REALLY cold temps this week

Hi everyone,

Where I live they're calling for as low as -20 or -30 degrees before windchill! (brrrrr, little colder than normal for us)

Should I take any precautions with bikes or cars?

Thanks,
-Gato

 

Yeah......don't ride.

Dave F

 

actually, when it gets below zero I usually go out and start the cars and let them run for about 15 to 20 minutes just before I go to bed. That way, they've only been off for about 6 hours before I get up. If its way below zero, I've gone so far as to set the alarm for about 2:30 or 3:00am and go start them up again for awhile. Then they've been cooling for only about 3 hrs...............

I know some people that have diesel vehicles and they'll just let them run all night.

dave F

 

huh, that interesting.

Just a thought, hopefully there will be no issues. I just wasn't sure if the moisture in gas lines could freeze. I heard someone talking about dry gas.

 

dry gas is just alcohol, you already have enough of that in your gas

 

Hopefully your bike is winterized: new oil and filter, full tank of fresh, stabilized fuel that was run into the carbs, cylinders fogged or oiled, exhaust system plugged, etc. Battery in the house on the maintainer, etc.

 

Indeed !!

So curious me wanted to see it for myself.
I took a quart of gas in a glass jar,
and a pet syringe with 10CC of water.
The water was SUPPOSED to go into the gas, which had 59CC's (not 100) of Ethanol.
But - the water pulled around 10CC's of Ethanol OUT of the gas, and I had 20CC's of water/ETOH, which I siphoned out, and lit on fire !!

Which might prove that the gasoline is already, completely, saturated with water (on purpose, I accuse)

Which would also mean that your gas isn't as "dry" as you think !!

 

Adding liquid water to fuel will saturate it quickly, water vapor not so much becasue of the absorbtion rate.

Even non-ethanol gasoline absorbs water from the atmosphere. You want that water to be in solution so it can be burned with the fuel instead of settling out and rusting the tank.

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/fuels/rfg/waterphs.pdf

 

I have no idea how you people live in that sort of cold.
118f [48C] your measurement in the shade under the covered portion behind my house the other day.

 

Time, you lost me buddy. if i'am understanding what i'am reading that's like putting a half cup of water in a three gallon tank.
yes i can see how that would create a problem !

 

It's 10CC's into roughly 1,000 CC's or 1%

(4OZ into 384 OZ is about right)

The pumps all say 10% Ethanol, but they are delivering closer to the minimum of 5.9% ( set by Congress?)

The good news is the water/ETOH mix that "falls out" will freeze colder than 32* .

How much water would you expect store-bought gasoline to be able to absorb??

 

our pumps say up to 10% Ethanol but i guess that would depend on the price of Ethanol vs. gas.
"How much water would you expect store-bought gasoline to be able to absorb??" i don't have any idea but today there's no water in the air except snow flakes.

 

I better cover my plants ! it could frost.

 

It's easy..............we just throw an extra XS on the fire every hour or so------

Dave

 

-12f -24c actual temp here right now wind chill don't ask let's just say a 20 plus year old bike won't run well. :cry: As to how much water could it absorb equal to the alcohol content yes that much! Yes it drops out of suspension and rust the bottom of your fuel take at low temps. Yea lets add dry gas to it and see what happens not good lol.

 

Cold!
So cold, that in some places it's going to knock the "Anti" right-out of antifreeze.
Pity those who have High-line luxury land-yachts with all-aluminum plants running 50-50 coolant.
I hope they have block heaters.
✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬✬
And this happened, ...
Last week, the Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, got trapped in unusually THICK Antarctic ICE, 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Australia. Three of the largest Ice Breakers in the world failed to reach the icebound ship in their attempts at a rescue.

2014 starts-off with a North American deep freeze that is shattering centuries-old records. The bitter cold blast burst onto the stage in the Northern Plains States yesterday, hurling North Dakota into double digit sub-zero temps!
Minnesota's Governor has ordered all schools closed. Gov. Mark Dayton said, " I made the decision to protect our children from dangerously cold temperatures!"

In the town of of Embarrass, Minnesota, they expect to break their cold temperature record of 64 below, set back in 1996.
In Chicago, native Leo Londono said this is the harshest winter he's ever experienced in the windy city. From his apartment, he can see huge chunks of ice afloat on Lake Michigan.

The NFL made the Niners and Packers play.
The "Cheese-heads" layered-up and filled Lambeau Field, though. But, I didn't see no bare-chested drunks.
I am not worried about Global Warming.
Do you think we should be???

 

Al Gore changed his rhetoric when the planet stopped warming a decade ago, the buzz word now is climate change, which covers all the bases.

 

On the news over here...guy in minnesota throws a glass of water in the air and freezes before it reaches the ground! Ridiculous!

 

That's called snow.

 

It's a dry cold . . . Not so bad. :lol:

We like to call it Global Weirding.
Regardless of what may be causing it, there is no denying that there are weird weather pattern changes occurring.

In the last two years (out of 50) living next to a Great Lake, I have witnessed storm systems coming from directions that I have never observed before . . . weird.

And the meteorologist have been more incorrect then ever with their forecasts. But they make up for it by hyping up the littlest things.

ouch! :wink:

 

If you had lived for a few thousand years you would have seen it all.

 

Meanwhile, in Russia...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3TJ0tLFZY0

 

Guess that guy never heard of ATGATT!

I hate winter more and more every year!
Temperature here rose to 3℉ so far this morning, up from -2℉ when I got up. Wind chill is still -10 to -20℉. Lowest temps in 20 years here!
My daughter's school is closed today along with most other schools in the area.
I had a water pipe bust in my basement so it was practically raining down there. Luckily it missed my bikes! Big mess to clean up tho and pipes to replace.
Did I mention I hate winter?!

 

Same here. I work at school and we got Monday and Tuesday off!
(Got some polishing done: http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... tml#401085 hehe)

It was -9 at the lowest! My car doors are frozen shut...

 

We're doing that with boiling water, much more fun!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFj_i6HtebM

 

Wipe a cloth sprayed with WD-40 on all the rubber seals of your car doors, that will prevent that unless the lock freezes.

 

-14F when I went out this morning; car had low tires due to extreme cold.

Had warmed up to a balmy -2F when I got to work, 3+ hours later. (More than twice the normal travel time.)

Looks like now it's gotten up to a downright tropical (+) 2F. Apparently it's due to something called a "Polar Vortex." I have my own name for it.

Supposed to be in the forties and raining by the weekend.

 

Wipe 'em down with silicone and they won't get all gummy the way WD40 eventually will.

 

According to weather.com, yesterday we had a high 48 at 1:25 AM. 22 hours later, we had a low of -9. A drop of 57 degrees. Would that fall under the category of extreme?

 

This morning -4 degrees in the Smokey Mtns of tn. Some snow on the ground. Just think 2 more months and we will start warming back up!

Sorry you northern guys, winter is too longer for you all. I do remember growing up in western Pa. us kids with trail bikes did ride in the snow. One kids dad even made chains for his 250 yamaha enduro. He was the only one that could throw dirt all over the snow! Nothing stopped him except deep snow!

 

Never had the car insulation seams get gummy from 3 cars over 30 years. Silicone may be better for keeping ice from attaching to the rubber, but I haven't tried it so I won't say that. I have used WD-40 for that, no iced door or deterioration.

 

ack, don't say that (-4 in TN). Several years back we left North MI (10deg) and stopped in Gatlinburg, for a balmy 45 - 50 deg. That's what I'd like to remember =).

My friend helped me put bicycle chains on my rear tire of my xt500 one winter (83, 84 maybe). Thing was wicked fun on frozen lakes. Beating snowmobiles in drags. Hooked up on light snow with ice underneath like crazy. Rode it around as primary transportation for a few weeks like that.

 

It's back up to 16 degrees and I was able to get my door open with the gentle help of a heat gun

 

been out the last three days fixing furnaces and thawing pipes. -50 degree hydraulic fluid froze solid in my snowplow pump. very cold

 

Whoa....Niagara frozen!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... mecca.html

Meanwhile over here...

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western ... 6797177125