Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 IRON BUTT MAGAZINE | Winter 2014 lar helmet being worn, only light coming towards the rider at an elevation lower than about ° above the horizon will reach the rider’s eyes, unless, of course, the rider’s head is tilted up or down from the horizontal plane. As the goal of any motorcycle rider is to see as far as pos- sible, neither up nor down positions are sought. Note that the type of helmet and the way the helmet is worn will also play a role in these angles. The follow- ing photograph illustrates the concept of the elevation of the sun in relation to a rider’s eyes. The elevation up to which the sun will be a problem is 26°. If the direct rays from the sun are at an elevation lower than this it will blind the rider. In this case, the rider can find a way of shading his or her eyes, continue in less than optimal riding conditions, or stop. The elevation angle at which direct rays from the sun will impact a rider negatively may be decreased by carefully placing some tinted or opaque film or tape on the visor as shown in the follow- ing picture. Lowering the elevation at which the sun will be a problem to 12°. The SUN The following is an example of a ride planned during the Winter Solstice (June ) in the southern hemisphere. Since the sun rises is at : and sets at : on this day, there are  hours and  minutes of daylight. If the planned ride takes the rider on a direct north- south route, the rider will be unimpeded by the position of the sun. However, if the chosen route begins with the rider heading due east in the morning and ends heading due west in the afternoon, the rider will have to make provisions for dealing with the sun. In this exam- ple, we’ll postulate that the elevation at which the sun will not impact the rider negatively is °. The time for the sun to reach that specific elevation in the morning and again in the late afternoon can be deducted from the total amount of daylight hours. In this case, sun will reach ° at : and then again at :, meaning the rider can only ride safely for  hours and  minutes. Although this is an extreme example, Figure 5: Sun’s position in the morning and afternoon of June 21, 2014 at latitude 34° south. Prepared from an illustration from the Photovoltaic Education Network website. Figure 6: A graphical representation of change in day length due to the sun’s elevation.