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2002Tuesday, March 5 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Annie, Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Figgster, Here's a protective band for motorcyclists' shoes! http://www.shubandit.com/. Hope this helps. – Sharkie I used to use shoe goo on my boots, then I found a boot shop that put extra leather on, I didn't like that look so I used a piece of garden hose to put around my shifter ... still didn't like that either. Now I have a heel toe shifter and don't think about it anymore but, would like to know if there is something out there too. – Chewy (note from Mama: I happened across shoe goo at Kmart in the camping department!) Go to Women on Wheels web page on the net, hit their Links page, there is a vendor on there that sells just what she is looking for...will look them up and send the link, also someone else sends sponge cove to put over your shift lever to protect and not have to wear something on your shoe, could probably make one of these your self. – Deb (note from Mama: that link you're talking about takes you straight to Shu-Band-It at http://www.shubandit.com/.) This site has a "shifter scuff eliminator" band that looks like it would work. I have not used it myself, but found the site while surfing one day. It's $13.95. http://www.rydewear.com/userssay.htm – Lisa I don't know if they are still available but I got some "Shoe Bands" a while back off of eBay. My boyfriend rides his bike to work as often as he can so he doesn't want to mess up the toe of his work shoes. It fits over the shoe with a neoprene material over the toe and a thin band underneath and comes in a variety of colors - I got a couple black ones and a red one for myself. And if I remember correctly, they weren't very expensive. I've included the guys email address from the auction - it's all I could find left. cash4usf@hotmail.com Good luck and safe riding. – VTwin Sister Laura Suggestion for the ol'
worn spot on the boot.... Either replace shifter with a heel-toe shifter or
cut a piece off an old sock and cover the toe while riding. Every time I go to my local Cycle Gear shop I see this product. I have not yet purchased it, but it is called Toe Guard (surprise, surprise ;o). http://www.mfiap.com/halo/toe.htm My shop sells it for $10 but this site sells it for $13, so may want to check on local prices. It is a little cover made out of neoprene (wet suit material) that goes over the gear shifter. Another (mostly) great product by MFI is the HALO Reflective Helmet Band. It is highly reflective band also made out of neoprene that slips on the helmet. The problem is after a few weeks it tends to slip off. At the end of a highway ride it ends up around your neck. :o7 Still looking for a way to keep it in place properly. – Dawnise The clutch mark, especially on new boots, has ALWAYS been a problem. But like you said, after the boots get worn it really doesn't matter and after 20+ years of riding it has seemed like a badge of honor to me. Those who see it and KNOW what it is also know that you DRIVE that bike. The "problem" brought a smile to me and, hopefully, a happy quip to you. You are doing a great job for us ladies. Keep it on two wheels, God Bless, – Darlene Bish, Undaunted M/C Nomad (note from Mama: yup, I like that badge of honor thing too, but let's face it, prices for boots have increased a lot in 20 years, so maybe now I'd want to protect a new pair also -- if I ever got any. Maybe. ; ) Here's a boot strap for motorcyclers; who knew? $13.95 with free shipping. A few cute t-shirts too. "Motorcycle riders eliminate shifter scuff marks with Shu-band-it 2 - New durable extra stretchable one size fits all compound and five new colors to choose from." http://www.rydewear.com/ or http://www.shubandit.com/ Two other suggestions: In regard to the worn out boot question. I once saw a fuzzy cover you can put over your shifter that helps prevent the wear and tear on the boot, but now for the life of me I cannot find the website or the name of the company. I know such things exists, but have long given up on keep my boots looking nice. As I told you before, I've been riding in the rain so much and the boots are so worn, that I just don't care. I've even started not caring about my jeans. I have the frazzled edges on the bottom, since I like to wear them long, looks good on the bike, but when walking tends to get a bit in the way. Then the knees are wearing out to the point of holes and to tell you the truth, I look like biker trash, but hey that's what its about right, no fashion statement here. – Rain (she publishes Biker Ally magazine, go to www.bikerallymag.com) He could just re-dye the boots. It is not hard to do....about as hard as liquid shoe polish would be. The best type is an alcohol based dye.....it penetrates the leather better. Of course, you want to put a finish over it to protect it. – Betty (Bootygrandma) Monday, June 17 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear FiggsterChick, Tuesday, July 16 Dear VTwin Mama, Well, today I was looking for something else and found this--it is located at www.wingthings.com This specific ad was listed on the Yamaha toys page-they have lots of *toys* for lots of bikes------so hope this helps whoever it was that asked about her *scuffed* toes. – Rae Jean Dear Rae Jean, Dear VTwin Mama, There seems to be two schools of thought, and I'd like to know what other VTwin Mamas recommend. One school is to use the heated gloves - either with a little D-cell that's attached to the back of the glove (very reasonably priced, but I wonder how they feel), or the Gerbing-type system where you plug your gloves, vest, pants, etc. into your battery (way more expensive). Then the other school is that your hands get cold because your blood is trying to keep you torso warm, and what you really need is a heated vest, not gloves. What have other women experienced, and what would you (and they) recommend? Thanks again for the great site! – Sunishine Dear Sunishine, I take my cue from winter hikers who protect their feet with silk liners and then a layer of wool. And the thinking goes that mitten-type gloves, where all your fingers are in one area together, keep you warmer than gloves with individual fingers. I've never tried heated gloves, so let's see what kind of input we get -- it sounds like a fantastical idea (but keep spare batteries in your pack!). – Mama Wednesday, December 4 For Sunishine who is looking for the right cold weather riding glove solution: Sunshine, here is my $0.02 worth. If you can afford it go electric, at least the jacket/liner with a collar. Then if you can still afford it, go with electric gloves or heated grips. I wouldn't bother with the heated pants. But do buy snowmobile bibs or a good winter set of rain pants that are waterproof. Those with long johns, jeans, and the bibs will keep you warm. Also Kamik boots help your feet. Another idea is do a search for "handlebar gauntlets" or "Hippo Hands." They are mitts for your grips and Velcro to the handlebar with your hands fitting inside. Hard to explain but a search will get you a picture. The Gauntlets run around $30-50 and the Hippo Hands run $100. Also Giali makes an electric grip wrap that is removable that looks interesting. – Cheryl (note from Mama: I did a search for Hippo Hands and handlebar gauntlets and you'll find suppliers by typing in those words in a search engine. Also, Kamik boots are available through a lot of distributors, so type that in as well to find them.) Update note from 12/11: finding Hippo Hands was not as easy as I imagined. They've been renamed Winter Hands. Click here for more info. Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Larry, Friday, December 13 For Larry who was looking for Hippo Hands: Here is a link to some Handle
Bar Gauntlets. I hope this helps. Friday, December 13 For Sunishine who is looking for the right cold weather riding glove solution: I tried the gloves with the batteries and found them hard to wear with a motorcycle jacket and things like that just eat batteries alive. I use heated grips and the kind I have are not connected to the battery so if I forget to turn them off the bike will still start. They are controlled by a switch that my mechanic installed on my handlebars so I can control the heat. If I can keep my hands and feet warm, the rest of my body stays reasonably warm. You can get the little heat packs that hunters use and put them in your gloves and boots also, but be careful not to wear them next to the skin; they will burn. There is a product called the Insolator that can be put into boots. It is like an insole. I don't remember where I got them -- either from Cabela's or Sportsman Guide. The only disadvantage with the grips is they cannot be removed. They have to be put on with a special glue and they are a little shorter than my stock grips, but they are fantastic. They are called Pro Grip. I don't know the company they were ordered from because my parts man at the Honda shop got them for me. I also use baclavlokia inside my helmet. I have no idea if my spelling is right. I hope this helps.– Bobbye (note from Mama: one source for the Insolator is at Motorcycleville.com. I couldn't get a better spelling on baclavlokia, so I'm not sure what it is!) How about those heated grips that Harley Davidson just came out with? Those have got to be just about the best invention next to heated seats! You go, girl! – Chris (note from Mama: I also found the Hot Grips site which seems to have something for everyone! ) I don't ride in the winter because I don't like riding feeling "all bundled up" like a snowman. I've heard from experienced riders who ride year round that heated handle grips really help. Also, JCWhitney (click on link below to access their site) has windscreens for your hands that mount on your handlebars. I think they run around $69 or $79 a pair (not sure). I've heard those help. – Sherry (note from Mama: I'm with you -- a typical fair-weather rider, but appreciate that you passed on info learned over time!) I purchased the Gerbing heated jacket liner and gloves at the huge bike show at the Javits Center (NYC) last winter and I'm super impressed with their performance. They keep me toasty warm which feels really good on a cold day. The problem with the vest is that you can't attach the gloves to it--only the full liner with the sleeves is wired to accept the gloves. It cost me $440 including all the wiring and a thermostat so you can control the temperature (like an electric blanket!) Pricey but definitely worth it if you want to do any serious cold-weather riding (in which case you might want the pants too). My only complaint is that they only came in men's sizes--someone needs to make these things in women's dimensions!!! Their website is http://www.gerbing.com You can also order them (another brand) from the Aerostitch Rider's Wearhouse catalogue--which, by the way, provides some very entertaining reading. Check out their website and get a catalogue sent to you. http://www.aerostich.com/riderwearhouse.store Hope this helps – Suzy (note from Mama: a little pricy, but I agree, serious winter riders need serious gear, otherwise the cold just sucks the enjoyment out of the whole thing!) I checked out the Winter Hands and although they look really neat, my husband and I have used a less expensive idea (as the Winter Hands are $99). We found "ATV handlebar mittens" through Cabelas which are nylon on the outside and fleece lined, and are attached with Velcro strips that wrap behind the mirrors. We had to alter the slit (make it a little longer) so it would fit a bit better around the mirrors (giving you more room inside). The only drawback is that sometimes on my bike (Wide Glide), the wind blows so hard against the mittens that the brake light periodically comes on. (My husband's fairing shields the wind from doing that on his.) However, the comfort level is remarkable, and a lot of the times I'm able to ride with just my half-gloves or light leather ones. This has made a world of difference -- and has certainly lengthened our riding season (and we live in Wisconsin). The cost of these "life-savers" is $19.99 for black and the camo ones are $24.99. You can order them on-line through www.cabelas.com -- the catalog number is #QN-520269. That's just my money-saving tip for us die-hard bikers who don't want to park the 2 wheelers just yet! Looking forward to you, Petra, helping us survive the dreary winter months ahead. Have a wonderful holiday! – Judy from Wisconsin (note from Mama: appreciate the alternative solution with specific notes and all related information on this. By the by, I'm planning on returning to a weekly newsletter again after the holidays to help chase those winter PMS (parked motorcycle syndrome) blues away, at least a little bit!) I've used the D-cell powered gloves Sunishine referred to in her letter and just wanted to share my thoughts. As she mentioned they are inexpensive and they work pretty good for the price. Unlike the Gerbing gloves that are made for motorcycling with heating elements through the fingers and back of the hand, these gloves only have a heating element in the palm so your fingers still get a little chilly. Although I have been visiting the Gerbing website a lot lately, dreaming of all their goodies, I haven't made the leap to drop that kind of money so I can't make a comparison. This is my final rambling thought for Sunishine and her SO: If you ride throughout the winter, and it's as cold by you as it gets here in Wisconsin, I would ask Santa to swing by a Gerbing distributor on the way to my house. Take the money you would've spent on the D-cell gloves and get yourself a pair of the D-cell heated socks :) I loooooooooove those!!! Happy riding. – Paula (note from Mama: rambling, schmambling, nothing! There's plenty of room on this site for complete thoughts and sharing! Thanks for taking the time to offer your own personal insights -- the hallmark of what makes this site work!) Monday, December 16 Even MORE for Sunishine who is looking for cold weather riding solutions: While looking over the Gerbing's literature (http://www.gerbing.com) I noticed that there are accessories you can get so that you could wire the gloves to the battery without going through the liner (if you wanted a vest rather than the jacket). Also can hook up the heated socks without going through the pants. – Suzy (note from Mama: Suzy wrote in and supplied great info posted on Dec. 13th, so this is an addendum! Thanks!) Hey there, I'm in Toronto, Canada and am still riding my 883 Sportster thanks to an electric vest and gloves that connect to my battery. More information can be found at http://www.widder.com. I have ridden in some pretty chilly weather, down to 20 degrees F or so and my digits and torso have remained toasty warm. A thermostat allows you to adjust the temperature. This rig is not cheap but it works, and if you really want to ride in the cold, this is the way to go. (as long as it doesn't snow!) – Laura (note from Mama: boy do I feel like a wimp, but now I have an excuse -- we just got pummeled with snow and it doesn't look like it's going to let up for some time! Thanks for the info and website address!) I was out riding yesterday and thought of a couple of more things people can do to keep warm. One -- a Polartex shirt. I can ride without the lining in my jacket with it and don't feel so restricted. I got mine from Whitehorse Press. They can be found online. You can also ride with sock and glove liners. What I would like to see people who make leather pants do is to put a pocket on the front of the upper leg part of the pants to put a heating pad in. My stomach and upper legs get colder than anything.– Bobbye (note from Mama: I agree -- it's always my thighs that seemed to get the coldest, right after my fingertips. I'm a great believer in super thin silk or cotton/rayon mix thermal underwear for lining all parts of the body! Still, some days are just sooooo bloody cooooold that nothing seems to really help -- unless you're on a toy run and then the mission always is such a great cause that cold doesn't matter as much!) Dear VTwin Mama, Secondly, apparently my hands are too small to adequately reach the clutch with gloves on. Without gloves, I still have a reach, but with them, it's more difficult because the webbing between my thumb and forefinger prohibits me from having the same reach I usually have. After riding with them awhile, I took them off and tolerated extremely cold hands until we got home. I felt very unsafe with them on because I wasn't able to do things the way I normally did them. I guess I could get gloves made of another material that will slide over the grip without being too slick, but I don't know what to do about the other problem. Has anyone else had this problem and, is so, what did you do about it? – Linda Dear Linda, Your glove problem poses another challenge, and I have to admit that I've never noticed my leather gloves giving me the sticking problems you've mentioned. The biggest cold weather problem I've encountered is what I can aptly describe as "fat paw" -- too much glove material bunching up in the palm of my hands when I try to curve them around the handlebar ends to ride. So now when I consider the purchase of gloves, I check to see how much they bunch up in the middle when I curl my hand around. VTwin Mama sisters -- any ideas about the sticking problem? – Mama Thursday, December 19 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Linda, I simply haven't got a glove solution for this. What I can offer is this: check the Working on the Bike archive section for discussion on clutch lever solutions designed for smaller hands (you'll see it's the very first question on that site and then goes on with responses and insights). Just an option to change that out. I don't know if there is any similar for the brake lever. You might also want to check out the Short Biker site and pose your question to them (I'm assuming that most height-challenged riders have comparatively smaller hands, so they might know a thing or two!). – Mama Thursday, December 26 Dear VTwin Mama, Next item...handle bars that are too far away (for Richard and Kim)! Consider using different risers. That is what my husband did for me on one of my previous bikes. It was much cheaper than replacing the handlebars. Now...if you still want different handlebars, there are some places that you can go where they have a mock bike and they can put the various handlebars on it so you can see just how they would feel for you. The place I saw this was called Easy Riders, and I understand there are a number of these franchises in different areas. Take care and ride safe. Hugs.– Bootygrandma (Betty) Dear Betty, Friday, December 27 For Linda who is battling gloves that stick and hamper her winter riding: I'm sorry but I have no solution to the "sticking" gloves problem, but I too have the same problem as Linda. My thin leather glove bunches up under my hand and catches when I reach for the clutch, preventing my hand from reaching the clutch comfortably. I too have to lift my palm up off the handlebar in order to free my glove and reach the clutch. I too have very small hands. I ride a 1984 Honda Magna VF700, and I've been told my bike has hydraulic clutch and brake levers and I cannot replace them with customized/easier-to-reach levers! Just wanted Linda to know she wasn't alone! Thanks. – Beckie (note from Mama: sometimes letting another reader know that they are not alone is enough! More solutions anyone?) Tuesday, January 14 Dear VTwin Mama, Dear Wanda, Thursday, November 20 Dear
VTwin Mama, Dear
BJ, |
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