that very ride!

[the Ferret]

That's a great story. Although Hypothermia is nothing to laugh at, I have to chuckle at the saran wrap part of that story.

Believe me we have all been wet and cold, from not having proper gear. Heck I have been wet and cold WITH proper gear. A few years ago my wife and I were coming back from Bar Harbor, Maine and it started raining on us as soon as we got into Massachusettes and rained HARD all the way to our hotel at Catskill New York. Even with rain gear on everything we were wearing was soaked and our hotel room looked like a Chinese laundry with wet clothes hung up everywhere. Still raingin the next morning as we took off and it rained part of the way thru Pennsylvania, but finally the sun came out.
Sun is good!

We used to stick newspaper in the front our jackets to insulate us from cold in winter.

Man we were poor back then lol.

[veech_imp]

The getting wet part is par for the course on virtually any longer road trip I have ever taken-the combination with the low temps and highway speeds to boot is what takes it over the top. This is something that sneaks up on you and can be very serious as you don't realize it while it is happening. I had never understood just how this works until I experienced it. After I got home I shivered under several comforters in bed for many hours-not pleasant.

The loss of reasoning is the really dangerous part. It is also what happens to people when then fall off of boats-its the cold that gets you. Just trying to make sure others are aware of this and are careful.

And yes, the Saran wrap was quite hilarious and still makes me laugh!

[ChipBeck_imp]

The getting wet part is par for the course on virtually any longer road trip I have ever taken-the combination with the low temps and highway speeds to boot is what takes it over the top. This is something that sneaks up on you and can be very serious as you don't realize it while it is happening. I had never understood just how this works until I experienced it. After I got home I shivered under several comforters in bed for many hours-not pleasant.

The loss of reasoning is the really dangerous part. It is also what happens to people when then fall off of boats-its the cold that gets you. Just trying to make sure others are aware of this and are careful.

And yes, the Saran wrap was quite hilarious and still makes me laugh!

Veech,

That had to be a stitch looking at going down the road. Look mommy there's a disintegrating mummy on that motorcycle!

Chip