A question for people from Canadia

My daughter is in Montreal at the moment with Uni.
She is sending pictures of 1m plus snow falls and -9*C temps.
What the hell, when do you people get to ride?
How long is your riding season?
I guess the up side is you guys get to do my second most favourite thing, skiing.

 

Some parts of Canada have a short riding season. Weeeelllll fuck. Most of Canada has a short riding season. The extreme south west corner of British Columbia, on the west coast near Vancouver has a temperate climate much like what you would expect in London, maybe a little better.

I am able to ride year round. Except this year really threw a wrench into that with all the bloody snow we got. But I did get out for a few rides regardless.

When I was still working, I rode to and from work year rounds, at time -10 and even caught a few times in the snow....not nice. You can get pretty decent gear for cold and wet weather at not a bad price.

I remember the first R3 I went to in 2009 was an adventure weather wise. Its a 1000 mile each way trip. That year the ride was held near the end of March or early May. Still winter really. I rode for the first two days in pretty much constant rain, sometimes pounding. The Siskiyou Pass was probably the worst part of the trip. Not really cold but the rain was relenting and the volcanic ash all over the place on the roads was a pain in the ass. But I stayed dry and warm. Except for my hands. They got very wet regardless of the gortex gloves. But I was wearing them wrong and have learned the art of staying more dry in my riding now.

Your sister is in someplace called Montreal here in Canada? Where the hell is that. The only Montreal I am aware of is in the Republic of Quebec. That is just make believe Canada.

 

I'm down in South Carolina for March break at Myrtle beach and it is -3 tonight and barely hitting 10 during the day. WTF!!!! Came down here for some nice weather and got screwed! We usually go to Florida where it is in the mid to high 20's for March break. At least we missed the big storm back in Southern Ontario earlier this week. It was warmer last week at home and I was out riding.

 

It depends on how much you want to avoid salt or cold weather. If you're particularly fickle, or the winter is particularly long you might not ride from November to sometime in April, at least in Southern Ontario. If you don't mind the cold and aren't afraid of some salt you're almost guaranteed to get some "dry salty road" days periodically during the winter. Currently, my last fuel up was November 18th of last year, but I was able to ride two days in February this year when we got some unseasonably warm weather (though the bike got filthy from all the sand on the road that turns to mud when moist). By the looks of things, the first glimmer of hope for regular riding is at least another week away, but I do want most of the salt off the road so I might wait a bit more, especially since my bike is sparkling clean atm. It's handy to keep a beater bike around that you don't mind getting dirty for this reason.

 

Here's a the chart of my fuelups for the VFR, pretty easy to see the length of riding seasons with it.

PawnBoy's Fuelly Fillup Chart

The only anomaly is last spring when I was on leave from work April through May, and since I mostly use the bike to commute it delayed my riding for well over a month.

 

Man, you guys might as well liven in prison camps. I ride every month of the year. Not much in February but some. Canada was good for Viet Nam kids that didn't want to go and Trump children but then there's Trudeau and you get our cowards.....or smart people....not sure which.

 

I usually get out often in the winter. If the roads are dry I will wrap up warm and got out for a bit to blow the stink off. Not worried about the bike getting dirty or the salt, it is a daily rider rain or shine. I actually had to hose mud off last year after too many wet gravel roads.

 

It it makes you feel any better it's been pretty cold in Florida the last 2 days as well - I haven't followed the weather news lately but there must have been a big cold front to have hit the southeast so Florida is probably not much better off than Myrtle Beach. I was so cold when I got home today that I built a fire - and by that I mean I just threw an artificial log in the fireplace :glee:

 

No fire here, but it's been raining for 2 weeks, with the same forecasted for next week.
We are just not used to rain here, so it's pretty miserable, I've never seen so many mushrooms growing in my front yard.

 

Stopped raining at the moment

 

Got back home and it was warmer here than 4 of the days we were in S.C. Thursday and Friday weren't bad, I actually took off my hoodie on Friday to metal detect on the beach.... Found 2 cents... woohoo! I didn't have much time to do it though.

 

I am looking for a partner to invest in my Mineral Resources Company. You interested?

 

I live on the cold bald assed prairies (Winnipeg, Manitoba).

I'm kind of the exception ... I was already out for a ride in February. I'm usually about to start commuting by now despite there being snow on the ground as the temps are usually above freezing by now ... looks like that weather is finally coming here next week.

So ... most people only ride 4-5 months here at the most. I usually ride about 9 months. lol.

 

Exception or odd. A very fine line there Jeff.

 

I'm in!
Like I said, I have 2 cents. 2 American cents and that's got to be worth almost 3 cents Canadian and that would round up to 5 cents Canadian and that will get me a ball of gum in many places.

 

Got to ride again this morning. But with with forcasted lows below zero overnight and lots of precipitation for the next two weeks, I'm not sure how much I'll get in.

 

The problem I have is leaving for work in the morning around 5:30 - 6:00 and it's below freezing and it seems like the roads always have ice on them for the first part of my commute. The rest of the day is great and I wish I were on the bike though . I drive 80Km each way to work, I don't mind the cold but the icy roads for the first part are a game changer for me.

 

The roads in Waterloo were dry, but it transitioned to damp roads near Guelph, and the air temp was -2/3, so yeah, things did feel a bit slimy. Maybe tomorrow morning the roads will be dry, though it's supposed to be -15C overnight :-D

 

I was -2 for most of my freeway commute to work yesterday but the roads were good
Today it is wet and presently sitting at about +7. I wouldn't go out for a leisurely ride in these temps and weather but will easily commute in them.

 

Maybe I'm the normal one? It's all about perspective.