Thursday, January 05, 2017

Scarlett is in the shop, Fiona takes on the Snow

Yesterday, I dropped off Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig off at the Fort Collins, Colorado dealer.  Randy's shop is where I bought Scarlett and whom I rely on to bring her back online whenever she breaks in a major way as she did in Texas recently.

It was a bit nerve-wracking, driving in nasty snow conditions north of Loveland, CO while trailering Scarlett up to Randy but no incidents and I left her by the shop:



A lot of Colorado, to include the Metro Denver area, was under a Winter Storm Warning since late yesterday:


So I was glad that I'd obtained a spare sidecar rig last year, Fiona was ready and willing this morning when I went out for a lunch time ride.  Temperatures ranged from 2-4℉ to (-15-16℃) and things were quite brisk!

Fiona doesn't have heated grips but I mounted the "emergency" wrap-around heated grips and along with grip covers, it was endurable for the most part.  Some tweaking to be done with these heat pads that roll around the grips, they tend to move and jam the throttle with the power wires.....

 Made this one look monochromatic, the pixlr "auto fix" function was
having "issues" getting it right.





 Above and below pics shot with recently acquired wide angle lens adapter.

My fingertips were quite cold as I rode home, to the point of painful.  I'd removed the grip covers you see to figure out why I wasn't able to roll on throttle.  The heated grip pad had "rolled" and jammed up the grip you see....so I adjusted it, left the grip covers off to keep an eye on it and hence froze my fingers on the way home.  Sigh.

Temperatures had soared into the low teens by the time I made it home, it's supposed to be clear skies tomorrow, hopefully the snow will stick around for more pics then.

Update: January 6, 2017:  Skies are clear, the sun is out and temperatures have soared into the 20s!



12 comments:

RichardM said...

I was wondering how well the wrap around heated grip things work. Maybe don't work so well...

redlegsrides said...

Fiona has 1" bars, the wraparound heated grips just barely meet at the Velcro strips. Have to figure out a way for them to not rotate.

SonjaM said...

The luxury of a spare rig. Dom, I do not know of anyone else that does. Hope you get the grip heater issue sorted out.

Trobairitz said...

She looks more rustic in the snow than Scarlett does. Must be the muted colors.

redlegsrides said...

Go figure Trobairitz....guess the military had the right idea using muted green colors eh?

redlegsrides said...

More than a luxury for me, SonjaM, with URALs its a necessity! :)

Went out today, had zip-tied the grips down, seems to be working.....of course, with the sun out and temperatures in the low teens at first, the heated grips weren't really needed. Temperatures would soar into the low 20s by the time I got home.

BeemerGirl said...

BBRrrrrr!! Glad Scarlett made it safe and hope she returns home quickly. Yep, the beauty of having multiple rigs... :)

redlegsrides said...

Thanks BeemerGirl, with Ural Rigs am beginning to think a spare rig and a trailer are basic necessities! :)

RichardM said...

If you don't ride them they seem to last longer. Or at least that's the trend for many rigs...

(No sarcasm here…)

redlegsrides said...

RichardM, quite true it seems....but these rigs are pretty expensive just to be decorative.

CCjon said...

That last shot, with the wide angle lens? Enlarged really shows the details. Which lens is it?

redlegsrides said...

It's a lens adapter, not a wide angle lens per se:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01L5VLIU8