Which, of course, bled like a punctured bag, leading to a trip to medical assistance which resulted in stitches.
Me: Here's what happened, I think it's going to take a couple of stitches.
Doc, after looking it over: I concur with your diagnosis.
Which I determined, barring collapse, was not going to prevent taking care of a matter, said matter resulting in 471 miles in the saddle over the weekend. The good thing: once up to speed all the foot had to do was sit there, so it worked out. Aside from the dehydration, etc.*
Anyway, all that stuff's taken care of. Happily before today, as between the temp and humidity, well, I'd rather stand over a forge again than try to ride any real distance today.
Speaking of, the bike in travel trim:
*Highway speeds on a bike in current weather conditions just sucks moisture out of you
9 comments:
Yeah, it does. On good concrete or ashphalt, you'll be dehydrated inside an hour. Hydtate, hydrate constitently. When I was doing Iron Butt rides, I'd wear leather even during hot weather so that the wind wouldn't suck the water out of my body.
I was out Saturday for about 80 miles at highway speeds and gave up - just losing too much water too fast. A few years back when I was riding the bicycle 50-75 miles at a clip how far I could go was limited by how much water I could carry and find enroute; 1 liter = about 10 miles. Saturday on the Honda felt about the same, but with no easy way to rehydrate under a full face helmet in 70 mph traffic. Need to start taking the camelbak.
Before I make another trip like this I probably ought to get one.
I worked out my gas mileage; either something got missed somewhere, or this is the best I've ever gotten. Going to go back over it again before I believe it.
When I was doing HazMat work and fully suited up we wore cooling vests that worked great. They offer something like those we used for motorcyclist that run in the $59-$130 price range. You still need to hydrate and occasionally dip the vest in or pour some ice water over the vest ro "recharge it" but it's worth it.
How do you stay hydrated while riding? Do you perhaps have a camelbak that you're constantly drinking from?
Playing golf in the desert has gotten me into the habit of putting a pinch of salt in the water jug. (1.5 liter)
If you can taste it, you added too much. REALLY works for replacing what your body needs besides just water.
Camelback will work on the bike plus you get to add ice cubes to have a chilled pack on your back.
1.5L Camelback loaded with ice and about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt works well for day rides (I carry refills in the tourpack).
As far as mounting hard saddlebags it can be done. An easier method is to do what Borepatch did and get a bike that comes with them...
Camelback I need to get. It's on the list.
Oh, mounting the bags wouldn't be a problem, standard kit; it's paying for it that's the problem. Alas, it didn't come with them.
What KM said. Way back when the Boy Scouts hadn't been neutered, one of the adults was an MD who said that when you are treating someone for heat exhaustion or heat stroke, give them water with enough salt in it so it tastes only as salty as blood. He said that too much salt in the water was bad, so salt tablets except in extremis were really unnecessary. If the person with heat stroke did not need to drink a lot of salt, even less was necessary as a preventive.
As to hard saddlebags, I had some watertight boxes made for canoeing about 5 years ago. The plywood for each was only about $10 each (1/4 by 4ft by 8ft, and the place I got them fiberglassed only charged me $80 each. Latches and straps were only about $20 more. Maybe something with a bit more reinforcement would work for motorcycle boxes.
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