Cold. Track. Gloves.

Gluttons for punishment! Or maybe it's just that everyone's always available the weekend before the official Giving of Thanks? Or maybe it's the dash - the *last* track day of the year. It's now or never (never == Spring). But we're rocking CMP once again this November for the 2-day weekend of high speed activity.

Why gluttons for punishment? Because for the past 2 (three?) years, it's been *freezing*. Racing around the track with all the layers you can fit under your leathers and then camping out in the paddock in less-than-freezing temperatures isn't exactly the most convenient way to do a track weekend. There's been talk of over-nighting in a hotel, but I dunno...I want the full experience. So we'll see :)

Back to the point - Mike made clear his disappointment that I considered it acceptable to ride the Smokies with this, and so I've been forced to deal with an expensive problem I've been pretending I didn't know about:



So confronted with another track day and the knowledge that it's time to replace my most track-appropriate gloves, I've been searching. Because of the yearly visit to CMP in the cold (and sometimes wet), I believe these are the best solution:



The Alpinestars Storm Rider. Not only does newenough.com have good things to say about them, but there are comments sprinkled about the intertubes that claim this glove provides warmth without sacrificing protection (which seems to be rare). Gore-Tex FTW! Now to stare at the price for a few more days (weeks?)...

So speaking of the Smokies, I'll cover that in a different post. It's hard to sum up a week out there - and where the Dragon trips started out as get-as-many-miles-in-as-possible-on-the-awesome-roads trips, they've turned into a mix of seeing the sites/hikes as well as conquering some amazing roads. I like the change, but I always leave wishing I spent more time on the roads...