When it comes to crappy spring weather, riders living here can sing “Don’t Cry for Me Minnesota” to the melody of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” and really mean it. Below is a screenshot of what might be the worst-ever NWS (National Weather Service) seven-day forecast for April 16th in Duluth Minnesota. It was issued four days ago. Our typical spring weather is so bad it is actually funny. This year it’s been even worse. Locals have learned through long experience to laugh when bad weather happens and everything atmospheric goes against them because there is nothing they can do about it. Every rider living here gets this. Arguably, our reliably terrible spring weather is one of two reasons we ended up making some of the planet’s best rider’s gear. Combine truly rotten riding conditions (1) with wanting to ride a motorcycle extra-badly after suffering through one of our typically frigid, dark, and snowy Minnesota winters (2) and the solution (3) is an Aerostich R-3 armored textile rider’s coverall. It’s as simple as 1 + 2 = 3. These suits are highly wind and weatherproof, comfortable to wear, and very quick and easy to put on and remove. Another example of ‘circumstance being the mother of invention’. Aerostich R-3s, like many other models of Aerostich gear, work great for all kinds of riding situations and scenarios. Still, none of this was ever calculated to help you look like a cool bad-ass, or any other kind of hip or knowing rider. Rather it’s moto-gear as a simple and slightly geeky piece of equipment that is a functional tool more than a moto-fashion statement. It’s simply about riding more. So if you enjoy looking at yourself in mirrors or the picture windows of passing stores and shops, this gear is probably not for you.  But if, in addition to riding your motorcycle more often, you also enjoy showing up at the occasional meeting, or your regular workplace, or running routine errands on your motorcycle and having people look at you quizzically and sometimes ask: “Are you riding a motorcycle???” because the immediate weather at that moment happens to be noticeably less than ideal, I hope you will take a look through our online click-functional and pageable catalog here. You’ll be welcome there. This really was an unbelievable and terrible seven-day forecast for mid-April, even for here. Enjoy the ride. - Mr. Subjective PS - The R-3 mentioned above is the current and most advanced ‘third generation’ of the Roadcrafter one-piece suit, which is the product the Aerostich business was founded to manufacture forty years ago. You can watch a short video showing the early real-world testing of the R-3 here: PPS - The payoff for all this misery (yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…) comes in July and August when the weather, camping, and riding around here are all super nice. And to celebrate our 40th Anniversary this year, we are planning the Very Boring Rally 5, too. It will be a little different than past VBRs (1-4). Instead of a single weekend gathering, all during these two months everyone showing up at our HQ will receive a swag bag with a VBR5 T-shirt, event pin (pin while supplies last), and assorted other stuff. Free. In addition, there will be a random variety of famous, semi-famous and infamous moto-related speakers and storytellers some days, sharing their life and riding experiences in the Road Grimed Astronaut Lounge (AKA the garage part of the Aerostich building) which has already been set up with tables and chairs. Light refreshments are a possibility. So come and visit us this summer and enjoy the area’s best everything, including the weather. More info about the event and the area’s many accommodations and attractions is here. We’d love to see you. Edited to add: This showed up in Mr. Subjective's email. You can't make this stuff up. For context: A few days ago, we were just shy of surpassing the record for the snowiest winter in Duluth. After Thursday's snow, we broke it... Yay?

It just hit me again last night and this morning, and it keeps coming back. Essays, news, emails. Story after story, year after year. Real-time life experiences. This so-called generational ‘divide’. The young digitally-fluent generations don’t understand how to navigate yesterday’s analog realms too well, while the older analog-fluent geezers struggle to handle today's computerized technologies. This is hardly news, and of course, there are a few polymathy exceptions. Those scattered extraordinary people living among us who are equally comfortable in both worlds. And like almost everything else, we all fall along this spectrum somewhere. I self-estimate I’m about 2/3rds analog-fluent and 1/3rd digital-fluent. A guess. This year I am sixty-six. When I was seventeen the digital stuff was room-sized IBM 360s and Fortran cards. Everything else was analog (in HS I was taught how to use a slide rule) but the future was clear. Analog was history. My best childhood friend Bill was a straight-A student and an Eagle Scout. We were almost perfect opposites. He was ‘born old’ and I’ve never quite grown up still. I was an undistinguished student who never made it past the scout rank of second class but sure loved going camping. His career involved computers and software and mine involved sewing motorcycle riding suits. We remain close friends to this day, but we’re far apart on the digital-analog fluency spectrum. The first explanation of the relationship between digital and analog that made sense to me was something I read in a self-published staple-bound book(let) attempting to teach improved off-road riding skills. I don’t remember its title but the year was 1971 and the key section was about something the author called the “Push-push-bang-bang-servo-technique.”  It was very simple. Imagine a grid with two indexes. Up the left side was increasing force. Across the bottom was moving forward time. Now draw a diagonal line starting at the lower left corner (where the two indexes meet) upward toward the upper right corner. This is a visual analog description of how a force increases at a steady rate across a period of time. Now zoom into the diagonal line. Zoom in really tight. Pixel tight. What you’ll see is that the diagonal line is actually a series of tiny steps. One up, one over, looking like a microscopic stairway. That is a digital description of something analog – the diagonal line. One up and one over, ones and zeros. This was a dirt bike guy explaining the neural feedback loops riders use to apply force to the handlebars and brakes. Press a little and in a microsecond decide if it is enough to cause the effect you want and if it isn’t press again a little harder and re-evaluate. Continuous unconscious infinitesimal one-up-one-over feedback loops that allow you to trail-brake, feather a clutch, or do a donut or wheelie. Beneath our conscious awareness, everything is digitally describable. Fifty years ago it was this guy writing a pamphlet about how to ride a dirt bike faster and smoother and today it’s Steven Wolfram’s magnum opus about how everything in the universe is digitally describable in fractal equations. Or this Quantum Gravity Research theory of everything (watch on YouTube). Here’s a short story involving analog fluency from November of last year. Five years ago I’d parked my old Honda XR650L without any special preparation and recently wanted to re-activate it. This involved all the usual resurrection restoratives (fresh engine oil, a gummed-up carb cleanout, front, and rear brake rebuilds, fresh gas, and a new battery) and after all this, ‘voila!’ it came back to life. Several knit-picks still needed attention, though, the first being a sticky-icky-gritty turn signal switch. This was disassembled, cleaned, re-lubricated, and reassembled just before parking the bike for the winter. All of the nano-details of that job were described in this blog at the time, the point being I did not need a service manual to take on the project. I just knew what to do. Walk over to the bike with a screwdriver and start taking pieces apart and cleaning them, then lubricate and reassemble. No big deal, but satisfying all the same. Getting this bike ready the following spring involved two more little analog jobs: I took the sticky throttle apart and cleaned, lubricated, and re-assembled it. Now it snaps back like the bike was brand new again. This bike is 26 years old and its twist-grip assembly had never been cleaned. I also bled the rear brake (again) using one of the EZ Bleeders we sell which I had purchased many years ago. I think this was about the third or fourth time I’d used this simple tool. With these two jobs done the bike is now (a mere six years after being unceremoniously parked!!) fully ready to go back into daily service. Which is as exciting to me as if it were a brand-new just-purchased machine. This kind of little-kid excitement never gets old. - Mr. Subjective, 2019 PS - After finishing this story I liked how it came out well enough so I sent it to a couple of old friends (the key word here is: ‘old’) thinking they might also like it. Their replies: “Maybe five years ago I had to take the carb off my 650L in a hotel parking lot at night, in order to clean out the plugged idle jet. It was the evening before a big group ride, and I was pissed that I hadn’t taken care of this earlier. So I was working quietly and furiously with clenched teeth, just wanting to be done so I could relax with a beer and the rest of the guys. After a while, I looked up, and there, standing behind me in total silence were six or eight riders under 40 years old. I don’t think they’d ever seen the inside of a carburetor. It was like they were watching someone perform simultaneous open-heart and brain surgery in a parking lot. They actually applauded when the bike started, ran, and idled.” Mark L. Mark, a few years ago I had the same experience changing a tire’s tube on the side of a well-traveled road. Several people stopped to ask if I needed help, and after I said I didn't, some drove on but three younger ones stayed, simply to watch. And: “…My grandson, for example, commutes 12 months a year on a mountain bike or eBike (RadMini), he is into rock climbing, wall jumping, marathons, kickboxing, and all kinds of stuff I’ve never heard of and has lots of friends doing the same kinds of things. I’d put riding a bike 7 miles one way in a Minneapolis January over anything I’ve ever seen a hippobike rider do, adventure-wise. He sucks at maintenance, though. His eBike is in my garage waiting for a motor replacement. He beat it to death in 8 months. We did a full service on his mountain bike last weekend and it was pretty hammered, too. ;-)” Tom D.

A few 'Max Headroom'*/Mr.Subjective/Chat GPT answers to important questions (some blog posts literally write themselves ChatGPT Jan 9 Version (2023) Red text sections = Comments from Mr. Subjecive Important Question: Why should I ride a motorcycle? ChatGPT Answer: There are several reasons why someone might choose to ride a motorcycle. Some people enjoy the feeling of freedom and the open road that riding a motorcycle provides. Others may appreciate the cost savings associated with owning a motorcycle, as they can be more fuel efficient and require less maintenance than cars. Additionally, motorcycles can provide a more exhilarating and thrilling riding experience compared to cars. However, it's important to note that riding a motorcycle also carries more risk than driving a car and requires more skill and attention, thus it's important to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision. Mr. Subjective Comment: Missing - Riding makes one feel better, and in general puts a lighter footprint on the planet, and (importantly) reinforces and strengthens the social contract. Not to mention how you’ll generally look cool doing it. At least to most people. Important Question: Why should I ride a motorcycle for urban transportation and utility? ChatGPT Answer: Riding a motorcycle for urban transportation and utility can offer several benefits over using a car or other vehicle. Traffic and parking: Motorcycles are smaller and more maneuverable than cars, making them better suited for navigating crowded city streets and finding parking spots in tight spaces. Cost-effective: Motorcycles are typically cheaper to purchase and maintain than cars, which can be a significant financial advantage for city dwellers. Environmental (sic) friendly: Motorcycles emit less carbon emissions than cars, which can help to reduce your carbon footprint and contribute to a cleaner environment. Efficiency: Motorcycles can navigate through traffic faster and with less fuel consumption than cars, which can save time and money for daily commutes. However, it's important to note that riding a motorcycle in the city also carries more risk than driving a car and requires more skill and attention, thus it's important to weigh the pros and cons before making a decision. Additionally, it's important to make sure you have proper training and equipment, including a helmet, protective clothing and insurance before you start riding. Mr. Subjective Comment: This is getting boring already. And stupid. The number one reason not listed:  Because riding makes you feel better. Important Question: Why should I Buy (and Wear) an Aerostich R-3 riders suit? ChatGTP Answer: The Aerostich R-3 is a one-piece motorcycle riding suit designed for long-distance and adventure riding. Here are a few reasons why someone might choose to buy an Aerostich R-3 riders suit: Protection: The R-3 suit is made with a durable abrasion-resistant material and features reinforced impact areas such as shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. This offers a high level of protection in the event of a crash. Weather protection: The suit is designed to be completely waterproof and windproof, making it suitable for riding in all weather conditions. Comfort: The suit is designed to be worn for long periods of time, with features such as adjustable ventilation, a built-in kidney belt, and a comfortable lining. Versatility: The suit can be worn over regular street clothes, making it a convenient option for those who don't want to change into specialized riding gear. Durability: The R-3 suit is built to last, with high-quality construction and durable materials. It's designed to withstand the wear and tear of long-distance riding and adventure riding. Brand reputation: Aerostich is a well-known brand in the motorcycle riding gear industry and has a reputation for producing high-quality and durable products. It's important to note that the R-3 suit is a significant investment, but it's designed to be worn for multiple seasons, and to last for many years. It's also important to make sure you get the right size, as a good fit is essential for the suit to perform correctly and for the rider to be comfortable. Mr. Subjective Comment: “…designed for long-distance and adventure riding” - The R-3 was designed for commuting and daily utility riding but works great for most other types of rides.  Also missing: Made in America. Better fits available. Repair and refurbish services. Not seasonally restyled. Important Question: Where should I ride for the best curvy roads? ChatGTP Answer: There are many great locations around the world for riding on curvy roads. Some popular destinations include: The Tail of the Dragon (Deal's Gap) in North Carolina, USA: This 11-mile stretch of road is known for its 318 curves and is a favorite among motorcyclists and sports car enthusiasts. The Stelvio Pass in Italy: This winding mountain pass is considered one of the most beautiful and challenging roads in Europe, with 48 hairpin turns and stunning views of the Italian Alps. The Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia and North Carolina, USA: This 469-mile stretch of road offers scenic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and is known for its winding roads and beautiful vistas. The Pacific Coast Highway in California, USA: This famous road winds along the California coast, offering breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean and some of the most scenic and challenging curves in the world. The Transfagarasan Highway in Romania: This winding mountain road offers spectacular views of the Carpathian Mountains and is known for its serpentine turns and tight switchbacks. The Road of 1000 bends in Taiwan: This scenic road is known for its many winding turns and beautiful views of the East China Sea. It's important to note that when riding in these locations, or any other curvy road, it's crucial to pay attention to the road conditions and traffic, and to have proper training and equipment to ensure a safe and enjoyable ride. Mr. Subjective Comment: Not mentioned, but important - The very best curvy roads are always the obscure ones which don’t have any other traffic or have very little traffic. There’s a little-known curvy road rule which goes: If there are no painted shoulder or other lane markings on a curvey road, you may ride as fast as you are safely able without fear because there are no applicable traffic laws. Important Question: What should I do if the sky is falling? ChatGTP Answer: The phrase "the sky is falling" is often used as an idiomatic expression, it implies a sense of impending doom or catastrophe. However, if you're in a situation where you truly believe the sky is falling, it is important to stay calm and follow these steps: Take cover: If there is an object falling from the sky, it is important to take cover immediately. Find a sturdy structure or a covered area, such as a building or a bridge, and seek shelter. Listen for official announcements: Tune into local radio or television stations for official announcements or emergency broadcasts. These will provide important information about the situation and any instructions to follow. Follow evacuation orders: If you are advised to evacuate, do so as quickly and calmly as possible. Follow the instructions of local authorities and emergency responders. Avoid damaged areas: Stay away from any areas that have been damaged by falling debris. If you are in a damaged area, move to a safe location as soon as possible. Seek medical attention: If you are injured, seek medical attention immediately. If you are unable to do so, call 911 or the local emergency number for assistance. Be prepared for the aftermath: After a catastrophic event, be prepared for the aftermath, such as power outages, disruptions to transportation and communication, and possible food and water shortages. It's important to note that it's always a good idea to have a plan for emergency situations, including a well-stocked emergency kit, and knowing your community's emergency response plan. Additionally, it's important to follow the instructions provided by the authorities, and not to spread misinformation. Mr. Subjective Comment: Not mentioned - Duck. *The multiple “F’s" in the first word of this essay's title refer to a speech mannerism of a popular 1980s fictional sci-fi character named Max Headroom, an entirely AI + CGI digitally animated screen image of a television newsman's 'talking head'. His trademark stutter was the result of buffering glitches caused by his underlying AI algorithms placing excessive processing loads on a mainframe computer. His name came from low ceiling height warning signage displayed across the malfunctioning automated gate of an underground parking facility in London ("MAX HEADROOM - 3 M”, translated as: “Maximum Headroom Three Meters). An unfortunate motorcycle courier died as a result of head injuries caused by crashing into that gate. It was the last thing this un-named rider saw before dying and also was the first information that came up after scientists had successfully translated the entire contents of this deceased rider's brain into AI and CGI software, which allowed Max to continue to live forever as a wisecracking sentient AI algorithm. Learn more about Max Headroom here.

A fair number of our customers agree about one looking like a dork/Road Grimed Astronaut if riding for transportation and utility, vs. when riding primarily for sport and recreation. These two different-but-related applications have at least this in common: they both involve a single-track motorized vehicle. In rich countries like America, transportation/utility/commuting riders generally do both kinds of riding, but most motorcyclists ride more exclusively for sport and recreation. This makes a lot of sense for a lengthy list of strong cultural and logistical reasons. Evaluating the risks of motorcycling-in-general through the lens of utility and transportation riding is difficult to sort out concisely, but still worthwhile. An important paradox is how we become better risk managers in all things, the more we do the thing. This means as we increase our overall motorcycling risk exposure by riding more, the better we become at managing and mitigating the various risks involved. But beyond that, the relative and comparative risk landscape for this type of riding has changed dramatically during the years I’ve been riding, worsening despite important improvements in protective gear and great motorcycle technology and performance advances. There are many components to this motorcycle-relative-to-automobile statistical worsening. Here are a few, not listed in any order of priority: Automobiles have become tremendously safer due to the development of required passive and active safety systems, beginning with easy-to-use seat belts during the 1970s. Roads have become far more crowded. Most rider accident scenarios that produce serious injuries and deaths involve another vehicle. More drivers (as a percentage of all drivers) are not driving as well as in the past because of underlying factors including increased risk-compensation behavior due to the above-mentioned passive safety systems becoming universal, of being better insulated from (and more oblivious to) their immediate surroundings (cars became better sealed climate-controlled ‘capsules’), of there being more compelling distractions inside the vehicle, and probably also because of an increased percentage of marginally skilled and poorly trained drivers becoming licensed and having access to an automobile. In collisions, cars and light trucks have become riskier to riders because of the increased popularity of taller and more slab-sided vehicle shapes. Changes in road architecture and surrounding infrastructure has made driving safer while doing the opposite for motorcycle riders. Typically, making roads easier to drive causes drivers to pay less attention to their surroundings, and also adding roadside barriers to help cars and drivers during crash scenarios usually increases harm to riders during motorcycle crash scenarios. So compared to driving, riding is now relatively riskier than it was forty years ago. This may be one reason (of several) why the X, Millennial and Y generations have not been adopting riding in as large of numbers as Boomers did. Those younger generations may not have broken down riding’s increased risks as I have described above, but they know by both intuition and cultural meme it’s become riskier. This may be part of the reason they don’t want it as much as I did. They perfectly recognize and appreciate its pleasures, benefits, and coolness, but it is not enough.The importance of acquiring the fluency and risk-management experience that comes only with increased ride frequency cannot be overstated, but acquiring this risk-mitigator is a lot harder today than it was when Boomer-riders were starting to ride in large numbers fifty years ago.  Nevertheless, it still can be done. Here’s a concrete example: If someone pulls out from a side street directly in front of a rider, or turns left in front of an oncoming rider at precisely the exact-to-the-microsecond wrong moment, the bike and the car will collide. Same for a random deer suddenly leaping out of the forest at the exact-to-the-microsecond wrong time. No matter what gear the rider is or isn’t wearing, or the age and type of motorcycle they are riding, they are going to experience some level of impact. But — and this is ultra-important — there are risk-mitigating things riders can do which dramatically lower their statistical chances of experiencing one of these scenarios.For situations where approaching drivers may be violating a rider’s right-of-way at exactly the wrong time, riders can tactically reduce the risk of a collision when they: Ride the speed limit, not faster. Wear bright clothing and a bright helmet. Add and use auxiliary lighting. (I prefer a single asymmetrically* located additional light, believing this looks more visually anomalous, and thus more irritatingly noticeable. Research indicates any additional forward lighting is a bit more noticeable if it is yellow or amber colored. *Meaning positioned relative to the low headlight beam at about 10AM, 2PM, 4PM or 7-8PM, and not at 3PM, 6PM, or 9PM.) Wiggle the bike side-to-side slightly for a couple of seconds if it seems like an approaching driver may not be seeing the rider. Ride only sober, and always in a relaxed yet subliminally slightly paranoid frame of mind. Automatically and unconsciously position one’s bike in the lane(s) and relative to other traffic so as to be more easily noticed. Automatically pay acute micro-attention to other vehicles' micro-movements which may indicate they are about to violate one’s right of way. Ride an unfaired and un-windshielded bike to visually appear more irregular in silhouette and more human in profile. Never rely on “eye contact” with other drivers because they can be looking directly at you and still not see you. Whenever possible choose routes one is more familiar with. Commuting on familiar roads with familiar and more predictable types of surrounding traffic makes a difference. Also, whenever possible choose optimal times of day. 2 AM bar-close is a poor time to be riding, and ‘rush hour’ is similarly riskier than at other times. Choosing optimal weather is a factor. Snow, ice, rain, and fog are all riskier times to be riding. (Do as I say, not as I do…) Ride the same familiar bike for years and maintain it well. Regularly practice ‘emergency’ riding skills like aggressive swerving and braking. For the deer jumping out of the forest scenario, there are other things one can do to reduce this risk, but with both exactly-at-the-right-time-in-the-wrong-place situations, the higher risk of riding never goes to zero. It may be reducible by 99.87% (or whatever…), but it never goes to zero. I like to think about the senior commercial airline pilot ‘Sully‘ Sullenberger who famously landed his jet full of passengers on the Hudson River after losing both engines shortly after takeoff.  He’d probably done that exact same take-off scenario (without losing engine power) maybe 5,000 times (a guess) over a career-long time span. The risks involved were never zero, but close, and when that one-in-a-few-million event occurred, he did essentially all of the best possible things, which worked out pretty well for him and his passengers. He knew how to use his plane and knew that particular familiar location extremely well.Despite recent measurably increased risks of riding, the above list of tactical risk mitigators lowers the overall risk of transportation and utility motorcycling to an acceptable level for most riders in most riding locations. For me, this type of riding is always going to be worth it, at least knock-on-wood so far. It’s still the best part of my day. But should I ever be badly injured or become disabled because of being on my motorcycle in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time, all bets are off. As many novelists, screenwriters, poets, and others have built their compelling stories around, you can never perfectly project how you’ll actually feel about some kinds of things until you are experiencing them. That’s life. (Also a good Frank Sinatra song lyric.)Lastly, in addition to my ongoing usual daily commuting and utility riding, this new year I hope to again get back to a little more recreational riding. Especially exploring interesting roads, trails, and places involving motorcycle camping. It’s been a couple of years since I last did this type of riding because of my stupid fear of the stupid pandemic/plague. - Mr. Subjective, January 2023

A detailed explanation of how to comfortably commute on snowy and icy roads during a Minnesota Winter. My commute here in Northern Minnesota (Duluth) is five miles each way, all on surface streets, and last winter I decided to do it mostly by everyday motorcycling. The experiment was only partly successful, but I learned a lot, and it was usually fun. Here’s a link to a 17 minute video outlining setting up the bike, showing what was learned, and talking about the experience. I hope you’ll enjoy watching it and will maybe find something we learned helpful. Mr. Subjective PS - This coming winter I’m going to do it again, using what I learned last year. More Aerostich winter commuting videos from other years:   Read more Zero Below Zero Posts »

Rightly or wrongly I’ve sometimes privately felt a bit like the legendary Johnny Appleseed, in that the purpose of my life’s work turned out to be to help make ordinary useful A to B daily motorcycle and scooter use in wealthy countries a bit safer, easier, more comfortable, and more popular. By one rider at a time. This wasn’t planned. Making Aerostich one-piece coveralls is why the Aero Design & Manufacturing Company (inc.) was started. I simply wanted one of these coveralls for myself so day-to-day I could ride more and drive less. So I could ride on days when the weather was less-than-perfect. The weather is perfect for riding here about 5% of the time. The rest of the time it is either too hot, cold, windy, or wet. I wanted to ride anyway. In this regard, and for some Aerostich suit purchasers, the one-piece suit has been somewhat subversive equipment. A rider may have bought it for a recreational ride to a distant motorcycle rally or some other bucket list destination, but after getting back home there it still is, still hanging in the garage or closet, softly calling the rider’s name like the Tell-Tale Heart in Edgar Allan Poe’s famous horror story. “Rider, rider” it whispers, using the rider’s name, “come out and play today…” followed by “It’s not too cold or windy or wet…” Only the owner of the coverall is able to hear the soft seductive voice saying over and over: “You can ride to work today…” Or to the grocery store, or to wherever. Over and over, it is saying: “Leave the car in the driveway today. Ride there…” After hearing this sort of haunting invitation enough times, eventually one day the suit owner gives in and chooses the bike instead of the car. A few days pass, then a few weeks and eventually, they are choosing riding over driving a bit more often, somewhat to the concern of loved ones, employers, and (of course) the army of industrialists, governments and workers who create, provide and operate our complex car-centric surface transportation infrastructures. Including Elon, currently the grand hero-of-the-moment in these areas. Forgive my small hubris comparing the work of Aerostich to the work of Johnny Appleseed. It’s just that those coverall suits do plant subtle seeds about the feasibility of everyday useful motorcycling into the hearts and minds of some riders who own and wear Roadcrafters, Classic Roadcrafters, R-3s, and Cousin Jeremy’s. Until this morning I never knew anything about Mr. Appleseed beyond what has always floated around in popular culture. But today a fellow named William Ashworth, who writes and sends to a subscriber list an excellent daily email about a historical science figure (one per day), which I gratefully receive, made today’s post all about Johnny Appleseed, famous American 18th century amateur botanist. Beyond planting a bunch of apple trees during his walkabout life, I never knew his actual story. This story may be of interest only to me (?) because of my experiences at Aerostich, but here it is anyway: From: William AshworthSubject: Anniversary for Sep. 27, 2022: John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed)Date: September 27, 2022 at 6:02:41 AM CDTBcc: agoldfine@aerostich.com John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, nurseryman extraordinaire, was born Sep. 26, 1774, in Massachusetts (see first woodcut portrait of 1871). It is hard to sort through the legend of Johnny Appleseed to find the real John Chapman, but several historians have recently managed to make credible attempts. Chapman was a real enough figure, an itinerant who moved west to Pennsylvania, then Ohio, and finally Indiana, acquiring plots of land here and there, where he would plant orchards of apple trees from seed, and sell the sprouts for a penny or two apiece, which is where he got the money to buy land. He lived simply, wore second-hand clothes, disdained shoes, and slept on the ground except in extreme weather, when he had no problem finding a floor by a hearth, since he was a well-loved figure among the settlers. Here is a second portrait, from a different source, 1862. In addition to sowing apples, Chapman spread the Gospel as he went, as taught by a Christian sect known as Swedenborgians, or the New Church, which seems to have emphasized the oneness of humans with nature. I do not know much about the Swedenborgians, but I do know a little about Jainism, and Chapman sounds like a Jain to me, although a Christian version. He respected all forms of animal and plant life, refusing to kill anything, even insects. Most apple trees were the result of grafting onto a rootstock, but Chapman refused to cut and wound a tree, and so he grew his trees from seeds. It has however been pointed out, cynically perhaps, that grafting is difficult and time-consuming, whereas it is fairly easy to haul around a gunnysack filled with seeds, which could be acquired free at cider mills. Here is a third woodcut, from the 1871 source. The problem with growing apple trees from seed is that, if you plant the seeds from, say, a MacIntosh apple, you do not get a tree that bears MacIntosh apples. The seeds are unrelated to the apple the contains them. So the apples from Chapman’s trees were generally small and bitter. The fact that they were probably not too tasty may not have put a crimp in Chapman’s business, for the buyers of his two-penny sprigs were unlikely to know what kind of fruit they would bear until after Chapman had moved on. And they probably would not have cared, for the fact is that the reason people wanted apples was not to make America's favorite dessert, but rather to turn them into hard alcoholic cider. In hindsight, we know that Chapman’s habit of growing apples from seed was an ecological godsend, since he managed to leave behind an incredible variety of apple trees and thus inadvertently preserved most of the diversity inherent in the apple genome. How Chapman morphed into the legendary Johnny Appleseed, who wore a pot for a hat and could communicate with animals, is not altogether clear. The mythical Appleseed probably blossomed from an article in 'Harper's New Monthly Magazine' in 1871, 26 years after his death. The article plays up his simple life, his missionary ways, and his reverence for animals. Recent scholarship has shown that Chapman may have led a simple life, but he was far from simple-minded, being a fairly shrewd and eventually wealthy businessman, who had accumulated quite a bit of valuable acreage and capital by the time of his death. There are only two sets of near contemporary images of John Chapman, and both are posthumous. One is a single woodcut portrait that appeared in an 1862 history of Ashland County, Ohio, which I have no access to, but which is reproduced on Wikipedia, from which we borrow it (our second link). An account of Chapman in this book is one of the sources for his tin-pot hat. The other visual record is a set of three woodcuts that were included in the 'Harper’s New Monthly' article of 1871. For want of any other visual aids, I include all three here (our first, third, and fourth links), from a copy at Harvard. The last of the Harper’s woodcuts illustrates a story of an itinerant preacher, railing against modern decadence, who cried out, “Show me a primitive Christian,” whereby Chapman stepped forward in response.. Of course, if you prefer a pot-for-a-hat version of Chapman, you have your choice of dozens of covers from a variety of modern children’s editions of the Johnny Appleseed story. Here is a link to one, and to a second, with a young Johnny Appleseed and a child-sized pot. Bill Ashworth Should you want more of my drivel on the origin of the Aerostich suit, please follow this link to a much longer and fairly convoluted story explaining why (but not how) Aerostich suits came into existence. I didn’t have the courage to publish it on this blog without some kind of explanation like this.

This story winds around a bit. The other day my younger brother, who’s a great vintage car lover, emailed me the link below which is to a story about how, during the great depression of the 1930’s, some ingenious fellow turned scrap Ford Model A four-cylinder auto engines into self-powered air compressors, and did pretty well selling them. Several patented conversion parts were involved. It’s a cool obscure story of someone making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. When America reinvented a Ford to get stuff done I replied to my brother: “I didn’t know anything about these, either. Thanks for forwarding the story to me. Very cool. And believe-it-or-not, for many years we carried and sold an air compressor device that works on this exact same principle, and I’ve carried and used it. More than once. It’s called the ‘engineair’ pump, and it was listed in our catalog and on our website for many years but the company must have gone out of business (?) because it’s not there anymore. Attached below is an image file showing a scan of our 2016 main catalog, which shows it being available.” Screenshot from 2016 Aerostich catalog I continued writing: “One of these pumps right now is in the tool pouch located on the back fender of my 81 BMW R80gs, the one I kept in mom and dad’s garage in Arizona for many years. I bought that bike in AZ in about 1988 to ‘live’ in AZ, for use when visiting them, and to be able to ride to CA in the winter to visit with MC friends and motorcycle magazine editors there. That bike is now in dry storage in the basement of Molly and my home on PP. "I rode this bike more than any other, about 300,000 miles over a 25-ish year period. And used this odd tire inflator several times. You’d screw it into one spark plug hole, then start the bike so it ran on one cylinder with the other end of the hose clamped on the tire’s inner tube valve stem. The bike sort of lumped along that way with the ‘enginair’ thing going ‘chuff chuff chuff chuff’ until the tube had good air pressure. I thought it was brilliant. Compact, light, and easy to carry. Also, very reliable. Today everyone carries (and we sell) tiny 12v electrical air compressors to do this same job. You plug them into a cigarette lighter socket or use clamps to the battery terminals. We sell one made for us to our specs, and it works well but probably isn’t as reliable as an ‘enginair’, and is bulkier to carry, too. Would not fit in the tool pouch on the back of that bike. I think I also have one of these enginair things stored on the gold hot-rodded BMW airhead which I also rode quite a lot off-and-on during that same period. Here is a link to a blog-post I wrote about using this tire inflator thing back in 2009 (it was posted to the blog in 2018). I think this was the last time it was used:  https://www.aerostich.com/blog/flat-tire-story/ "And lastly, I had a flat only a couple of weeks ago just south of Superior WI, where it goes from two to four lanes. Fixed it in the wayside rest there, much to the amusement and interest of others using this rest area at the time. But I used a bicycle tire pump to inflate, because the tool kit for this bike does not have one of these neat ‘enginair’ things. Photos attached. I have a flat about every fifteen years. This time the tire and tube were only a few weeks old.” Next, I shared the above story with some riding friends like this: “Fellow Geezers, This is an email exchange between my younger brother and I, about a weird Ford model A engine compressor” and also by added by cc two Aerostich co-workers (Rick and Stephanie), with this request:  “See the image attached from our 2016 main catalog showing the ‘enginair’ pump. Any chance the company that made these still exists? Stephanie, any chance one or more of these might still be in stock somewhere?” My cc’d riding friend Mark replied with: “Thanks Andy, I’d heard of the engineair compressor but never owned or had one. It’s fun to hear about the device again :). Hopefully Al will weigh in about how he turned a 'tube type' tire on his BMW into a 'tubeless' one upon having a flat on a rural road North of the Twin Cities, then rode home on it. Years ago, at Crown Auto (on the clearance table) I bought a compact 12 V tire pump kit which measures about 8”x8”x2.5”. I keep it in my truck along with a tire 'plug' kit. I've used it several times to fill a low tire and limp to the next gas station that had a decent air compressor (a rarity these days). When I used to travel on my 1966 Honda CL77 I always had a tire patch kit, tire irons and a skinny bicycle tire pump (which I still have) although the hose keeps rotting out after 50 years ??‍♂️. As a Boy Scout I was taught to 'Be Prepared'." I replied to Mark: “Before cell phones everyone valued mechanical self-reliance a little more than they seem to today. And I know those who convert tube-type spoked wheels to tubeless using strong vinyl tape with a powerful modern adhesive have good results, but I’m not interested because the rim profile of a wheel designed for tube type tires is different than the rim profile of a wheel designed for use with tubeless tires. So even though it can easily be done, and lots of people have good results, I’m too cowardly to do it. But I’m not a complete coward when it comes to tire and wheel experiments. I’m a half-coward. Last winter I took a chance and rode all winter on a set of non-DOT ‘gummy’ trials tires. Very soft rubber compound and very thin sidewalls. These are special Trials-competition-only tires and they hooked into frozen pavement well when they were also ice cold, but I am not going to do this experiment again for several reasons. The experiment was interesting, but also was about like running non-DOT ‘wrinkle wall’ drag slicks on the street, underneath a hot rod car. Pretty stupid. But I thought it was worth a try. I wish there was a motorcycle tire with a compound about halfway between that of regular MC tires and those gummy trials tires. And with all its tread blocks siped with little wiggly grooves like modern snow tires for cars. I’d buy them. Can you imagine the guys at the tire company making those? They’d be jumping up and down saying to each other: 'Hey!!!  We sold TWO of those stupid winter motorcycle tires! To some idiot in Duluth Minnesota.  Let’s celebrate!  We’re going to clean up on that guy!' Nobody ever makes the stuff I want. Which is why Aerostich armored textile coveralls exist, I guess.” Now you know why, too. PS – If any of you know of a good soft compound DOT legal engineered ‘street’ snow tire for winter-ridden MC’s, please let me know.  PPS - On motorcycles as on cars, tubeless tires are much better in so many ways. Many spoked wheels have been redesigned to allow the use of tubeless tires. High performance bicycles also now use tubeless tires. I wish my old Honda and Suzuki had such wheels. There is no super practical way to convert them, save using a special kind of strong adhesive vinyl tape where the rim strip would normally go to seal conventionally spoked wheels to work with tubeless tires. Even tough traditional spoked rims don’t have the correct cross-sectional profile for use with tubes tires, many off road riders have done this without encountering problems. At least in theory another way to use tubeless tires on an older bike with traditionally spoked wheels would be to build special wheels using the kinds of wheel rims designed to be used with tubeless tires. Even if custom modified spokes were not needed to accomplish this, if spokes simply building such wheels would be overly costly relative to the fairly low value of the older bike(s) these wheels might go on. In other words, who would spend $2,000+ (est) on a custom-made set of wheels for a bike worth only $2,000 only to avoid having to fix a tube flat once every five or ten years? Even if such wheels were built DIY, the time involved would be significant.  One’s time is worth something.  My newer (2007) 1200cc ’travel’ bike has tubeless tires. I carry a plug kit and an electric air pump under it’s saddle. Whenever it needs new tires they are dealer installed.  My car also uses tubeless tires. When manufactured it came with ‘run flats’ but now has ordinary tubeless tires.  After I switched to those I added a jack (to fit the OE jacking points), a plug kit and an air pump with an extended power cord, which so far I’ve never had to use. PPPS – That clever made-in-USA enginair gizmo is no longer available. Everyone today uses the ubiquitous little Asian-made 12v compressors. If one wanted to split hairs, the old fashioned gizmo probably had a lower overall impact on climate warming, but now we are talking Amish/Hutterite/Mennonite (etc.) stuff. - Mr. Subjective, Sept 17, 2022

VerschlimmbessernGerman verb, loose translation: To make something worse by trying to improve it. Long a favorite word of mine, though I've never known exactly how to pronounce it or use it in any actual conversation. Two forms, verb and noun version, neither of which I know how to say or use. But in our modern world, as we get older we become aware of more and more examples of it from life and the things around us. I've thought quite a bit about this. It’s sure true for me when this involves stuff like blue jeans and hopefully also one piece riding suits. I’m fairly convinced that wherever and whenever new technology gives us something, it always takes away something else. (If this wasn’t true, most philosophers would be out of work. Wait. Most are out of work...uhh.) For example, fuel injected motorcycles start and drive better, and get better mileage. But they are not as easy to hands-on tune without specialized tools compared to a carbureted bike. And the engines they feed don’t quite kick and snort in an almost animalistic way sometimes, like a (forever slightly imperfectly) carbureted engine does. And injection costs more to produce and operate when everything involved from raw materials upward is considered. Carbs are simple, elemental, and difficult to improve in certain ways, just like a hand-spun wool sweater or flint-knapped knives. Some of those flint blades can actually be measurably sharper than today's very best and sharpest surgical scalpels. It’s very hard to think of an example of a technology that does not take away just about as much as it gives. What makes an 'improvement' seem to be so involves our priorities as the consumers of whatever the technology in question is. We value easier starting, smoother running and more fuel-efficient engines a whole lot more than what is provided by carburetors. The consumer economy loves a product that sells at a premium, wears out quickly or is susceptible to regular improvement, and offers with each improvement some marginal gain in usefulness. Novelist Johnathan Franzen, Atlantic Monthly, April 1996 With blue jeans, it’s not so easy or clear cut. Does the decorative stitching applied increase the aesthetic appeal of a pair of designer jeans improve the level of attention paid to the shapes and contours of our bottoms, and in ways that benefit us? I think the answer involves our individually unique desires and objectives about how we want to present ourselves a certain way to those around us. In other words, fashion. AKA: Coolness. Style. Personally, I’ve generally presented myself to those around me more-or-less as a ‘purist’, ‘classicist’ and ‘truth seeker’, so I enjoy wearing plain original Levi’s 501s. But others have very legitimate and different goals when it comes to their jeans, so for them decorative stitching is an improvement which provides more than it takes away. Art (in this example, decorative stitching) can enhance and improve things in the service of utility when the way such things are defined is opened wide enough. Thus we have all the annually “improved” and redesigned versions of textile armored rider’s gear. You don’t see this when it involves classic black leather ‘biker’ jackets or basic denim jeans, and there is a reason. The market doesn’t want them new or improved. But there’s always a strong audience for people who enjoy chasing the latest-greatest whatever, whether it involves breakfast cereals, number 2 pencils, laundry soaps, computers or motorcycles and riders’ gear. In our view, armored textile ‘high tech’ riding gear isn’t like computers and motorcycles.  It’s a bit closer to a good nutritious breakfast cereal or a well-made pencil. When we started making armored textile gear it was a new kind of gear for serious daily commuters and long-distance traveling riders. It still is. -- Mr. Subjective Illustration from the 1986 Aerostich catalog. The Aerostich Roadcrafter was an all-new type of rider's gear introduced in 1983 - the world's first lightweight armored all-weather coverall intended to be worn over street clothing. The Roadcrafter, R-3, Darien and AD1 are embodiments of an original recipe which virtually all of today's "high tech" gear was derived from. There were no existing reference points when these garments were created, which is one reason why they are light and simple compared to the universe of derived copies. More About Our Originals » Dictionary stuff, found on the internet:Components – schlimm (fatal) + verbessern (improve) Verb that describes the attempt to improve or repair something and only making it worse in the process. Think of repairing bicycles and nuclear submarines with Scotch® tape. Whether "Trust me, I'm an engineer" or "There, I fixed it", these memes can all be summarized with this beautiful German verb. And it doesn’t just refer to honorable, but futile, DIY endeavors. Fractured phonetic pronunciation: 'Fair-shlim-bes-sen' or 'Ver-slim-bes-son' Fractured English usage of the verb form: "He is going to fair-shlim-beson that bike's rear suspension if he tries to do much more to it than has already been done." Fractured English usage of the noun form: "My new one-piece rider’s suit (or a Darien 'adventure suit' purchased from any manufacturer other than Aerostich) is a ver-lim-bes-son’d R-3 Stich’ (or Darien suit). Why did I buy it?"

...Or How to Ride Through 90º+ Temps (More or Less Comfortably) A) Ride a minimally faired/windscreened bike. There are several other reasons for this (Mr. Subjective) preference than heat, but below 95°F this can be a factor. B) Wear a wetted Aerostich Silk Scarf around one’s neck. Fold the wet scarf in half then drape it over your neck and put the two ‘free’ ends through the loop where the scarf is folded, then pull these ends until the scarf fits against your neck all the way around. The scarf is not worn loose around your neck. Lastly, zip up your jacket about 2/3rds or 3/4th of the way, so the loose ends of the scarf are well covered. C) As the scarf dries, I (Mr. Subjective) re-wet it using a self-modified Platypus water bag worn over my shoulder bandolier-style. The bag’s cap has been replaced with a neat flip-open cap from a (stupid and expensive) ‘Fiji’ brand water bottle, which allows me to either drink directly from it (after opening my modular helmet’s chin guard) or re-wet the scarf as needed while moving. I normally fill this container only about ½ full, which is more than enough water to get from one full-tank gas stop to the next. At highway speeds the wind stream ends up shifting it sort of behind my lower right back area. To use it, I pull the cord to bring it around to the front, then flip open the cap and go at it. The home-made cord reinforcements are necessary and involved using some 500D Cordura fabric, Barge cement and the grommet setting tool used in production at Aerostich. D) When not in use, this water bag rolls up small enough to carry or pack away easily. This is why it’s not covered in ¼” thick aluminized bubble-wrap or a water-absorbing fabric, which would help to evaporatively cool its contents.  In hot conditions I will use it as a kind of modernized version of a Bota bag, those comma-shaped traditional leather soft flasks used in alpine areas of Europe. I ‘sterilize’ my modified Platypus bag by letting it dry for a few days on a sunny windowsill after each trip/use. -- Mr. Subjective, July 2022

Two high-mile riders meet: Brook Dain (left) and Paul Pelland at the Aerostich store and factory in June 2022. Brook Dain and Paul Pelland. Click to view full size image. What do these guys have in common? Both Brook and Paul ride a lot more than the average rider (basically every day), and they use Aerostich gear.  One chooses a Vespa scooter and the other a Yamaha Super Tenere, yet it’s no coincidence both depend on Aerostich gear for its long-term value as functional equipment.  When they each rolled up here simultaneously, coming from two different directions, it was a coincidence, so we made introductions, took some photos and shared stories (and a nice lunch). Experienced high-mile riders appreciate better fitting all-day-comfortable gear that works and holds up. This means easy to use real-world-useful pockets, great functional venting and serious protection for hard rain and possible crash scenarios. Plus repair services if needed. Brook was an Aerostich ‘Rider of the Month’ a few months ago and is on a 3,000 mile loop around the western side of America, from home to home.  Paul is around the 500,000th mile of his million-mile ‘Chasing the Cure' for MS ride and stopped in because we were on his route home as well.  You may have met Paul at a motorcycle event or IMS show. He suffers from MS, which is why he’s donating his life to this cause, and has been partly sponsored by both Aerostich and Yamaha. He’d also be happy to have your support. Road directions to visit us are here. We’d love to show you around and help you examine the full selection of Aerostich gear.  We have (at this moment) about 153 R-3 one piece suits in stock, and another several hundred other models of Aerostich suits, jackets and pants in the store. Suits come in more than 60 stock sizes and our fitting experts will take measurements if you require alterations or would like a sewn-to-order garment in a custom color combination. Factory tours are always free, and this (recently gentrified) neighborhood now has several nice places to eat within a block or two.   If you visit, we cannot guarantee you’ll meet riders like Brook and Paul, but we can guarantee you won’t be disappointed in the gear or our service. -- Mr. Subjective PS - There’s a 10% discount for ALL purchases made here, and we ship your old gear home on the day of your choice at no charge.

After experiencing three days of sweltering 98º highs during the BMW Motorcyle Owners Of America’s National Rally in Springfield Missouri, I headed homeward riding up state route sixty-five. First stop, lunch in Sedalia. Temp still 98-99º. Sticky hot. By Iowa it was down to 87º and comfortable enough. At Minneapolis, 83. Very comfortable. All those miles of comfortable-ness made me want to keep going even though I was getting tired. Bike working well. Enjoying the ride, etc. Last gas stop was at Stacey, just north of Forest Lake. Still warm and comfortable at 10:45PM.Those who have spent any amount of time in northern MN during the early part summer already know what happens next. By Hinkley, I began to sense there may be a problem. By Finlayson, I was thinking I might see snow by Barnum, or maybe Carlton. Though this felt like a real possibility, thanks to the keen Aerostich-sourced digital thermometer stuck to the handlebars I could see it was still eleven degrees too warm at only 43º. Riding along in a T-shirt and vented leather Aerostich Transit jacket after spending the last twelve hours (and prior four days) in upper 90’s air, this digital temperature information was small consolation.Nearly an hour later I finally started to feel a little better after spending several minutes quietly standing under a nearly-scalding stream of hot shower water.– Mr. Subjective, June 19, 2022, a stubborn long-time rider of ‘naked’ motorcycles.PS – If you visited us at this event, thank you!PPS – If you are thinking of visiting us here in Duluth MN via an unfaired motorcycle, the best times are between mid-July and mid-September.

A famous old saying goes: “Nothing clarifies the mind like standing before a firing squad.” The last couple of years have been like that for more than a few of us. Hopefully we’re now on the far side of a fading pandemic. Surviving this plague (…so far anyway) has made me grateful and wanting Aerostich to focus more sharply on areas we’ve always been most interested in. One is making as long-term enduring products as possible. Typically sales are grown via the continuous introduction of ‘new-and-improved’ variations. Everything from laundry soap to fast-food items and motorcycle rider’s gear is commonly reformulated to increase sales. Though there are many exceptions, this business tactic is nearly universal because it works so well. Incremental improvements to Aerostich products are continuous, but our signature items are more like long-enduring successful products such as Levi’s 501 Button Fly Jeans, McDonald’s Big Mac sandwiches, and (in our field) Langlitz, Schott, and Belstaff motorcycle rider’s jackets. The technical rider’s gear from these businesses was first created to be worn as riders’ equipment, not fashion. Yet each soon became fashionable. Our synthetic-fiber abrasion-resistant armored gear represents another genuine rider’s gear advance and thus belongs within that timeline. Photo: Customer commend card from 1992, and accompanying letter. Click to download PDF version. When a market for anything new is created, later-entering businesses depend on coolness, fashion and style to sell their products. This means much of today’s rider’s gear is more like the specialized fashion clothing presented in ski and snowboard shops, which is revised annually with new colors (colorways) and design details intended to help boost sales. Selling ’new and improved’ is always tempting regardless of the functional value of what usually are trivial changes. One cannot easily improve a Langlitz, Schott, Belstaff, or Aerostich garment despite strident marketing claims otherwise. Our experience has proven that simpler and lighter and armored textile gear wears and works better over a long term. The Aerostich Darien, AD-1, R-3, Falstaff, and Roadcrafter Classic are each as lightweight, comfortable and functional as we can make them. And are sold without reference to fashion. They are gear-as-equipment, and we hope to continue doing the necessary business-discipline things well enough to be able to continue providing this gear for as long as riders want to wear it. So, what is new and improved at Aerostich? Like most manufacturing businesses we’ll always have a small wish list of things we someday hope to develop. Like an entirely new off-road jacket design which is complete and graded but has never been produced. It’s different from the Darien and might be better for some types of off-road riders. We also have plans for non-clothing items, including a revolutionary DIY bike service tool, and a new kind of structural fabric product which would be useful for protecting any bike, ATV or small side-by-side. And there’s more. Someday, and if all goes well for us, we’ll be able to introduce them. You probably understand how tough it is competing when making things in America. There are good companies from A to Z doing their design and marketing work in America with the actual production contracted to overseas manufacturers. Our business exists for many reasons, but my top three are: I wanted a kind of self-identity which involved having a small business, and I wanted to make stuff. Actual physical stuff. I enjoy the design and R&D work a great deal, but mainly as part of a vertical process which involves us making and selling stuff. I wanted to be able to ride my motorcycle more frequently, safely and comfortably, and drive a car less. It’s that simple, and in that order, too. I’ve never had a problem with consumers who desire the latest/greatest gizmo or fashion, but there is also nothing wrong with long-proven classics like Langlitz, Belstaff, and Schott jackets, Levi’s 501 denim pants or Big Mac sandwiches. And there’s nothing wrong (and a lot that is right) with Aerostich gear. Especially when it involves riding more, in a wider diversity of situations and weather conditions. If you’ve read this far and have never tried Aerostich gear, try it. There is a difference. You will not be disappointed. This is who we’ve always wanted to be as a business. - Mr. Subjective, May 2022

Last year an elderly friend emailed to inform me he’d decided to finally stop riding. A few months later he emailed me again about how he was missing it more than he’d anticipated and now was looking for one of those little (and somewhat hard to find) retro 250cc Suzuki’s, the TU250X. Those good machines have a small following in moto-geezer land but I’ve never especially been a fan. Should I be fortunate enough to make it to this elderly friends age, I’d probably go for something less conventional. Maybe a fat-tired 125cc Suzuki VanVan, or as a second option the similarly fat-tired Yamaha TW200. VanVans are slightly more high tech, being fuel injected, and both machines feature electric starting, low saddles and a fairly light weight. These things are unconventional enough so if one parked mid-trip at a rural roadhouse and the machine was piled with camping and travel gear, and was wearing an out of state plate, you’d surely get occasional questions like: “You rode that here? From Minnesota? Really?” This sort of attention makes any long trip more amusing, and a VanVan’s fattie tires might turn out to be both softer riding and safer for navigating into the nooks and crannies where you usually find interesting hidden places to stealth and poach camp and escape. My TU 250-seeking friend no longer camps.  Some of the coolest rides I’ve learned about involved bikes which were wildly inappropriate for the planned journey. Examples include those Australian postal-delivery bikes (Honda Cubs?) being ridden from Melbourne to Manchester, and Honda Rukus’s being ridden from Washington DC to Fairbanks, and then on to Los Angeles. This slow-boat-to-China touring method makes a lot of sense for young riders with more free time than money, as well as for elderly geezers living on Social Security with age-diminished skills and abilities.  John G. is now a few years past eighty and each summer he still rides all over the country aboard a small machine modified for long trips with a top box (for his little dog ‘Moose’) and windshield. Last year he was on his second TU250X and for this year he’s looking at further downsizing to Honda’s new 125cc version of the Cub. All his gear is carried inside one enormous waterproof duffel resting sideways across the passenger area of the saddle. He doesn’t camp and I’m sure it’s a challenge for him to lug it from the motel parking lot into a room. Which is another reason to favor old-fashioned tourist courts consisting of a strip of small rooms where you park directly in front of each room door. These ma-and-pa places are inexpensive, the room’s windows usually open, and though standards vary greatly, each is dependably unique. I love staying at those places too. During a typical 300 mile day John frequently pulls over to the side of any road at random times to shamelessly pee even as traffic whizzes past, and also to give Moose the same opportunity. It’s fun riding behind them as there’s a softball sized hole in the lid of the dog’s blanket-lined top box and every minute or two Moose pops his head up for a look and a sniff, then just as quickly disappears, unintentionally doing a hilariously perfect Whack-a-Mole impression. John G. and his dog, Moose. The best example of this kind of elder-logic touring was a guy I met at Milwaukee’s ‘Rockerbox’ motorcycle festival about ten years ago. Every summer a neighborhood there blocked off this shady side street for about half a mile and thousands of riders would come from Chicago to Madison and everywhere in between. They’d show up to ogle each other’s machines, make friends and enjoy themselves. It’s the same spontaneous vibe as the Twin Cities ‘Blind Lizard’ gathering of riders on Nicollet Island every summer on Father’s Day, and the annual ‘Bearded Lady Motorcycle Freak Show’ street event later in the summer in the Uptown neighborhood. Such slow-motion motorcyclist flash mobs started happening decades before cell phones existed, so if you’ve never been to one, find out where and when, and go. Back at the Rockerbox I’d become tired after so much walking and sat down on a bench in front of a friendly-looking neighborhood corner bar, to rest and soak in more of the warm summer afternoon and sweet atmosphere of passing people and motorcycles. A few minutes passed and an older man with an elfish smile sat down next to me. He was a wiry sort, and clearly enjoying himself as much as I was, so I started our conversation: “Did you ride here?” “Yes, I did, Yes!” “What do you ride?” He pointed to a generic moped parked about twenty feet from the bench, center-standed right on the sidewalk. It was not like any moped I’d ever seen, either. This one was fully outfitted for long-distance travel by a resourceful dumpster-diving type customer. Stuff was tied all over it in the classic haphazard Joad-family-Grapes-of-Wrath fashion, but there was also an undercurrent of method to the madness. On top of everything a one-gallon plastic lawn mower gas can was tied on with a single rubber bungee through its molded handle. Beneath that were plastic bags, pots and pans, canteens and a sleeping bag all tied with a mix of bailing twine, bungees and whatever else could be found. I gazed at this unlikely arrangement of Salvation-Army meets Army-Surplus store camping detritus for a long moment, taking it all in, and then said: “Wow! What a cool rig. That’s awesome!” I meant every word. It was easily one of the most incredible machines at the event.  “So where did you come from?” I asked, innocently. “Minneapolis.” The old elf replied, with a wide grin and a twinkle in his eye. We were about four hundred miles away from there. “No kidding! Really! Wow…So how long did it take you to get here?” “Three days.” “Wow. Holy sh-t! Ho ho ho…You are incredible! You are amazing! My hat is off to you, sir! You win!” There was a long silence and I just sort of stared at his moped for a while, thinking about this guy and his adventure, and how someday maybe if everything worked out for me I’d be able to be just like him. Then he said: “So where are you from?” “Duluth.” I replied. “Really? Know someone from Duluth.” “Who?” “Andy Goldfine. Great guy. Runs a motorcycle gear place there.” I smiled wide and said: “Hahaha…I know him too! And pretty well! I AM Andy Goldfine.” “No!” “Yes. Really! I’m Andy Goldfine. Nice to meet you again!…” The old guy looked at me very carefully for a moment, then smiled. Our conversation continued for another five minutes, with me asking him a few more questions about his riding history and listening to him describe long past and more recent adventures. He’d ridden that moped from his home in Minneapolis to the big annual bike rally at Sturgis, South Dakota, at least twice. I think he said he’d worn out one or two engines, or entire mopeds. My head was spinning, so I don’t remember much more, but I think he told me his age was somewhere in the mid 80’s. At one point two pretty women came by and he stood up and began flirting and then dancing with them, right there on the sidewalk. Music supplied by a rockabilly band about a block farther down. Motorcycles bring people together in such wonderful ways. What a great day that was, riding to the RockerBox in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then meeting this amazing old guy. So if you are an old geezer, consider a Van Van or scooter. Or even a moped. (For inspiration visit www.mopedarmy.com) Just keep riding as long as you can. Mr. Subjective, April 2022 PS - I’m now age 69 and am not as skilled or strong a rider, or anything else, compared to ten years ago. Regardless of the loss I plan to continue riding for as long as I am able to. Hopefully many more years. Fluency comes with frequency, so the more often one rides, the better and safer they are. All this aging-out stuff varies so greatly it’s impossible to say what is sensible. I know maybe half-a-dozen people who still ride in their eighties. One still-sharp woman in particular took up riding in her forties and goes cross country camping on a BMW 800. Her ’safety’ protocol is to ride mostly empty backroads and take her time. Another very old rider has by increments downsized the bikes. His cross-country trips just take longer and again, he sticks to little-traveled roads. Another old geezer friend from Santa Barbara stopped riding MC’s at about 73 and rides an e-bicycle nearly every day with a posse of older moto-rider friends who’ve all also switched to e-mountain bikes. They trail ride those things over three thousand miles a year. Another long-distance and daily rider in his mid-80’s was just told by his decades younger wife to stop riding, so he’s looking at a Honda Grom for neighborhood-only riding. I hesitate to ask him to define ‘neighborhood’. Solutions are all over the place. My own plan is to see how I’m feeling day-by-day, year-by-year and follow these leads as best as I can. I’m no longer too concerned about what, where (or how) I ride. Just that I ride. PPS - Have you seen this wonderful long-form television commercial for a Taiwanese bank?(It became so popular a feature film was later made about the story.) Excerpts from an email from Muriel Farrington, received Aug 5, 2021:“On my nearly 8,000 mile trip to National in Great Falls, I ran through all kinds of weather…While I did limit my 114-degree day riding to 250 miles/day vs up to a 627-mile day, the weather was brutal…and (after visiting friends on the west coast) I was ready to make the last few miles home the next day. Olympia, WA to WRJ, VT in 7 days and 4 hours. It will be my last trip west - I am 80 in a month and probably should think about acting my age…Best, Muriel”

Introduction – Everyone knows newer motorcycles require less maintenance than older ones, and that their engineered service life is longer. Despite those advantages most of us continue to ride our less-than-new machines, and we generally love them and want them to continue to be safe and last as long as possible. The only thing in life there is a limited supply of is time, which is why it’s so appealing to procrastinate motorcycle maintenance and repair. No matter how good taking care of your bike may feel, this work remains far less fun than actually riding. And despite millions of free ‘how to’ YouTube videos covering the most arcane maintenance and repair procedures, some jobs remain intimidating enough to seldom get done when they should. With this in mind, and having spent many years diligently acquiring both procrastination expertise and a selection of basic hand tools and shop manuals, here is your guide to deferrable motorcycle maintenance and repairs: Burned Out Lights – Without a headlight you can’t see at night well enough to ride safely, and without a taillight and brake light those following cannot easily notice you. Lights are important enough to be required by strict vehicle code regulations so if an authority (cop, sheriff, highway patrol, etc) notices, you’ll be pulled over and given a friendly ‘fix-it’ ticket. Fortunately, the correct bulbs needed for repairing lights are near-universal and inexpensive, which means the auto parts store at the corner will have the exact one you need. But for all you lazy procrastinators, replacing burned-out instrument and turn signal lights may be postponed just about forever, especially if you seldom ride after dark (and don’t mind taking on a bit of additional risk when turning). Bulb replacement is screwdriver plug-and-play simple on many models but for headlights buried beneath layers of plastic inside complicated fairings check YouTube videos before beginning. Lastly, be careful not to over-tighten the tiny screws holding taillight bulb-covering lenses in place because some of those are easy to crack this way. Marginal and ‘Iffy’ Brakes – This is another item which cannot be put off for long and is intimidating for many DIY mechanics. Yes, you can get by for a while with only one working brake (or forever if you ride an old-school chopper) but all riding experiences are vastly improved when both brakes are spot-on. Changing brake pads or shoes requires ordering the specific part(s) for your make and model, so if you plan on keeping the machine for a while it’s a good idea to have these on hand and ready. Bleeding hydraulic brakes is not difficult after you know how, but if you’ve never done this, you’ll need to watch YouTube tutorial(s) before doing it for the first time. Same for fixing or adjusting old-fashioned cable and rod-controlled brakes, which are common on older bikes. Engine coolant – Totally procrastinatable unless you have an actively leaking hose or clamp. If that is your situation, you’ll either need to refill as frequently as necessary, or fix the leak. Liquid cooled (and oil-cooled) ICE’s won’t run very long without these fluids. Think of it as blood. Engine lubricant (oil) – Relatively procrastinatable, unless for some reason you want your machine to meet or exceed its engineered service life. If that is the case you should replace its engine oils with high-quality oils of the correct type slightly more frequently than recommended in the owner’s manual and change the filter (if you bike has one) every time you change the oil, and replace the drain plug ‘crush’ washer with a new one. This is usually a much messier job than you think it will be, which is why it is so easily procrastinated. First, you need to gather the correct amount and type of oil, the correct filter, gaskets, or ‘O’ rings, plus an oil drain pan, a funnel, and a roll of paper towels. In a perfect world it is also nice to have some way to safely lift your bike a couple of feet off the garage floor to make the job a bit easier on your body. That’s all one extreme. On the other hand, you never actually need to change the oil at all if you don’t mind a gross tarry sludge developing inside the engine. Just occasionally check the level and add more when needed. Your cheapness and procrastination probably won’t lead to any bad short-term consequences, but you should still plan to find someone gullible enough to buy your prematurely worn-out bike after you’ve enjoyed it for a few years. How long you want your bike to last is your choice. Bikes do not feel pain the way we do. Transmission and gear oil – On some machines this may be separate from engine oil, but follows similar rules and procedures. Simply monitor the level and add more of the correct kind whenever needed. If you are a lazy procrastinator, you may ignore this just about forever because unless there is an obvious leak somewhere, the level almost never goes down. Chain oil – Again, like engine and transmission oil this also is quite procrastinatable, especially if the chain is an ‘O’ ring type with internally ‘lifetime’ lubricated link pins and bushings. On those, what wears out fastest are the individual link rollers and the teeth on the sprockets. Your bike will stay a lot cleaner if you decide to never lubricate those rollers and chainrings and when they finally do wear out it will be obvious – all the teeth become hook-shaped nubs and the bike won’t go. If you must lubricate, again there are two extremes: A cheap and messy way is to generously goop on stinky 90wt gear lube. The expensive and not-quite-as-messy way is to regularly carefully apply a great product like BelRay Super Clean chain lube. The working life difference between ‘no-lube and ‘good lube’ practices may be measured in miles. Thousands. Valves and spark plugs – Totally procrastinatable, especially on Japanese bikes for reasons which are too complicated to explain here. Plus, changing and adjusting plugs and valves is complex enough to be seriously difficult to do well unless you are experienced. If you must know how, watch a YouTube tutorial on your particular bike and learn how to do these jobs correctly. You’ll be supporting Alphabet Inc, and all those who took the time to make these videos. General Broken and worn-out parts – Usually procrastinatable. For example, dented steering head bearings will not stop anyone from riding, but they can make handling a bit less precise. Same for swing arm bushings. For a procrastinator these may be left this way for years, and if you are like most riders, you will barely feel it. Similarly, a slowly leaking fuel line, fork seal or carburetor may be ignored almost until the end of time. There are only a few notable exceptions, including: If your bike's alternator dies (which is extremely unlikely), you won’t get far without the electricity it makes. And if an ignition coil or CDI system fails, your bike will immediately be dead until these parts have been replaced. With YouTube and some hand tools replacing such things usually isn’t super time consuming and the benefits of doing so are substantial. Your bike will go again. Wheel bearings – Totally procrastinatable until one day when the affected wheel will stop turning as easily as it should. When a bike’s front wheel has been raised off the ground, if it spins for a good long time after you start it going, you are ok. Unfortunately, you cannot do this simple test with a rear wheel unless you first remove the chain or use a wheel-balancing stand. Expert procrastinators know wheel bearings can be half-bad for years and still work sort of ok, but when they do eventually fail, you’ll have a small mess on your hands. Replacing them can be done using ordinary hand tools. A hammer and a socket extension usually works to pound the bearing out, and the correct size (diameter) socket to fit the outer bearing race when you are ready to pound a new replacement bearing back in. Replace the separate dust seals whenever you replace wheel bearings. Tires and tubes – Believe it or not this normal wear-item is usually semi-procrastinatable. You can ignore worn tires for a reasonably long time and still be ok, especially if you avoid riding in rain or cornering hard, but remember as tires wear down riding becomes incrementally less safe. Should you happen to be experiencing a slow air leak there are many convenient places and ways to keep adding more compressed air as needed. Separately, riding happily along and then experiencing a sudden tire deflation is no fun at all but it’s usually a survivable ‘adventure’. If your bike uses tube-type tires you shouldn’t completely cheap out on replacing innertubes along with the tires, since they age-deteriorate in ways which will eventually lead to a sudden air loss. I once did this with that result. My story about it is here. Lastly, a great solution to everything is to simply buy a new bike every year and foist your old one off on some (hopefully gullible) other rider. Again, brand new bikes seldom need any kind of maintenance. The downside of this plan is largely it’s significantly higher cost, both at the outset and for insurance. Plus you’ll miss the joys of neurotically worrying about the bad consequences of all the jobs you have been procrastinating and not doing. So “Ride it like you stole it?”, or “Ride it as if you plan to keep it forever?” Or something in between? It’s your choice because it’s still a (mostly) free country. Be careful but take a few chances.-- Mr. Subjective, 2-2022This blog post is dedicated to my friend Tom, www.geezerwithagrudge.com, who told me a story about his maintenance-procrastinating grandson which inspired this guide.

The least expensive and most convenient form of personal mobility is walking, followed by public transportation where available. One step up are bicycles and e-bicycles followed in ascending rank by motor scooters, small motorcycles, larger motorcycles, smaller cars, larger cars, ‘crossovers’, SUVs, and at the top end, light trucks and vans. If one has enough resources, they might enjoy full and convenient availability of each form, but for one reason or another most of us must compromise. The need to do this is probably fortunate since it forces one to make decisions about personal mobility which probably help to slightly reduce our individual environmental impacts, and also may cause us to be slightly healthier. For example, if I have enough time, and the distance to where I need to be isn’t too great, and the weather isn’t too severe, and I don’t need to carry much, I’ll walk. If it’s a bit farther and the load, weather and time allows, I’ll pedal. My small daily-transportation motorcycle comes next and after this there’s a larger motorcycle and a medium-size car available. Beyond that and my car can pull a small open utility trailer whenever necessary. Anything greater than these options I must rent or hire. Having access to all this makes me luckier than most. I’ll generally choose the minimum suitable option for two reasons of roughly equal importance: A.) Lower cost with a reduced environmental impact, and B.) greater enjoyment and fun. For me walking is enjoyably calming and pedaling is similar but slightly more exciting. Next, absolutely any old crappy motorcycle is still tremendously more fun to operate compared to any car, even the coolest. Unless the weather also happens to be atrocious. But I have some nice gear for that. Keeping all these options in my mobility quiver means occasionally resoling or replacing worn shoes and doing some of the maintenance and repair work necessary to keep the various vehicles safe and functional. Again, I’m luckier than most to usually (but not always) be capable of doing this work myself. Depending on the vehicle and job. Not everyone thinks about their mobility this way. Linked below is an interesting recent essay by a guy named Harrison Markfield who writes for an academic press called ‘The Iowa State Daily’ which is a publication of the Iowa State University in Ames. He writes well about how ICE vehicles are bad for the planet and in his view electric vehicles are hardly better. He is also of the opinion our innate desire for comfort, convenience, status, range, and control (why automobiles became popular), may be a societal dead-end. This last assertion seems like academia ‘Ivory tower’ hubris and BS, so with some very small moto-centric reservation I must disagree. Mr. (professor?) Harrison Markfield misses or ignores motorcycles and scooters ENTIRELY as socially, economically, environmentally beneficial, fun and responsible mobility options, and he also ignores how almost everyone from poor to plutocrat intuitively self-manages a quiver of their mobility options, which can (and does) change as a result of ever-shifting surrounding influences. In aggregate, we humans are nothing if not flexible and resourceful. Which is where everything begins.Read it here (two pages), or download it here (PDF). What do you think? – Mr. Subjective, 2-2022

If you commute every day or nearly every day, in all kinds of atrocious weather, this is for you. For those riders who are Road Grimed Astronauts and use their bikes for daily transportation, errands and last but not least, who commute as much as they can. If you ride mostly for fun, sport, entertainment and relaxation, or if you commute only when the weather is perfect, you may still like - and relate - to some of this, too. I am one of those everyday commuters. Either via a bicycle, an e-bicycle or my motorcycle. I almost always ride there. All three of these machines are relatively filthy with use, wear and weathering. My commute is an easy five miles, all on surface roads and a few blocks of dense congested traffic with crowds of pedestrians everywhere. My groceries and shopping errands require freeway miles and some steep hills. I choose which machine depending mostly on the weather, and on the time available. The more perfect the day, the more likely it is that I’ll pedal. But throw in a little wind and cold and I’m on the e-bike. Add to the mix a little rain, sleet or even a little snow, or if I’m running really late and then I’m motoring.  The protection offered by my R-3 suit, Elkskin gloves and Nolan Xlite modular helmet is just too nice to pass up. These three machines are far from pristine examples of the latest-greatest models, too.  The pedal bike is an ancient 26” wheeled folding bike called a Montague which supposedly was originally developed to be air-dropped with landing troops. I bought this as a basket of parts for $120 from a somewhat shady fellow who may have acquired it dishonestly some time earlier. I’ll never know. All he told me is he’d enjoyed riding it for a few years and then things on it started breaking and he took it apart to fix them and never put it back together. It’s been a fabulous cheap commute bike, and is today covered in a patina of abuse and long wear. It’s on its second fork, third or fourth chain and chainwheels, brake pads and various small parts. When I get to the local grocery co-op and lock it to the bike rack next to all the clean modern bikes there, the younger hipper riders either give it a wide birth or stare at it questioningly.  It stands out, it is different, it works great and I really like it. Folded, it fits nicely in the trunk of even a small car or the back of a compact SUV, which is a real bonus. I love riding it. The e-bike is similar but is only four years and 4,000 miles old.  It was bought new from an online selling e-bike company called FLX, and like the Montague it’s a little different looking in its acquired grubbiness.  It was delivered in a big box and was easy to set up.  Because it is a lower-end machine it’s had its share of mechanical problems, but nothing I haven’t been able deal with. Its aluminum frame was incorrectly designed and cracked after a couple of years where the seat post is connected to the top tube. That has now been repair-welded three times: first badly, the second time well and the third time also well plus a small fabricated stiffing gusset.  With the extra long seat post I added, and the nice gusset, I think it now is fixed for good. The semi-crude repair job is unpainted, and I have no plans to change this. The frame mounted 500w motor’s handlebar mounted instrument and control panel had to be replaced at around 3,000 miles to correct a problem and its now on its third or fourth rear cluster and its second front chain wheel and chain. The forks have been apart once to fix a locked-up-solid problem, and the brake pads recently wore out and were easily replaced.  Like the other bikes, its grips have worn smooth in places, too. But basically it is a pretty good bike for what it is, and for how I use it. Like the other bicycle, switching this one from its original 1.9 x 27.5 semi-knobbies to smooth treaded and slightly oversize pavement-only tires (Schawble 2.4 x 27.5 Super Moto X) has been a wonderful improvement. This year its original 17a 36v battery has started to fade, but I just bought another one directly from China, thanks to the amazing internet. The motorcycle is the easiest to describe. It’s a 1994 Honda XR650L which I bought new that year and which is still chugging around just fine on its second piston.  There’s a long list of modifications which you can see on this video I made about it in 2021: When you choose to ride this way, you don’t profile well to both the general public and among other motorcycle and bicycle riders.  For example, you’ll walk into a business meeting after riding through terrible rain to get there and water will be pooling around your feet and some otherwise intelligent person will ask:  “Did you ride your bike?” The room will get quiet and you’ll just stand there dripping and holding your helmet grinning like a fool. Like the fool everyone in the room thinks you are.   It's not a competition to see who is the hardest-core rider, either. This isn’t a contest. We all want to fit in.  And to be popular. To have the approval of others. The only contest is within ourselves.  Some of us want to ride as much as possible. For their own psychological, neurological, physiological, environmental and financial reasons.  Psychologists have given a name for the universal wanting-to-fit-in stuff: allodoxaphobia.  According to this essay in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, it means: “In the worst cases, anxiety about the approval of others can blow up into a debilitating fear, a diagnosable psychological condition called “allodoxaphobia.” Even if it doesn’t become a mental illness, worrying about the opinions of others can lower your basic competence in ordinary tasks, such as making decisions. When you are thinking about what to do in a particular situation—say, whether to speak up in a group—a network in your brain that psychologists call the “behavioral inhibition system” (BIS) is naturally activated, which allows you to assess the situation and decide how to act (with a particular focus on the costs of acting inappropriately). When you have enough situational awareness, the BIS is deactivated and the “behavioral activation system” (BAS), which focuses on rewards, kicks in.” - excerpt from Atlantic Monthly article, 'No One Cares' by Arthur C. Brook The essay says there is a cure: Ignore them. The yahoos. The normal people. Own your sh-t. Here’s what the author recommends: “1. Remind yourself that no one cares.  2. Rebel against your shame.  3. Stop judging others.” The full Atlantic Monthly article, ‘No One Cares’ by Arthur C. Brook, is here.  It’s not too long and explains all the underlying stuff a lot better than I. I say only one thing.  Ride there if you can.  Just ride, if that is what you want to do. Riding will quickly become easier and easier, and safer and safer, because the more you do it the more accomplished and fluent you’ll become. And yes, you’ll be better off for it. Within a week or two, riding for utility transportation will become the best part of your day, no matter what the weather or destination. - Mr. Subjective, 11-21 PS – I do own a car, two actually. One I bought new and have had for 48 years, maintaining it almost entirely myself. It has just over 100,000 miles and these days carries ‘hobby car’ insurance limited to under 1000 miles of driving a year. The other car is on my homeowner policy and is typical car insurance. On an early summer day about twenty years ago I brought that one in to the usual place for an oil change. They’ve taken care of it for me for many years and at that time they’d recently started keeping computer service records for each of their regular customer’s cars.  When I came in to pick it up a day or two later, the service writer looked up from his screen as he handed me the invoice and key and said:  “I think your car’s odometer might be broken. Our records show only 136 miles since you brought it in last fall.”  I grinned and replied: “No, that’s correct. I just don’t drive it very much.” PPS - This means I’ve become a comparatively awful car driver. Before coming over to the single-track side (the dark side, Luke), I drove ok. Both cars have manual transmissions and I enjoy driving them, but I’m pretty terrible at it now. PPPS - This is what transportation riding during the winter here looks like from one of our webcams. It’s far riskier and less safe than riding the rest of the year. You have to pick your days and ride extra cautiously. An added and constant problem is road salt, which admittedly makes the streets rideable more days. The practice causes two problems: 1.) When it’s warm enough so the salt melts the snow there is a brown runny watery brine everywhere that is messy as hell to ride in. Every passing car (in both directions) leaves a fine mist of it hanging in the air which gets all over the bike, clothing, gloves, helmet, face shield. It’s terrible. 2.) When the temperature drops so the salt stops working, the roads dry up nicely but whenever you are behind any other vehicle the displaced air and tires kick the salt/brine dust into the air and you have to breath it. If you ride any distance in conditions like this when you arrive anywhere you want to take a wet paper towel and wipe the dust accumulation off your face. Using your tongue you can taste the salt dust on your lips. Salting roads where it is not critical is terrible for the environment, buildings, vehicles and people. There is almost nothing good about it. It is a hold-over from the days gone by when snow removal technologies (plows, etc) were not as good, and cars did not have all-wheel drive or snow tires. There is no excuse for it today.  Except by the people who mine and ship and apply it, who have an interest in keeping up the costly practice for economic reasons. PPPPS - Hoping to put up a short vlog post about how this 'winter' bike was set up soon.

Start with a merino wool base layer.  We sell this but Smartwool and many other companies offer similar.  And if you can’t deal with wool, there are excellent synthetics these days.  We sell this made in USA one and several others. Skip the cotton boxers, briefs or t shirts. Commando is (works and feels) best for this end-use. Over the merino, either microfiber, jeans or fleece pants, depending on temperature, wind and length of exposure. Or even a mix of all three if you can get the layering fits correct. You’ll want something semi-slippery which will smoothly and easily glide over your merino base layer because this provides maximum low-fatigue freedom of movement. It’s also got to be highly breathable. Remember, err on the looser side, look for breathable and a bit slippery.   Side note: Loose-fitting sliding layering is extremely important. In 1999 the frozen body of expert mountain climber George Mallory was found on the side of Mt. Everest. Back in 1924 he and his partner Irvine were attempting to be the first to summit the world’s highest mountain. After the body was recovered his period clothing and gear were analyzed. Researchers found the combination of cotton and wool layers he wore (which were the very highest tech then available) provided this exact ‘slippery’ quality which yielded the most fatigue-free layering solution for working and climbing in this extremely cold and windy environment.   Over your mid layer add a down or synthetic ‘puffy’, who’s thickness can vary depending (again) on temperature and anticipated length of exposure.  Over everything goes a customized Aerostich R-3 light tactical with its impact armor removed, and after being altered as follows: This example (mine) was about $1,700.  I started with an R-3 one size larger than what I wear during the spring, summer, and fall for commuting.  Then I shortened its legs and sleeves slightly, added an extended side gusset on both sides (from elbow to thigh) to make it bigger around my middle and allow much extra insulation, and then added the ‘forward rotated sleeves’ and ‘back panel ellipse’ appreciated by riders of sport bikes with low handlebars and high footrests. All this leaves plenty of room for moving around freely and adding or subtracting insulation layers as needed. This example is the second one of these suits I’ve owned, and at my age now (68) I’ll hopefully wear it for ten or more winters ahead.  The first one of these winter R-3’s was made for me five years ago when we were doing our Zero Below Zero project. This one is brand new, and in a few weeks, I’ll probably clean up the ZBZ one which was made slightly smaller and sell it on our sale list as a ‘product development sample’. What this all means is I have one oversize suit for winter (which around here means three months of very cold winter weather -- Duluth is statistically the coldest or second coldest city in the lower 48 states, with periods of weeks each winter when the ambient temp may not get above 0ºf -- and another suit for the rest of the year. This year that regular R-3 is going to be seven or eight years old and is still working fine. It took me years (decades) to conclude that I needed to have two of these suits to be able to ride year-around in comfort here. What I learned along the way is a lightly altered R-3 lIght combined with some good base layers make an R-3 light just about the world’s finest snowmobile suit. Or winter extreme exposure suit for watching the Green Bay Packers during the playoffs at Lambeau Field in January. Or for snow blowing a foot of snow off your driveway at night in a stiff wind. So, if you have the money, try one.  We’d appreciate your business, especially at this ‘slower’ time of the year. Note that our fit-experts will set you up with the exact correct size 97% of the time (or some similarly high percentage), and if it doesn’t fit, you may send it back for a full no-questions-asked refund within thirty days of receiving it. Once you have it, you’ll use it more than you expected to. I have. Mr. Subjective, 1-15-22 *Also, downhill skiing (especially deep powder) and ice fishing. Can’t forget ice fishing.

...or like a sociopath? Almost nothing one can do during course of their ordinary daily life is as socially ostracizing as when one gets bundled up to ride somewhere for utility transportation through cold or crappy weather. You’ll receive the strangest comments, reactions and looks if you find yourself riding when, in the mainstream’s comfortably-sealed-inside-a-car worldview, one isn’t supposed to be out there riding. I’ve always wondered if this could be slightly similar to what it feels like to be a mildly sociopathic individual. Not a Ted Kosinski or anything so extreme, but still somewhere on that same craziness spectrum. Right now, it’s a moderately windy 35ºf (and about +5ºf ‘wind chill) at noon and still almost twilight-dark beneath a thick gray-cloudy sky. A typically depressing and moody early winter day, but the local roads have been dry and clear for a week so I rode to work yesterday and on Tuesday, a one-way distance of five miles. I also rode to a short business meeting, a storage rental place, a bank, and a grocery store.  The bank was a very brief stop to drop something off, so I walked right in without even removing my modular helmet. It was cold enough I didn’t want to mess around. This move was practical, time-efficient, and comfortable, but I might easily have been mistaken for a grubby suicide-bombing terrorist all bundled up in a dirty black Aerostich R-3 and carrying a worn backpack with a small carabiner on each strap from which dangled a loop of parachute cord, a door key and two small remote garage door opener transmitters. I sure didn’t look (or feel) like any kind of recreational, ADV, touring or sport motorcyclist you’ve probably ever seen. It’s possible I’m too sensitive. Or too dumb. I’ve written about this before. Here are the bullet points: Riding is fun and always feels good. Really good. Riding can sometimes be logistically a lot harder than simply walking, riding a bus, or driving. Riding can make you look pretty good to others if done ‘correctly’.  I.E. – in ways that seem right to non-riding observers. But only if you are wearing the ‘right’ kind of gear for the bike you are riding, and riding the appropriate bike for the situation, during the most acceptable type of weather. Riding done the way non-riders expect riders to look. “As seen on TV” or whatever. Non-riding observers cannot fully understand or appreciate the ‘why’ of riding. The only way to appreciate the multi-layered wonderful experience of riding is to actually ride. In America, non-riders are the vast and overwhelming majority, and they outnumber us riders by a very large percentage. Almost all non-riders in America view motorcycling as an optimal-weather-only form of recreation, sport and/or leisure, and not as any kind of useful or practical all-weather transportation. “Almost” means 98.483% of them, except most spouses and siblings. There is probably a determinable ratio describing the degree to which riding ostracizes one, corresponding with the adversity or horribleness of the weather. Maybe it’s 1:1. Perhaps when the weather is bad, the rider is ostracized and if the weather is twice as bad the rider is twice as ostracized. In all my years of riding, this 1:1 ratio is about how it feels. And this has become so predictable it’s also quietly more amusing than you might imagine. For example, yesterday my first stop was a business meeting, and as I put the bike on its sidestand and keyed off its engine a woman looking to be somewhere in her mid-forties turned, stared, and said to me: “Aren’t you freezing?”  She was wearing a nice puffy goose down jacket and had just emerged from her comfortably heated car after pulling into the parking space adjacent to mine. “Not really.” I replied with a smile. That was our entire conversation. She took in my reply with a mildly incredulous expression, then turned away and briskly walked into the nearby building. I followed a few moments later after removing my helmet and gloves, carefully putting the bikes key into my riding suit’s pocket and making sure the Velcro pocket flap was secure. Moments like this happen all the time when you choose to ride in crappy weather. I collected additional looks and comments at the bank and then at the rental storage rental place where I had to renew a rental agreement at their office. Only at the grocery store did the cashier say nothing. I could see in her eyes and general manner she thought there was something a little off about me, though. I also noticed the same look on the faces of the drivers in the cars surrounding me at stoplights and sign-controlled intersections. A look like what, exactly? It’s hard to describe. Going from most-to-least maybe it’s a blend of condescension + mild resentment + irritation + amusement + envy? Most notably not a shred of curiosity, either. It’s possible a tiny approval/envy percentage comes from other riders who were on this day sensibly sealed inside their warm and safe cars. You really do feel like an idiot whenever you are riding for simple transportation during bad weather. But conformity can be for suckers, and maybe discomfort is partly an illusion, too. Yesterday I was comfortably in my regular street clothing above a pair of ankle-high riding boots, with almost everything else beneath a light goose down sweater ‘puffy’ layered within a slightly oversize black Aerostich R-3 Light Tactical one-piece suit. With a small “Road Grimed Astronaut” embroidered patch on the left shoulder. Was I that astronaut, or another everyday transportation riding sociopath?  I was both, and it was great.  - Mr. Subjective, 12-21 PS – Or a stupid dumb f**k idiot?

Thanks to the internet, a far-away and never-met long-time motorcycle friend (Paolo, who lives in Turkey and operates this interesting motorcycle, philosophy and culture website) recently emailed me an amusing short essay about the misleading environmentalism of electric power-in-general. A link to a downloadable .pdf of that essay is attached at the bottom of this post, but before you skip directly to it, here’s what I thought about it: Paolo,Thanks for sharing this very clever essay. It is fabulous on two levels: Very creative. Clever and well-written.  Seems true. (I’m neither for or against ICE or electric vehicles, though.)I’ll share a copy with a couple of friends of mine, and it will be interesting to receive their comments. Every technological advancement adds a slightly heavier load upon the planet. There are no exceptions. The computer I’m typing this on may be more energy-efficient, powerful and durable than the computer that proceeded it, just like the latest bike is engineered to be more energy-efficient and better overall than the previous model, but when every comparable is factored in, the total load on the planet is always heavier the newer the product is: A 1915 Ford Model T has a greater environmental impact than a horse drawn Studebaker wagon made of hardwoods and iron, and a 1965 Land Rover car has a greater environmental impact than the Ford T. It follows that a Tesla electric car has a greater overall impact than an old Land Rover.   There’s not much we as consumers can do about any of this. We can consume and enjoy, or become a monk or nun and join a monastery and grow beans and apples and wear hand-woven robes and humbly ride old bicycles. Or we can become an Amish, Mennonite, or Hutterite farmer* and pull our steel-bladed plow with draft horses. But as ecologically good for the world as those choices are, I’m not interested. I like convenient ice cream, scotch whiskey and pizza too much, and I’m not giving them up. Not to mention riding motorcycles as much as possible. Life is about compromises. And being a hypocrite is unavoidably part of this package. Regarding actually protecting our environment, Greta Thunberg is at one extreme and most of the world’s autocrats, plutocrats, merchants, traders, technologists and strivers are at the other. Somewhere along this virtuousness spectrum and possibly not too far from the middle, is me.  When it comes to my own cars and motorcycles, I do my best to consume and enjoy what I: A) can afford and B) meld into my life with some awareness that there is no ‘free lunch’. My bike and car consumption values are expressed by having models which: A) tend to feature longish production lives, and B) tend to be on the ‘basic’ side of the spectrum of today’s available technology, and C) are comparatively more durable. Those values have changed little since I began my adult life as a worker and consumer.  It may not be a mainstream way to consume automobility. For example, because I mostly ride or pedal, if it happens to rain when I am inside a car, simply watching its wipers clearing the windshield is always a satisfying miracle. Computer-assisted driving (and everything else new) is great, but for me all taken together the latest technology doesn’t beat the wonder of even the simplest one-speed windshield wipers doing their trick. I am grateful to have, and deeply enjoy, the incredible wealth of two automobiles. One was bought new at a young age and is now 48 years old with about 105,000 miles behind it. It was manufactured in a series of incrementally improved versions from I think 1948 until 1984, and mine has never been back to an authorized dealer. The other I bought used (I’m it’s 2nd owner) at 5 years with about 100,000 miles. It is now 15 years old and has about 115,000 miles. This newer one is hugely better and far more high-tech: Fuel injection, disc brakes, climate control, power windows, etc. It is far safer, faster, quieter, easier to use and tremendously more long-term durable. But both remain equally enjoyable: One with its single-speed wipers and the other having several wiping speeds with multiple adjustable-wiping sub-modes. Both are equally miraculous for motoring through rain. My bikes are similarly owned. One’s 1975 and another is a 1994, both single cylinders, both Hondas. The 94 was also bought new, and oddly, Honda still manufactures this model, which turned out to be lucky for me because many important repair parts for the earlier 75 are now unobtainable. There also are two old BMW airheads with about 500,000 miles between them. Both were bought a couple of years after they were new, and both are now enshrined in dry storage in the basement of our home thanks to an incredibly understanding wife. And there’s two ’newer’ bikes, an 03 Suzuki 400 DRZ and a 07 BMW R1200R. Both were acquired three or four years after they sold new to someone else. The Suzuki is (again, fortunately) still in production. I choose to attempt to do most of the recommended maintenance and occasionally required repairs for all these bikes except the OBD-ported fuel-injected 07 BMW. Partly because I’ve always been nearer the hammer-and-pliers end of the mechanic spectrum than the engineering-degreed race-tuning technician end, and because I’m running out of time to invest in learning new things, which forces a more careful evaluation of what to spend one’s time learning. I can always read a shop manual, and like everyone else these days I learn a lot (and get confidence) from infinite YouTube how-to-videos. I consider myself fortunate to have these fine machines under my administration. By accident of birth location and historical timing I deal mostly with such circumstantial ‘first world problems’, and this is more than a cliché. When I’m thinking clearly, I’m thankful for each problem, no matter how intractable or difficult it may seem. And when it comes to the products my small business makes, and which I originally designed and continue to attempt market and improve, I’ve taken the same approach. Make things that work well, are reasonably reparable, and which last a long time.   Like nearly everyone I’m doing my best to get along with the people in my life, and to take care of the world in the tradition of my birthright’s Jewish teachings, of which I know only the most basic elements. But it’s been enough. The world we all live on seems to be a very ancient solar powered organism or system, following actionable rules we have evolved an ability to somewhat formulate, share and use. And however imperfect those rules are, at any given moment they just have to do. I strongly suspect this situation will continue long after us and all our descendants are gone, and don’t believe interplanetary colonization will be financially practical any time soon, if ever. Regardless of that possibility all of us live in the here-and-now and must do the best we can with the reality we find directly before us. The only thing I know for sure is that reality always wins.   - Andy PS - The greatest thing which has been achieved during our lifetimes has not been putting a man on the moon or eradicating deadly diseases or the ‘green revolution’ which helped mostly eliminate large-scale famine. Or any of the thousands of other incredible technological and intellectual advances which have occurred during our lifetimes. No, humankinds’ single greatest recent accomplishment has been unwinding the DNA code, which for the first time shows indisputably how all humans are 99.8% genetically exactly the same, and finally proving that after all is said and done ‘race’ is merely another cultural construct being put before us by those who on some level or for some reason believe they have something to gain by doing so. It will probably take a few hundred years for this recent discovery to sink in everywhere, just as it did when the earth was eventually proven to actually be round and not flat, and (separately) that our planet goes around the sun, not vice versa. The coolest thing about life, from both a practical and a philosopher’s point of view is how reality always wins.  *For American readers. For international readers, insert here any of the world’s more orthodox, fundamental, and traditional religious (and/or moral) life-guiding belief-systems. Whatever applies in your location. Download "Batteries, Did You Know?"

When I was younger (mid 30’s) I did two sort of endurance rides. Neither was specifically planned to be an endurance ride. I simply wanted (needed?) to see if I could get somewhere which happened to be fairly far away, in as little time as possible. I was not trying to set any speed record, though. Just wanted to get there without lallygagging. The bike for both rides was my old R100/7. No windshield other than a small home-made fairing from the headlight nacelle ending just over the top of the instruments.  A period photo of the machine is shown at the top of this email and here (dry-stored in the basement today, near our clothes washer and dryer). This bike started out as an ‘RS’ but shortly after I purchased it from its original owner in about 1981, I converted it to a /7 naked bike and sold its fairing and everything else that was ‘RS’. I still have this bike and would guess it has about 100-150K on its odometer (which was not working for a few years, twice). It has the RS’s bigger 40mm exhaust and a few other ’RS’ items. With the help of an extremely talented friend, and over the course of several winters, I hot-rodded it the way I wanted (at that time…): /2 ‘high’ handlebars, Kehin ‘slant slide’ pumper carbs, high performance cam, bigger pistons, mono lever swingarm, oversize Heinrich tank, frame stiffener bars, extra holes in its cast aluminum airbox, drilled-out straight-through mufflers, lightened flywheel, special clutch, etc.  It made 68HP on a dyno, which is a lot for one of these, and would wheelie on the throttle in 2nd with only a light effort. Which stock versions of this bike won’t do. It’s a tank, but back-in-the day was still a lot of fun to build and ride. One of my two quasi-accidental endurance rides involved two back-to-back 900-mile days riding home from Bike Week in Florida to Duluth Minnesota. What made it an endurance ride wasn’t the distance, though. It was the low temperature. The second day it was below freezing the entire time. When I reached my residence, it had gotten down into the low twenties, I think. There were quite large snowbanks on the sides of the roads from Chicago north, but the road itself was dry all the way. In my driveway when I got home there was about a foot of accumulated snow. I was so tired I ploughed into it as far as I could and then just left the bike on its sidestand right there, surrounded by great clouds of steam coming from the hot engine melting the snow. Then I staggered inside leaving a trail of shedded gear all through the house like a three-year-old and slept for ten or twelve hours. Woke up famished but alive.  The other long-hard ride was the year the BMW National Rally was in York PA. I rode there from Duluth in one very long day and when I pulled up at the gate at three or four AM wanting to camp, the entrance security would not let me in, so I got back on the bike and rode down to somewhere near the shore of the Chesapeake Bay, where I watched the sun come up over the water, then turned around went back to the rally site, got right in, set up my tent and slept until noon. I think the total miles of that ride was about 1,250-1,300 and the total hours was around 22 or 23. I don’t consider myself an endurance rider, but for most of my years when riding on road trips a good day is around 750 miles and an easy day is around 500-600. Today at age 68 I’m satisfied and comfortable with anywhere in the 3–600-mile range and have nearly zero interest going for more. The well-known cliche: "The older one gets, the faster one was” is sometimes true, but both hard-ride accounts are as close to accuracy as I can remember them. Famously, whatever doesn’t kill you hopefully makes you stronger.  What were some of your hardest/fastest/longest rides?  - Mr. Subjective, 11-21

The minimum we recommend wearing under an Aerostich suit (Darien, R-3, Cousin Jeremy, all of them) is a T shirt and shorts.  For most of the  warmer part of the year that's what I wear.  Specifically, these shorts, ‘commando’ (without boxers or briefs): Mid-Weight Cotton Shorts and usually a Polo-type shirt like this.   This combination is comfortable and absorbs moisture well. The Polo-type shirt is a slightly heavier 100% cotton fabric than a T shirt, and a little fancier/dressier, which somehow feels better in most off-the-bike situations such as stores and restaurants, etc.  In my imagination the cotton shorts similarly look more socially presentable than other options in off-the-bike situations, however when I’m riding all day or on a multi-day trip, I like to wear AD-1 armored pants over them, and they typically remain on continuously until riding ends for the day.  All Aerostich gear is deliberately designed to be as lightweight as possible to improve rider comfort, and to also be sacrificial in crash situations.  When we were pioneering armored textile gear back in the 1980’s, this way of thinking about protective gear was unknown and for some riders was radical and unacceptable. At the time leathers were the only 'serious' option and they were all designed to be heavy and thick enough to withstand repeated crashes.   (I've always felt that if after a crash a rider stood up relatively ok and then the rider's completely shredded garment fell to the ground in tatters and smithereens around their ankles it would be perfect. Sort of like a scene from one of those old Warner Brothers Road Runner cartoons. And then the hapless rider would buy another suit - Acme brand, of course.) We see a lot of crash-damaged gear because we offer repair services. Studying these garments has taught us a lot. One can break down abrasion damage into two overlapping kinds: 1.) areas where the garment was under higher load as it rubbed along the pavement, and 2.) areas where it wasn’t.   The areas which usually are under high load are the elbows, shoulders, hips, and knees. In our gear these places are reinforced with multiple layers of abrasion-resistant fabric, and beneath the fabric there are additional layers of material associated with the impact armor. We’ve never seen crash abrasion wear penetrate through all of those (usually five or six) layers. Other areas of a garment which are not under load are typically only scuffed, but there are exceptions. For example, if a rider slides on his bottom (seat/butt) a long way during a very high-speed crash, a layer of fabric can be worn through, which is why there are two layers of abrasion resistant fabric there. The faster the get-off and the longer the slide, the more potential there is for abrasion to wear through even very strong fabric. We design our gear to withstand even higher speed crash-abrasions while also recognizing they are rare. Riders who frequently ride in mid three-digit speeds (120-170 mph) should wear race leathers.  Even though I’ve become relatively old, I’ll still get briefly into the 100+ speed range several times a year (typically when I’m passing several cars in a string on a two-lane road, etc), but normally I’m riding somewhere the 60-85 mph range when on highways outside of my urban area. Aerostich gear is designed to provide acceptable abrasion protection for all of these (and my) riding scenarios, regardless of what one wears underneath. Winter, however, is another story.  -- Mr. Subjective, November 21