Winter SV riding precautions?

Take something to clean your visor with.

Mine gets filthy from the crap off the road when its wet, and after it dries, it's horrible. Bad vision.

^ wood polish helps makes it easier to wipe off

I'm heading cardiff way on saturday so am teking the same precautions.
As others have said, about waterproofs and bike check, but also some food, cause service stations charge a fortune.
Maybe take a spare pair of gloves (bike gloves) if you have some, should it rain and you get wet, theres few things worse than putting wet gloves on.

[mister c]

Make sure that you clean it well after you have done your ride. Things like brake calipers start to sieze up

Originally Posted by hongman

Take something to clean your visor with.

Mine gets filthy from the crap off the road when its wet, and after it dries, it's horrible. Bad vision.

Polish it with turtle wax !

you'll both be fine driving to Cardiff, but I recomend that as soon as you get to the welsh border put your wet proofs on it'll probably be raining.

make sure you bring your passports and take your injections, you'll need to go into quarantine for 5 days before we let you loose in the popluated areas, after all we dont want you bringing exotic illnesses accross the border like swine flu/Con-Dem Virus etc.
Also, watch for Oily roads in Cardiff, the local bus company has an excellent track record of maintaining their busses and dont belive that it's their own busses that are leaking oil all over the roads.

Collis
For and on behalf of the people of Wales.

Edit
Naah...
I'm sure the Taffia team will come and meet you on route or even offer a tea/coffee. I cant unfortunately as i'll be going out and my kettle is broke.

Think about the time your going to start out and how long the journey is going to take because if you get delayed you could be riding in the dark.

Its not the dark that's the problem its the possible temparature drop at this time of year. Are you dressed accordingly or have you packed a set of running tights, helly hansen type long armed vest to put on just in case. You can never have enough layers.

I've been caught out a couple of times when taking long journeys at this time of year in the past. A 2 hour ride up the M1 with a clear sky night and 0 degree air temp or -10 at 70 mph.

The conundrum is that you want to get out of the cold but the faster you ride the colder it is.

My own golden rule about this is the 40 minute rule. If your journey is going to be longer than this then you need to layer up.

Get some of the free plastic gloves at the fuel station and wear them under your own - very effective.

Oh and get a lip salve thingy from Boots.

Edit - if you don't ordinarily wear ear plugs then give em a try as the noise on long journeys will make your ears ache.

Originally Posted by Ed

Edit - if you don't ordinarily wear ear plugs then give em a try as the noise on long journeys will make your ears ache.

+1

Definitive answer :

1: Fender Extender or at least/or as well as a good Greased up front plug
2: ACF50 on everything apart from the front discs
3: Heated Grips
4: DL650/Vstrom Handguards
5: Lots of good thermal laters preferably Merino Wool
6: Maintain the pad pins , these can seize up in a nasty fashion
7: Fog City or Pinlock
8: Thin "ALDI" bike gloves
9: Dont go too fast and increase windchill , keep it lower and warmer
10: Good Winter Gear in the first place , consider heated inner jacket and keep kidneys warm