Yesterday for the first time this fall it got down to twenty degrees, well below historical averages here on this date. I rode to work from a heated garage aboard a recently re-animated -- but still seriously old -- 1994 Honda XR650L (photo, left). It didn’t take very long to dress for this chilly commute, either. Nobody else on my fifteen-minute surface street route was riding, but the road was dry, and the sun was shining. I was comfortable the entire way. Everything was perfect.

When I came out the sidewalk after five PM it was already fully dark and still only twenty, and the bike just…barely…started. Lighting its ICE fire involved multiple stabs of the button and more than a full minute of worriedly listening to labored slow cranking, despite temp-stable synthetic oil and a brand-new Lithium battery. I was glad nobody was around to witness me standing there worryingly thinking about how I might have to push it into a warm place and then wait until everything warmed up for at least half an hour…and the engine finally caught. Whew! Exhaust condensation puff-puff-puffing from the end of its muffler did look cool.

Once again, I’d partly forgotten how many kinds of motorcycles are simply not good for real cold weather commuting operations. Especially big carbureted singles like this nearly vintage XL, which had not seen a twenty-degree commute in probably ten years. A triumph of rose-colored-goggles hope over reality. And another reason to celebrate the near-universal adoption of electronic fuel injection.

Engines like this can be harder to start at any time, much less in cold weather. When this model was created back in 1994 (yes, it is a first-year one, and yes it IS hard to believe how long these have now been continuously produced) it was made to be used as a dirt bike in sunny, warm places -- not for commuting through cloudy, cold, dark Minnesota winters. Thus, its efficient and lightweight electric starting system is far too small for winter commuting around here.

Last winter my commute-solution was an electric bicycle on studded tires (photo, left) which worked more or less ok, but because it maxes out at 20-25 mph, the commute became ten minutes longer. A motorcycle’s average surface street speed is 30-40 mph, an electric bicycle’s average speed is 15-25 mph, and a pedal-only bicycle’s average commute speed is 10-15 mph.

Wintertime = increased commute time.

The scientific name for the average length of time people will tolerate when commuting is called ‘the Marchetti Constant’ and this time-value holds at about thirty minutes throughout all of recorded history, and everywhere in the world. This is what limited the footprint of pre-technological cities, and partly explains how modern suburban sprawl, shopping centers, hospitals and schools fit into discrete neighborhoods and boroughs, and how most neighborhoods and wards fit together within larger cities. It also partly explains how prior to the industrial revolution artisanal agriculture-centered towns and villages were separated from fields by ‘x’ distances, and how each of those little villages were ‘x’ distance apart.

Thirty minutes, on average.

Whenever I walk to work it’s just over an hour and this is always a great time-luxury. And when I motorcycle it’s usually just under fifteen minutes. Pedaling and electric pedaling splits this difference.

Co-workers Randy and Kyle figured out their winter-motorcycle-commute a couple of years ago. They share an electric Zero. No matter how cold it gets this bike starts right up and takes them home -- no muss, no fuss, and no adverse impact on normal summer/spring/fall commute times.

Reducing one’s carbon footprint is great but even better is not worrying if, at the end of a workday, one’s correctly tuned ‘old-reliable’ ICE bike will actually start when it’s Winter Time.

- Mr. Subjective, Nov 2019