Modern Buddy

They're forecasting 110 here today and 116 tomorrow. Suffice to say, I'll be parking the scoot until the evening hours.

I'm half expecting Syd to spontaneously combust, as Phoenix metro is generally 5-10 degrees warmer than here.

So, how hot is too hot for you to ride?

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I usually give up riding around 105 in the summer. I give up under 55 in the winter.

Its 95° in Houston and it is HUMID, but the hottest place in the USA that I ever worked was Yuma.
I was working outside in Yuma on a hot, humid summer day, and we ate salt straight from the little packages from a fast food joint in an attempt to stay hydrated and avoid muscle cramps. Nunca otra vez!

az_slynch wrote:They're forecasting 110 here today and 116 tomorrow. Suffice to say, I'll be parking the scoot until the evening hours.

I'm half expecting Syd to spontaneously combust, as Phoenix metro is generally 5-10 degrees warmer than here.

So, how hot is too hot for you to ride?

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It's called global warming and it's real. And as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels it's not going to go away. It will only get worse. Start thinking about renewable energy, i.e. wind, solar and energy efficiency.

Bill in Seattle

skipper20 wrote: It's called global warming and it's real. And as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels it's not going to go away. It will only get worse. Start thinking about renewable energy, i.e. wind, solar and energy efficiency.

Bill in Seattle

Objection; relevance. The question was about temps that people will ride in.

But to address your point, you're more than welcome to turn in your fuel-burning scooters and go electric if it bothers your conscience that much. It makes a greater impact when we lead by example in lieu of merely prosthelysing.

Exactly. Lets get back on subject. Plenty of other places to get a climate change fix. Phoenix was so hot in the 1980s that airplanes sunk into the tarmac at Sky Harbor and had to be removed by crane. It aint happened since.
In fairness, I can only speak of the places where I have lived. I have never lived around glaciers or areas of snow pack, commonly measured to monitor climate change trends.

Wife and I draw the line at 99 and up degrees. I draw the line at around freezing in the winter for fear of hitting ice. 110+ in summer, I can only imagine!

It's pretty lame riding anything over 100 here for me. The desert sun is so strong and the wind feels like a blow dryer. Any exposed skin, forget it if you ride for more than 10 minutes.

I go out in the morning at 6:30 and am back home at 11. Today at 12am the temp was 105.

And talk about the danger, two hikers died today because they thought they would go hiking in this heat.

Anything over 95 just sucks. You have to work to stay hydrated. I have done it, but it take the fun out of the ride. It's like driving in a furnace.

Stay safe, hydrate every chance you get, I LOVE my camelback for long hot rides.

My ride is 10 miles from work to home. So I ride when it gets hot, pray for not too many stop lights.

az_slynch wrote:

skipper20 wrote: It's called global warming and it's real. And as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels it's not going to go away. It will only get worse. Start thinking about renewable energy, i.e. wind, solar and energy efficiency.

Bill in Seattle

Objection; relevance. The question was about temps that people will ride in.

But to address your point, you're more than welcome to turn in your fuel-burning scooters and go electric if it bothers your conscience that much. It makes a greater impact when we lead by example in lieu of merely prosthelysing.

OK, point taken. When it gets hot enough that breathing is uncmfortable (for me, 100 F or more) I'll keep the scooters in the garage. And, then I'll drive my hybrid electric car. But, global warming is real. You can't wish it away. And, I'll keep my fuel sipping 4T gas scooters thank you. 75 mpg and very low emissions per miles traveled is part of the solution and not entirely the problem.

Bill in Seattle

I draw the line at 110 degrees. At that point our incredibly dry air makes my eye balls feel like they are drying out and blinking becomes uncomfortable, even in my full face. Many folks don't care to ride in temps approaching 100. That means that I never have a hard time finding a motorcycle parking space at work from May til September. W00t!

Be safe out there friends,

Howard

I rode my old Metro home in 102 degree F temps one summer - a co-worker offered to give me and my scooter a ride home in his pickup truck, but we didn't quite have a way to get it up there (we tried lifting it, but couldn't get it up high enough!), so I scootered home. The heat was absolutely miserable, I felt like a cookie baking in an oven!

Coldest temp was, shockingly, -10 degrees F - again on the Metro. There was no ice on the roads, and I had to get to work somehow, so I layered up like crazy and made my way in! Pretty sure that ride wins for least pleasant ride anywhere, ever.

skipper20 wrote:
OK, point taken. When it gets hot enough that breathing is uncomfortable (for me, 100 F or more) I'll keep the scooters in the garage. And, then I'll drive my hybrid electric car. But, global warming is real. You can't wish it away. And, I'll keep my fuel sipping 4T gas scooters thank you. 75 mpg and very low emissions per miles traveled is part of the solution and not entirely the problem.

Bill in Seattle

Never tried to wish it away. House has solar heating for the pool, appliances replaced with energy-efficient models and all lights have been converted to LED; like your hybrid, it's a step in the right direction. It saves me money in addition to the warm fuzzies of moving towards environmental responsibility.

As for your scoots, they may sip fuel, but the unavoidable consequence is that by consuming fuel, they still contribute to the demand for fuel. By filling them, you're still doing your part to sustain demand just like the rest of us sinners.

Point is, we all have room to improve. That, and shaming is not an effective motivator when it is overused.

Remember, this topic is generally considered a political issue. If you wish to continue this discourse, please be mindful of the posting guidelines.

craftynerd wrote:I rode my old Metro home in 102 degree F temps one summer - a co-worker offered to give me and my scooter a ride home in his pickup truck, but we didn't quite have a way to get it up there (we tried lifting it, but couldn't get it up high enough!), so I scootered home. The heat was absolutely miserable, I felt like a cookie baking in an oven!

Coldest temp was, shockingly, -10 degrees F - again on the Metro. There was no ice on the roads, and I had to get to work somehow, so I layered up like crazy and made my way in! Pretty sure that ride wins for least pleasant ride anywhere, ever.

I always feel bad for the air-cooled scoots when riding them in high temps. My old Riva 180 and Elite 80 need premium gas on hot days or they may exhibit piston rattle. Not fun for the scooter or the scooterist!

As for cold, yikes, you win! I used to commute on a '74 Vespa Rally 200 in the snow. Coldest I rode in was 20F. I can't imagine riding in the negatives...

ravenridesacoyote wrote:And talk about the danger, two hikers died today because they thought they would go hiking in this heat.

The news was pretty sobering for the heat-related deaths. One hiker had plenty of water and was attended to by a doctor in the hiking group but still could not be saved. Be safe out there!

skipper20 wrote:I'll keep my fuel sipping 4T gas scooters thank you. 75 mpg and very low emissions per miles traveled is part of the solution and not entirely the problem.

You may want to check out:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greensp ... sions.html

That said... Overheating in traffic is a real problem. Two days ago I had to ride for a few miles in the emergency lane on my motorcycle when I got stuck in rush hour traffic on my motorcycle. It has a temperature gauge and it started getting into the red. I was expecting a car to get pissed and swerve over on me. I have done it before and passed cops and surprisingly they did not seem to care.

What about my VW (not so) clean diesel?

Billy

At noon today it's 93F and my daughter wouldn't ride with me to lunch.
We won't stay this hot, we'll just wait until later or tomorrow morning, or it'll cool down soon enough. Many. many days of great riding weather here, why push it?

I can take cold down to just above freezing if there's no precip. Heat isn't a problem per-se. The issue is that summer brings all the tourists down to the Jersey Shore and that mean traffic jams everywhere. Even a temp of 75 becomes unbearable when you're at an intersection that's backed up for half a mile. So summer's usually when I head inland for some nice horse country scenery. I save the oceanfront trips for spring and fall.

Rode in 109 degree temps today.

It sucked.

High 50's to mid 60's around here lately so I'm riding with my insulated mesh jacket.

I'm in west-central AZ along the Colorado River and it usually averages 5 degrees hotter in summer than in Phoenix & 5 degrees colder in winter.

I used to ride up to 113 degrees but, 5 years later, I can't handle much more than 105. I'm 73 now & the fun goes out of riding the '07 Bud 125 above 105.

Must be miserable riding in 100+ temperatures, something I know nothing about.
Rode home from dinner tonight in low to mid 50's temps. Glad I had 4 layers on. Go outside of San Francisco and the temps jump up 30-40 degrees. Crazy.

The worst temps I ever experienced was Loredo TX! I got SOAKED in sweat just walking from the 18 wheeler to the roach coach for tacos. It was HORRIBLE! Second place was somewhere IN Mexico. Dont remember were but the place I delivered to painted panels for Ford's Focus cars. Along with the heat I discovered the EPA does not exist in Mexico.Got a paint huffers high standing OUTSIDE the building! But yes, Loredo TX STILL holds the heat record of death with me!

az_slynch wrote:They're forecasting 110 here today and 116 tomorrow. Suffice to say, I'll be parking the scoot until the evening hours.

I'm half expecting Syd to spontaneously combust, as Phoenix metro is generally 5-10 degrees warmer than here.

So, how hot is too hot for you to ride?

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Spontaneous human combustion. Hahaha!

I have one pic of the thermometer in my BV350 that shows 121, and another at 122. That is the hottest I've ridden in, 12 miles home from work. But I retired the end of May, so haven't ridden since a week or two before - riding in that heat is something you work your way into so I'll wait till Sept/Oct. &#128512;

To keep from getting too hot, we do the following:
- we fill our camelback with ice at every chance we get. Yes, we fill our camelbacks with ice from the soda fountains at convenience stores: no one has called the cops on us yet!
- we have a spray bottle that we fill with cold water and we spay ourselves down every stop. And we wear t shirts that we stop and soak in cold water (my wife wears a sports bra)
- we try to ride as early as possible, preferably before dawn if it's too hot ( yeah, we see way too many deer, but sometimes you just gotta choose)
- if it's hot enough, we actually go looking for rain showers.

It's still miserable, mind you, just a little less miserable. The best way to cope with the heat is to tour Nova Scotia! Or, if it's too hot, Newfoundland! The last is still on my bucket list.

About six years ago there was a magazine named "Scoot". Don't remember
the exact issue, but was an article about some insane Italian and his girlfriend
that we traveling out west on their way to California starting from Chicago.
They we riding an old 50cc Vespa two stroke with pics of them crossing Death
Valley desert. The scooter was named the General Lee after the "Dukes of
Hazard" Dodge Charger. Speak about heat and insane. The owner had built
the scoot up for this ride in Italy and brought it over for him and his girlfriend
riding double with all their gear loaded up on this 50cc scoot, no problem.

Regards, Greartgrandpop

ahorsewithnoname wrote:.............him and his girlfriend riding double with all their gear loaded up on this 50cc scoot, no problem.

I think the "no problem" part is mostly a function of what you are willing to put up with.