your worst/crappiest ride ever

[roma258]

Just added to my personal pantheon of miserable rides. Got back from my honeymoon a couple days ago, and part of the honeymoon was renting a bike in San Fran, riding up to Mendociono via PCH, then visiting Yosemite and coming back to San Fran. Checked the forecast before leaving, sunny and relatively mild the whole way through. Decided not to pack waterproof gear, since luggage space was already limited with a two-week honeymoon. Got the bike (VStrom- perfect for this kind of trip), rode up to Mendocino, played around on local roads (absolutely brilliant) hiked through some redwoods, etc.

Getting ready to leave for Yosemite, checked the forecast for Yosemite on my smartphone and see a big exclamation mark on the location. Oh, oh. Turns out a cold front was moving in for the Memorial day weekend. Temps in the 50s in Yosemite valley, 70 percent chance of rain on the day we'd get there. Same deal, but 30 percent chance rain on the day we'd be riding back to San Fran. Oh well, what can you do. Got there, weather was brilliant, calm and mild.


The next day started nice, but got progressively worse and by night time it was cold and raining. Wake up next day, rain seems to have passed, the roads are damp and the air is cool....but not too bad. By the time we grabbed breakfast, it's drizzling again. Wait it out, or make a go of it...decided to get the hell out of dodge. As soon as we're geared up and ready to go it's raining for real. Crap. I'm wearing jeans and cold weather gloves (not waterproof). The jacket and boots are waterproof. Same thing with the wife. As we start making our way out of the park, the rain keeps getting worse and as the elevation increases it gets progressively colder. It's a solid 30 miles of winding mountain roads to get out of the park from Yosemite valley. At some point it starts snowing. By the time we make it to the ranger station at the eastern entrance to to the park. I've pretty much lost feeling in the fingers, there is a pool of ice cold water in my crotch area and I'm not sure how much further I could've kept riding. The wife was somewhat shielded and seems to be ok....or she's just a total trooper, either way, she doesn't want to kill me. We change our jeans in the welcome center and I try to dry out the gloves as best as possible. Watered down hot chocolate at the gas station 5 miles down the road has never tasted so good.

Maybe not my worst overall ride ever, but probably the most miserable and stressful 45 minutes of my riding life.

[atomicalex]

I'm a n00b, so I haven't had the variation in experiences (211Chuck, I really feel for you ), but I did have one ride that was pretty hairy.

I commute home from the south end of Düsseldorf (Holthausen) to the north side (Kaiserswerth). Normally, I take the tunnel through town or the A3, but this day, I decided that it would be a good idea to try a new route. Yikes. Middle of January, temps around 2°C, and light rain forecast. Turn the heated grips on and don't worry. sure...

What would have been a normal 25km rush hour ride was a total nailbiter due to rain and wind like I had never seen it here. Add in that it was pitch black out due to the season and most of the route was a construction zone with lots of lane changes and no where to pull over for a bit. So - rider with three months experience, nearly freezing, big gusty wind, pouring rain, foggy glasses/visor (no pinlock yet, ordered one that night), pitch black, rush hour traffic, road work, cattle chutes, tons of tar on road covering old markings, and a balky F650 to top it off.

It took me about 75 minutes to go what would normally have taken about 30 minutes, and I was so cold and miserable and worn out from trying not to get blown over/not ride into a barrier/figure out where I was that I when I sat down to take off my gear (which held - base level Gericke Sheltex, no less! - I was dry under it) I almost passed out in my boots. I pretty much swore off anything under 3°C for a while after that, at least if it was raining. That lasted about a month. I was better prepared for it the next time, the pinlock thingy made a big difference.

[Uncle Pollo]

Worst ride was coming to New Mexico.

My head was not there.

[IRideASlowBike]

I've never had a bad ride no matter how bad the weather was. Even the snowstorm during which SUVs were skidding out and pulling over on I-95 and when I nearly got frostbite in my hands from my gloves soaking through was cool in a fucked up way.

The only truly bad rides I can think of is sitting in NYC rush hour traffic for hours in the middle of the summer on an overheating bike.

[martinnyc]

Originally Posted by IRideASlowBike

sitting in NYC rush hour traffic for hours in the middle of the summer on an overheating bike.

...this is when I hop on the shoulder and get ready to pay the lane splitting fee, if the cops in the area can even get to me.

worst ride for me: a few years go, i had gone out to visit my friends father, about 50 miles away. Nice summer night, coming home and the bike is loving the summer air, and running great. Less than a mile from home, i'm seriously contemplating just staying on the highway, because it's just the perfect night for a ride, but something in the back of my head tells me to call it a night. I hit the signal, and go to take my exit, when i feel the handlebars start to wiggle back and fourth bad...next thing i hear is a bang, and see sparks everywhere. As it turns out, in 1981 harley-davidson decided to experiment with their triple trees, particularly by making the main stem bolt hollow. Mine decided to shear itself off, dropping the front of my frame on to the ground. Turned from one of the best rides i was having to having to hoof it home, get the cage and trailer, and dragg the bike home.

[IRideASlowBike]

Originally Posted by martinnyc

...this is when I hop on the shoulder and get ready to pay the lane splitting fee, if the cops in the area can even get to me.

I lane split but it's still miserable.

[stefer]

Originally Posted by sargev55

for me it was in 2004. i had a 1999 honda rebel 250, and i was running from chapell hill, nc, to charlotte, nc, after working all day on Thanksgiving. that ride was 187 miles door to door. i finished work around 9pm and left for charlotte on my Rebel, it was 38f and i had my cold weather but not WATERPROOF gear with me. it was not supposed to rain, and i was about as comfortable as you can be on a honda rebel cruising with the throttle locked at full and going 75-80mph in 38 degree weather.

and then,

im about 90 miles short of charlotte NC, and one of the header pipe clamp/retainer things falls off on my right exhaust, its around 10:45pm, and i pull off at a rest stop, its exit 106 just on the outskirts of greensboro. not thinking i grab the pipe with my winter gauntlet style heavy gloves to try to wedge it somehow to the block with no clamp and managed to not really burn myself but it damn near blistered me through the glove.......and then it started to rain.

at that point i was like, 'fuck it, its only 80 or 90 more miles. so onwards i went, but not after stopping at a 24hr mcdonalds at the next exit and sloshing to the counter soaking wet, i ate a big mac, they complained i soaked an entire section, and then i rolled onwards.

so then, onwards i go, the right side exhaust is loud as hell, you can see bursts of blue flame from the right header exhaust port almost constantly, people in cars are looking at me funny as i pass them. not much later, it has started to rain seriously hard now, im soaked completely, and at this point i am lying flat on the tank with my feet on the passenger pegs going around 85mph balls out. windchill at that speed was brutal considering nothing i had was stopping the rain, so i was basically in 38 degree water travelling at 80-85mph. my body temp is going out the shitter. i was losing sensation in my hands and legs, so i starting alternating holding as much of my hand and forearm as i could on the engine block, i also starting tensing all muscles really hard VERY frequently, at this point i was scared i would go hypothermic while on the bike.

i wasn't all that wrong about getting hypothermic, i knew i was cold as all hell, but as i got closer to my destination my ability to shift, clutch, or brake front or rear was getting shitty to the point where i had to palm the clutch lever or heel the rear brake. i made it home, and had the final scare, i was coasting down the driveway and i was about to drop the kickstand except my left leg didnt really respond that well. i had a couple of very slow speed balancing WTF seconds until my left leg finally kicked that stand down and i stumbled off the bike. as i dropped my arms a huge amount of water poured out, my shoes where full of water to the brim and it was hard to move. for fun i took my temp when i got inside, 91.4f.

that was my worst ride,

on an upside, i dont really think normal winters are cold at all, cause its way the fuck warmer than that experience.

Been there, but not that bad.

In my boating licensing process, they said to avoid hypothermia if you fall into cold water, keep your clothing on. What happens is that the water between your clothing and body warms up toward your body temperature. If you take your clothes off, then you are constantly exposed to cold water. Based on this the water was probably warmer than the atmospheric temperature, but definitely not comfortable.

[Jacl-Kampuchea]

Excluding the accident that laid me up for a year:

I was 17 in 2001 and had taken a bus to a town not far from the border of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland to buy a 2 stroke Suzuki RGR80.

It was about 250 miles home and I bought the bike at 5pm on a cold, wet Irish winter's evening. I waited until 11pm to give the rain a chance to stop as I was only wearing a pair of trainers, jeans and a t-shirt. I borrowed a crappy old construction jacket from the seller and set out.

It was maybe 8c out and as I drove south the rain just got heavier and heavier and I lost feeling in all my extremities. After a few hours I pulled into a petrol station and, being close to 6'2, stretched backward as I coasted to a stop to give my back a rest. The strap of my bag caught the rear sprocket and just as I stopped I was yanked fully back on the bike by the strap. Lucky escape.

I carried on and by the time I reached my house I was so cold and wet that I was unable to get off the bike for ten minutes. I sat in a scalding hot shower for 30 minutes until I stopped shivering. I'll never forget that ride.

[Pantah]

#1: 2006 Alcan 5000. Sleeting off and on for three days. Tried to make Hatcher Pass, but had to turn around after bikes started going down. To make it worse, my 2004 KTM950 was having carb icing.

Had to make Anchorage from Palmer for the end of the rally. 60kt cross winds all the way down the neck to Anchorage. Amazing nobody was hurt. Also, my heated jacket liner failed. Or rather, the circuit failed.

Second worst: Spring 2010 riding the same 950 to Arizona. Leaving Nashville, the town started flooding. Violent storms rolled over me wave after wave after wave while plugging my way west on I-40. Huge gusting quartering headwinds all the way to El Paso. Rain and wind for 2000 miles. The worst ride that never seemed to end.

[Rufjeep]

Mine was on a WR250R. I read all those reports about guys riding those bikes all over the place, and I thought, "Well hell, that sounds great".

It wasn't. In fact, it sucked.

If I ever get the chance to ride to Alaska, it's going to be on something with a quiet exhaust, plenty of balls, and some wind protection. You boys can have that mini-adventure bike shit.

[GP640]

From Grande Prairie to Red Deer 5 years ago.

We were moving to Red Deer on the August long weekend. We loaded my in-laws' 28foot goose neck
stock trailer with all our stuff and headed out at 10a.m.
The truck didn't make it 50km before tossing its water pump. My wife (with our truck) called parts places
and found a pump. The only saving grace of boomtown oilpatchville is 24/7 callout for auto parts.
My father in law and I replaced the pump in a "danger close" thunder storm and got back on the road.

Serious rain started at Fox Creek and darkness coupled with temperature drop followed soon after.
By the time I made Whitecourt, I had a message on my phone saying we were set to stay with some
relative near Mayerthorpe. I waited for the trucks to catch up and follwed them down 8 miles of mud that
resembled a road.

Ktm 640 adventures have crap for lights and when it is raining and darker than the inside of a cow, you
might as well be riding by braille.

[Pantah]

Originally Posted by sargev55

for me it was in 2004. i had a 1999 honda rebel 250, and i was running from chapell hill, nc, to charlotte, nc, after working all day on Thanksgiving. that ride was 187 miles door to door. i finished work around 9pm and left for charlotte on my Rebel, it was 38f and i had my cold weather but not WATERPROOF gear with me. it was not supposed to rain, and i was about as comfortable as you can be on a honda rebel cruising with the throttle locked at full and going 75-80mph in 38 degree weather.

and then,

im about 90 miles short of charlotte NC, and one of the header pipe clamp/retainer things falls off on my right exhaust, its around 10:45pm, and i pull off at a rest stop, its exit 106 just on the outskirts of greensboro. not thinking i grab the pipe with my winter gauntlet style heavy gloves to try to wedge it somehow to the block with no clamp and managed to not really burn myself but it damn near blistered me through the glove.......and then it started to rain.

at that point i was like, 'fuck it, its only 80 or 90 more miles. so onwards i went, but not after stopping at a 24hr mcdonalds at the next exit and sloshing to the counter soaking wet, i ate a big mac, they complained i soaked an entire section, and then i rolled onwards.

so then, onwards i go, the right side exhaust is loud as hell, you can see bursts of blue flame from the right header exhaust port almost constantly, people in cars are looking at me funny as i pass them. not much later, it has started to rain seriously hard now, im soaked completely, and at this point i am lying flat on the tank with my feet on the passenger pegs going around 85mph balls out. windchill at that speed was brutal considering nothing i had was stopping the rain, so i was basically in 38 degree water travelling at 80-85mph. my body temp is going out the shitter. i was losing sensation in my hands and legs, so i starting alternating holding as much of my hand and forearm as i could on the engine block, i also starting tensing all muscles really hard VERY frequently, at this point i was scared i would go hypothermic while on the bike.

i wasn't all that wrong about getting hypothermic, i knew i was cold as all hell, but as i got closer to my destination my ability to shift, clutch, or brake front or rear was getting shitty to the point where i had to palm the clutch lever or heel the rear brake. i made it home, and had the final scare, i was coasting down the driveway and i was about to drop the kickstand except my left leg didnt really respond that well. i had a couple of very slow speed balancing WTF seconds until my left leg finally kicked that stand down and i stumbled off the bike. as i dropped my arms a huge amount of water poured out, my shoes where full of water to the brim and it was hard to move. for fun i took my temp when i got inside, 91.4f.

that was my worst ride,

on an upside, i dont really think normal winters are cold at all, cause its way the fuck warmer than that experience.

Yours is tops. The very worst ride ever! Brought on by a need to get there, and complicated by a total failure to understand what you were attempting...

I am sure many of us have shared parts of your ordeal. We relate to the darkest side of it. But jeez!

You lived the whole thing out!

I'll remember this post the next time I get a little chilled because I was caught out. Particularly about the leg

[Rick G]

I have never had a crappy ride only parts of a great ride that turned to crap. I think #1 would be on my way home from Glacier National a couple of years ago and my buddies vetoed my suggestion that we steer clear of Chicago. Result was the absolute worst traffic jam I have ever had the displeasure of riding or rather sitting in. It has been the only time in 77,000 miles that my oilhead GS overheated. BTW temps were in the low 90's with high humidity.

Not fun at all in any way shape or form.

Rick G