Mother Nature

[emaN]

The elements being what they these past couple days (up north anyway), got me a-wonderin', specifically:

What's the worst or most extreme conditions you've ridden in? Heat/snow/storm/hail/ice/fire etc...

There's people from all over the globe on KB, be interesting to know.

I'll start the ball rollin':

Us and our ElectraGlide got thrown around by a "little" tornado over in the US, having ridden thru' 53 C heat the day before!

got caught out in the snow once, returning back to London from the coast... (took me a while to figure out what the 'sludgey' stuff was that i couldn't wipe off my visor!)

spent 4 days riding in heavy rain with mates last year; so much for a "boys thrash" thru' the Alps! (good for wet weather riding practice tho').

You lot?

[froggyfrenchman]

got caught out in snow on the napier taihape rd on the gravel for 45mins at night. riding a 400, no gloves, headlight blew in first 5mins, just tshirt on under jacket. for those who dont know the road, the whole time,i diddnt see any tarseal, not a single house or even road sign. Seriously considered givin up bikes that night!

[emaN]

dude...that sounds nasty!
but it made you appreciate your "one-ness" with nature, didn't it?
yeah right...

[Pwalo]

I ride in Wellington. Enough said!! Wind, rain, hail, snow (once), ice, you name it.

Nothing beats a good old southerly complete with rain in the middle of winter. Oh fricken joy.

[leenok]

I used to ride to work in Dusseldorf in the winter, -15°c, snow & ice, got a bit sideways sometimes.
Bike was a KTM 640 SM.
I rode from Brighton (UK) to Prague in April on an R1, and it snowed, it took me 18hrs and when I arrived I could hardly move, literally just fell of the bike.

Lee

[Grahameeboy]

Back in 80's picked up a brand new Yamaha RD350YPVS and it snowed and I had to go down this very steep hill to get home...didn't ride it for 2 weeks whilst it snowed.....2 stroke with no engine braking....interesting!!!

Still in 80's rode back from Cornwall in driving rain for 8 hours.....stopped 10 miles from home.....I didn't even bother stopping except for gas, just wanted to get home and 10 miles from home sun comes out.

Fell down Ben Macdui in Scotland...

Those 80's were fun!!

[deathstar]

i went out and it was really really raining and i got wet and there was loads of water everywhere (and that was just this morning)

[Lou Girardin]

140 km/h plus crosswinds on the Himatangi straight. I pulled out to pass a cage and couldn't get back into my lane. Oncoming cars a km away get close awfully fast when you're shitting yourself.

[onearmedbandit]

Not a long trip, but rode home on a friends GSXR750 after work in heavy snow conditions here in ChCh back in the early 90's. Town was fine, good traffic flow and street lighting. However once I left the built-up area and onto dark country roads I realised I had no visibility very quickly. The only guide I had was a set of tail lights from a car a little ahead, so I caught up and followed them also using my memory of the road.

Which was perfectly fine until the car turned off, now I'd have to pull over blind and wait in a safe spot for another car to pass. The visibility was so poor that either visor up or visor down made no difference, I just could not see. Once a car was approaching I'd get back on and let it pass and quickly catch up 'hitching' a lift. A trip that normally takes just over 10 minutes took over 2hrs.

Then there was the time I got caught in a heavy hailstorm on my old gixxer 750 wearing jeans (and a helmet, leather jacket, etc, etc), got a few bruises that day....

[XP@]

Is hell endothermic or exothermic (hot or cold)
http://www.pinetree.net/humor/thermodynamics.html

Neither, it is +5degrees with horizontal rain.
1000km's wellington, new plymouth, taupo and back to wellington resulted in moderate hypothermia.
Cured with the help of my flatmate filling my vodka glass!

[Finn]

The worst conditions I've ever ridden in where on my wife's birthday. A trip to the shops took a couple of hours and when I returned it was like the Perfect Storm. Very nasty.

As my bike is mainly used for fun I rarely get caught out in bad weather.

[XP@]

The worst conditions I've ever ridden in where on my wife's birthday. A trip to the shops took a couple of hours and when I returned it was like the Perfect Storm. Very nasty.

As my bike is mainly used for fun I rarely get caught out in bad weather.

is that because you forgot her present?

[Finn]

is that because you forgot her present?

No. Just her birthday.

[SVrunner]

Badest weather just look outside as is continual wind & rain.
Scares most people at work that use cars. They are suprised that I still come to work on my bike. Maybe I should just stay home? Nah wheres the fun in that.
Worst weather is not the rain just the wind gusts that come & go.

[Karma]

Thought I'd managed to catch a break in the rain today on the way to work...

Wrong!

Got to Quay Street and bam... soaked...

Only another 8 hours of my shift left to go in soaked trousers and shoes