Yesterday was a 35 degree day, the first in nearly a week. There were intermittent bursts of snow with winds about 5-7 mph. A perfect day for a ride in the city, considering the forecast for the next week or more looks like highs in the low to upper 20's. It was a ride with a purpose, but no where in particular to go.

I wanted to get the rest of the Signal Sorcerer test done, so I could finish the review. I started out by riding in expanding circles centered around the area I live in, looking for turn lanes with sensors to trip the lights, leading to sections of road going no where, since it was mid afternoon and I didn't want cars pulling up behind me and ruining the test. It took me about a half hour to find several intersections quite close together that suited my purpose. Each lead to places or sections of road where I had seldom if ever, been before. Actually, one of the turn lanes went somewhere that was pretty busy, into a college dorm complex across the highway from the main campus. But since it was afternoon on a school day, almost all the traffic was going back and forth across the highway between dorms and campus, and I was the only one coming from the north and turning in... perfect! It was the first time I had been in there since the complex was built several years ago. The dorms are pretty impressive even from the outside, and from what I've heard, even more impressive inside. Buildings with stone exteriors and large windows for each room, but not rows of windows surrounded by metal and concrete, as dorms built 30 or so years ago were, but with exteriors more similiar to higher class town house apartments or condominiums. The other sections of road the intersections led to were far less interesting, the back sides of lots with leafless trees lining the road, and one turning into the back entrance of a small industrial complex, where the only other vehicles using the turn lane were delivery vans.

I was a bit chilly while looking for intersections to use for my tests, because I had a sinking feeling that it was an exercise in futility. However, once I located them, I got focused on what I was doing and didn't notice the chill again til I was heading home an hour and a half later. Where I couldn't see far enough down a road to time my approach right, sometimes I had to sit for a bit beside the road and pretended to be checking something on the scooter so I wouldn't appear to be casing a nearby home or business. I had to make sure I wasn't entering the turn lanes when someone else was there, or when the light would cycle just as I got there, because then I'd have to go back and start over, or wait through a cycle and a half, hoping no one else would pull up behind me.

While focusing on the testing, my insulated boots, long underwear, sweatshirt, leather jacket, balaclava, neck warmer, helmet with face shield, and ski gloves, kept me plenty warm. The results of the test ended up being good enough that I figure the $19.95 for the Signal Sorcerer was money well spent, even though the advertising claims are somewhat exaggerated. Only when I was going the slightly more than two miles home, did I begin to feel the chill again. I went home feeling it was time well spent, and one of the first times I can remember being out on the roads enjoying the ride while going nowhere.

For the full report on the Signal Sorcerer test, see the LetsGoScootin review page.