Today was unseasonably warm again and that means that there is a lot of frost on the road surface from the road being colder than the air. To make matters worse, there is even talk of freezing rain. I had a number of errands to run and went back and forth across town a couple of times starting at College Coffeehouse. This picture is from the nice lounge area at the credit union. You can even use their free wi-fi as you sit in front of the fireplace enjoying their free coffee.
The warm weather is supposed to continue for the next week or so making the roads kind of treacherous. The studded, skinny tires on the Ural don't seem to have any problem with these conditions but you can see tracks all over the road where cars and trucks had ended up in the ditch.
I spent a little time on Saturday evening doing some piddly things with the Ural. All winter, I haven't been able to reset the trip odometer as the reset knob was extremely difficult to turn when cold. The knob used to be to the right of the speedometer behind the windshield. This meant the cable had to make a "U" to get into the back of the speedometer. I drilled a new hole on the right headlight bracket and repositioned the reset knob there. Much easier to reach and now the cable only makes a 90° turn. I'll put a waterproof pushbutton switch in the existing hole to enable a 4-way flasher.
To power the GoPro and recharge electronics, I had picked up a water-resistant dual USB outlet. It is only water-resistant when the cover is closed. For now, I just wired the dual outlet to a SAE connector until I figure out where to mount the outlet. For now, the outlet can just sit on the seat.
Didn't this happen last year? The weather people on TV giddily point to the AK map with warmer temp numbers scattered about...It's almost like they planned it this way and are proud to show off the results.
ReplyDeleteI'm delusional. It's a long, hard winter down here.
Last year it was in January when we got the freezing rain. This was followed by -40° temperatures which ensured that the layer of ice stayed around for the rest of the winter. The weather pattern is we get unseasonably warm whenever the eastern seaboard gets extremely cold. Extremes are rarely good for either.
Deleteis the 32 degrees supposed to stick around for a bit or are you headed back down to single digits again?
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate the warm-up turns the roads so icy.
No, it's staying around for a while. It's going to be really dangerous on the roads especially if you have a hill to deal with.
DeleteHaven't had issues with the tripmeter reset knob yet....but will remember your mod hopefully if I do encounter issues.
ReplyDeleteMaybe things are just getting old. I wonder if there is oil or grease on tha short cable? That may explain the problem at cold temperatures.
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