Best worst weather bike?

[MarkH]

An oxymoron is a name or set of words where the words contradict each other.

Like:
Military Intelligence
Deafening silence
Honest lawyer
Microsoft Works
Pretty ugly
Christian scientists
Alone together
Silent scream
Virtual reality
Same difference
Good grief
etc

[Slyer]

Deafening silence...

[shafty]

Like:
Military Intelligence
Deafening silence
Honest lawyer
Microsoft Works
Pretty ugly
Christian scientists
Alone together
Silent scream
Virtual reality
Same difference
Good grief
etc

ONE beer...

[klingon]

forget the bike but check the tyres.... there are some posts on the forum which outlines what tyres are crap or good in the wet...

make sure your tyres are in good condition

I absolutely agree with this. I had inadvertently let my tyre pressure get a bit low a couple of weeks ago and suddenly realised for the first time how vital the correct tyre pressure is for wet-weather handling. As a relative newbie I had heard people talking about it and read it in all the books - but it's only when you know your bike well that you suddenly go "OH! That's what they're talking about!"

So...
Check your tread depth
Check the general condition of your tyres
Check that the pressure is right

Then you can feel quite confident on a wet road.

[klingon]

As for the best bike for "worst" weather, it depends on what you mean by "worst." Do you mean wind, rain or cold?

Rain:
The tyres and your wet weather gear will probably have more influence than the bike.
However my partner rides a scooter and gets remarkable rain-protection from the front bits that protect your legs (what are they called? )

Wind:
Get a Volty!
Or if you can't afford a Volty, get another naked bike that has spoked wheels and a good, solid, stable hold on the ground.
Also make sure you can put your feet down when you stop.

Cold:
Again, good gear is the vital ingredient.
A faired bike will stop the wind blasting straight into your head/chest, as will a bike with a screen at the correct height for you.
After that you're down to all those gadgets like electric this and heated that. In which case you might as well install a radio and a cup holder and call it a car.

(Said by someone who has never ridden south of Hamilton...)

[MarkH]

ONE beer...

nah - they are not opposites. One beer is all you drink - as in drink one beer, then drink one beer, then drink one beer . . .

Just remember - there are two reasons to stop drinking beer:
1. Run out of beer (poor planning)
or
2. Lose consciousness

[MarkH]

(Said by someone who has never ridden south of Hamilton...)

You should really do something about that. I only ride a scooter and I have ridden from Auckland to Christchurch in one day. You should take a week off and go to a motorcycle rally in the South Island. I went to the Magpie Madness rally last year (Winchester, near Timaru) and am thinking about going again this year. The weather was great until the last leg of my return trip, gale force wind and driving rain - I didn't find it all that bad riding in it though. The worst part was riding up a steep hill with a VERY strong headwind - talk about dropping my top speed down!

[Dealer]

you just have to work out the speed of falling water, and then ride around at that speed and you wont get wet, honest.

[pritch]

You don't need a pin lock visor, AGV, Shark, HJC, and possibly others come with fog free visors now.

Fairings keep the rain off, but can be a liability in strong wind.

What you've got now is probably better than most. Just don't try to save money on tyres and look after whatever tyres you've got.

And stay off the shiny bits of road...

[Weta]

Busa, solid well planted behaves nicely as long as youre not too twitchy w the throttle. Re gear I found out that my boots/gloves were waterproof for about an hour on way to Kennedy Bay, Coro on Xmas Eve in absolute pissing down rain. Which was OK except that the trip took 3 hours, you do get cold real quick when youre wet on a bike, and then you begin to think slower and thats bad....