07-02-2015, 01:50 PM
Thought about this subject for a thread on this morning's ride as I was being pelted with a light rain. If you ride a motorcycle much you are going to have to ride in some pretty crummy conditions. It could be rain, or heat or cold or snow. Touring for as many years as I have I could relate stories about every climatic condition, but I think the worst has been rain.
2 times I have ridden in rain so hard and so long it flat wore me out.
First time my wife and I were on a tour to New England. Coming home as we entered Massachusetts it started raining. We quickly pulled over on a bridge overpass and donned rain gear. Then it really started raining hard and continued to do so and was still raining hard when we reached our hotel room in Catskill, New York. Even though we were wearing rain gear we were soaked to the bone and our hotel room looked like a Chinese laundry with clothes laid out on every surface drying. We had never been that wet before.
The next time was on a fall men's trip to the U.P of Michigan. We had stayed in a hotel in St Ignace. When we woke up it was raining really hard. No choice we had to ride and it would be 5 or 6 that night before we would get a room in Dundee, Mich on the Ohio border that evening. Our itinerary took us over the Tunnel of Trees road, a world famous motorcycling road, but the weather was so bad, with limbs and leaves littering the road and deep puddles we rode this great rode at 20 mph. Again it rained so hard it was hard to see the bike ahead of you. We got in the middle lane and just stayed there all the way down I-75. You can hunker down on a bike but you can't hide anywhere. Rain even drips inside the shield on your full face helmet, and you will find out if the head air vents work as water works it's way in if you forget to close them first. Again everything was soaked thru. We used the hand dryers in rest areas and hair dryers at the hotel to try and dry our " waterproof" gloves and boots for the next days ride to home, which thankfully was dry.
I know it's only water, but it can make you pretty miserable when there is lots of it coming down and you are on a motorcycle.
So what is the worst weather you have ridden in?
2 times I have ridden in rain so hard and so long it flat wore me out.
First time my wife and I were on a tour to New England. Coming home as we entered Massachusetts it started raining. We quickly pulled over on a bridge overpass and donned rain gear. Then it really started raining hard and continued to do so and was still raining hard when we reached our hotel room in Catskill, New York. Even though we were wearing rain gear we were soaked to the bone and our hotel room looked like a Chinese laundry with clothes laid out on every surface drying. We had never been that wet before.
The next time was on a fall men's trip to the U.P of Michigan. We had stayed in a hotel in St Ignace. When we woke up it was raining really hard. No choice we had to ride and it would be 5 or 6 that night before we would get a room in Dundee, Mich on the Ohio border that evening. Our itinerary took us over the Tunnel of Trees road, a world famous motorcycling road, but the weather was so bad, with limbs and leaves littering the road and deep puddles we rode this great rode at 20 mph. Again it rained so hard it was hard to see the bike ahead of you. We got in the middle lane and just stayed there all the way down I-75. You can hunker down on a bike but you can't hide anywhere. Rain even drips inside the shield on your full face helmet, and you will find out if the head air vents work as water works it's way in if you forget to close them first. Again everything was soaked thru. We used the hand dryers in rest areas and hair dryers at the hotel to try and dry our " waterproof" gloves and boots for the next days ride to home, which thankfully was dry.
I know it's only water, but it can make you pretty miserable when there is lots of it coming down and you are on a motorcycle.
So what is the worst weather you have ridden in?