405cc American Eagle

  What are you going to do when there is 10" of snow on the ground and it's 22 degrees?  Ain't going riding, even with an electric vest, that's for sure.  Guess it is time to reminisce about bikes gone by.
  This is the only British made bike I've ever owned.  It is a 405cc Sprite, sold in the USA under the American Eagle brand.  Two-stroke with a "proper" right shift and left brake.  It came with two fiberglass tanks, the smaller red one in the photo and a larger blue one.  I always thought it was a good looking bike, it handled nicely, had poor brakes, good power and shifted like a truck.  I've been told that it was a Husqvarna clone but they didn't get something right in the gear box. 
  A friend and I bought two of these things, brand new, in the crate from a dealer in Hawaii that wanted to get rid of them.  That was around 1970.  Our idea was to use them for trail riding which we did but I raced mine several times at the motocross track on the Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station and once at night on a motocross track set up at a local flat track.  The bike was much better than my abilities and I crashed a few times toward the front of the pack.
  Not much to be found on the WWW about this bike and the photo below was the only one I could find.

Heated Vest

Beautiful bright sunshiny day.  The ice covering everything glistened in the sunlight this morning and by early afternoon had almost all melted and fell off.  It was too hazardous to get to work cutting up the downed branches.  Wet ground and lots of falling ice convinced me to wait until the weekend to get started. 

But, what's that....the streets are dry except where ice is falling down.  Easily avoided I figure.  The thermometer says 38 degrees and no wind, great time to try out the new heated vest.

It was pretty easy to hook up the wiring to the battery.  I plan to splice things up so I can use one connection for both the Battery Tender and the vest since I'll never use them at the same time.  It's a bit of a pain to get plugged in and zipped up while sitting on the bike but I plan to work on my technique.

  The Dub fired right up and I switched on the vest.  I noticed the heat almost immediately and punched it down to the low setting.  I got to say I was quite comfortable at 55 but you got to play around, right?  On the high setting I started to feel a little well done so I checked out medium and finally back to low.  Just to make sure I turned it off completely.  Yep, in a couple of minutes I started feeling the cold creep in so I settled on the low setting.  The control is easy to operate with my fat winter gloves.  It straps to the left thigh and can be worked by feel.

  After my short 12 mile ride I was pleased with the Tourmaster Synergy heated vest and anxious to give it a longer test.

Heated Vest

  The vest showed up a couple of days ago.  My initial attempt at trying it out failed so I need to read the instructions again.

  It is certainly cold enough to give it a try but a recent ice storm has left things in a mess.  There are limbs down in the back yard that need to be cut up but I'm going to wait a couple of more days for that.  The picture is out of the front door looking up the street.

Heated Vest

Well I did it.  I have finally scummed to the siren call of heated clothing.  I just ordered a heated vest from www.helmetcity.com.  I couldn't pass on the rave reviews from www.webbikeworld.com and free shipping.

Tourmaster SYNERGY heated vest

What next?  Heated grips, gloves, socks?  Maybe a heated seat?  I remember when I thought a windshield was the only concession I would ever make to comfort.  Could this be the slippery slope toward a full blown cruiser?  Perhaps a Gold Wing is in my future or a BMW multi-letter road bike.  If I get any fatter maybe a H-D FLQYRSX Fat Job Road Queen.

On a serious note, what sold me was a comment about safety and how with the vest one isn't bundled up like the Michelin Tire Man during cold weather.  After my sub-freezing ride yesterday I decided to make the plunge.  I'll keep you posed.

ROMEO Lunch at the Renaissance Cafe

  About two miles from home it occurred to me that although I was the only one with the balls to ride to lunch today said balls were about to freeze off.

  Truthfully speaking it didn't take that much courage to ride the REB to Assaria for lunch because it was only 11 miles and with the wind.  I figured by the time I headed back it would warm up enough that I wouldn't be too cold.  I was wrong. 

  The ride wasn't much to brag about but the four of that showed up had a nice lunch and a good visit.  I need to point out again that Richard, Louie and Evan drove to lunch and didn't ride.  It was almost worth getting cold just so I could call them girly men.

  The Renaissance is a nice place but at $4.50 for a hamburger, a little dab of beans and 23 french fries and the drink extra they are about to lose my business.  I guess that isn't all that bad but it used to be $3 something.  From the looks of the weather forecast this might have been the last ride for a while.