ATGATT

There is a thing in motorcycling known as ATGATT, which stands for All The Gear, All The Time. What it means is that if you’re out on a bike you really should have all the safety equipment on, so boots, gloves, proper trousers and jacket, and the helmet. Only the helmet is required by law, but it makes perfect sense to wear everything when in the UK.

Out here though, full ATGATT can be just as dangerous, as the heat in just incredible.

I’d have two riding options, for hot weather, my Hood Kevlar jeans, boots, elkskin gloves and mesh jacket to go with my Shoei Hornet. Or if it’s cold or raining I swap the gloves for Alpinestars 365, and the jeans and mesh jacket for an all in one Aerostich Roadcrafter. So full goretex.

The heat out here, makes even the mesh very warm. It’s bearable when you are moving, but in town, or stuck at lights, it gets very warm. It’s possibly just me, as I really can’t take the heat at all, so even just standing outside in the shade I start to sweat.

Today’s plan was to leave New York state, head through Vermont, and then on to New Hampshire, as I’d read about a couple of good routes through a national park. To cut down some miles and have an easier day I’d changed the plan to take advantage of a ferry across a lake that I’d found out about in the motel lobby the night before.

I was still stopping a lot for fuel, which was a worry, but put less than $10 in every time, so still couldn’t work out how much the tank held. I’d been trying to run it slightly longer each time, but was really nervous of running out of fuel. During one of the stops I’d been chatting to a guy from Quebec on a triumph who was heading the same way. He picked up on the accent straight away and told me about his trip to Skye, but most folks haven’t commented on it.

The motel for tonight I’d pre-booked in a town called Littleton in New Hampshire. I’d read about the helmet laws there, but when I asked at the motel desk the lady didn’t know, so I wasn’t sure. As i dumped my gear in the room I could hear bikes zipping around all over, and when the next Harley roared past wearing just trainers, shorts, a t-shirt and sunglasses he confirmed that you didn’t need to wear a helmet in this state.

The route I’d read about went to a town called Conway, which has outlet malls and lots of other shopping. Another good thing about New Hampshire is that there is no sales tax, so I’d planned on buying a few things.

I thought it over while I had a shower and figured that as I wouldn’t get another chance like this I was going out without the helmet. Since I had no helmet on I figured there wasn’t much point wearing gloves or a jacket either, so i rode in just jeans, boots and a long sleeve t-shirt, with my oakleys on.

I felt absolutely fine doing it, not hot and sweaty for the first time on the bike, and enjoying the freedom. There was one moment, when a moron pulled out of a side road onto my 60mph main road and would have wiped me out, but I’d seen it happening a long way off and managed to avoid her. A Toyota Prius would you believe. I couldn’t work out if she just wasn’t paying attention or hated bikers, so I rolled up beside the drivers window and looked in. A lady, maybe 50’s, not a hint of apology or embarrassment, so I guess she did it deliberately, and just didn’t care. I passed her, then she went nuts again, beeping and overtook me, flying up to the back of the pickup truck in front, where she started behaving again.

As I said I’d seen it coming a long way off and managed to avoid her, and despite wearing no gear the thing I was worried about most was losing my oakleys to the wind.

In the end I didn’t buy anything at the stores, despite trying hard.

Around this time it was starting to get dark, and I hadn’t yet eaten, but decided it would be best to go back to where the motel was while I still had some light. The route back was the 112, the Kancamagus Highway which gets a great write up for bikes. As I started to ride it, the sun went down, so with oakleys off I rode on.

What I hadn’t realised until I saw the first sign warning of hundreds of collisions was that there are will moose here, which are more active at night. So given that I had no gear on, I let a car behind overtake and used him for light and as a shield. I’ve always liked riding at night and despite not being able to see any scenery it was thrilling. A slight annoyance was a couple of bikes behind me, the one in front must have been a full dress Harley with his three main lights all on beam. I had to angle my mirrors away to avoid being blinded which was annoying, but not the end of the world.

The road goes through a national park, and ends up with a 23 miles blast up Interstate 93 back to Littleton. All of this in the pitch black, no helmet, jacket, or gloves.

I loved it, one of the best rides of my life.