Does anyone ride their F8 in the snow?

[Hucker]

Originally Posted by Loutre

All these bikes are yummy! nice pics!

How many drops? :o)

Yeah, we were well represented...Super Ten, 12GS, 990, and the 8GS. The other three were all running TKC80s front and rear. They are all much better riders than me, so drive much faster. Two went down, once each. The 990 (also a conservative driver) made it unscathed as did I. I was sporting K60s with almost 10,000 miles on them. The front was okay, but the center strip on the rear SUCKED! If I had momentum, I was fine. Otherwise I would get stuck on flat ground. Not a good snow tire in its current worn out state. But, a fresh rear would have been excellent.

[Ceri JC]

Originally Posted by grndzr0

http://www.wunderlichamerica.com/mot...S/9002197.html



Been contemplating getting them, and then I realize that I have a 4x4 and an AWD car, and I own my own business so I cant afford to mis much work, lol...

But then I think it would be totally BA, so....

Decisions decisions.....

Ryan

I have a set of those for my F8. They were a special order item from Wunderlich, took about 4 weeks to arrive in the UK. You can use them with the stock mudguard, despite what their CYA may say.

My findings:

• Better on ice and hard packed snow than knobblies, but not a patch on spiked tyres.
• Worse than knobblies in thin, fresh, loose snow.
• Fit them to sports touring tyres, rather than knobblies (or the chains will just work their way between the knobs and be next to useless). I haven't tried them with something like a K60, but they might work well.
• Fitting them is such a ball ache, even with a centrestand and front jack, that you'll often be tempted not to fit them as "it's only 300 yards to the main road and that's clear, I'll just take it easy". This is a bad idea. There is little more frustrating than being pinned under a bike thinking, "if only I hadn't been lazy and had fitted the chains..."

My verdict: The best "get you home" measure you can carry on a bike equipped with road tyres.

These days, I run Mitas E-10s or TKCs, so these just sit in my garage unused. Any UK FFs (or folks from overseas prepared to pay whatever shipping actually costs on what is quite a heavy item) wanting to buy mine can send me a PM with serious offers, although I'm in no rush to sell them.

Caution; if you are cutting off 'spare' links off the end, make sure you only do so after fitting them on a new tyre and even then, leave one more link than you need (in case you ever want to go with different tyres). If you size them on worn tyres, you'll end up with them being too small to fit new tyres. Ask me how I know.


As an aside, they fit perfectly (along with the tensioning springs) in the touratech bash plate toolbox. It's a great place to carry them; low down, unlike tools it doesn't matter if they get wet there, etc. Chains "settle in transit" like cereal; if at first they seem to big to0 fit in, put the larger of the two in and then ride the bike half a mile, then stick the other in, it will then fit.

[Loutre]

Originally Posted by Ceri JC

I have a set of those for my F8. They were a special order item from Wunderlich, took about 4 weeks to arrive in the UK. You can use them with the stock mudguard, despite what their CYA may say.

My findings:

• Better on ice and hard packed snow than knobblies, but not a patch on spiked tyres.
• Worse than knobblies in thin, fresh, loose snow.
• Fit them to sports touring tyres, rather than knobblies (or the chains will just work their way between the knobs and be next to useless). I haven't tried them with something like a K60, but they might work well.
• Fitting them is such a ball ache, even with a centrestand and front jack, that you'll often be tempted not to fit them as "it's only 300 yards to the main road and that's clear, I'll just take it easy". This is a bad idea. There is little more frustrating than being pinned under a bike thinking, "if only I hadn't been lazy and had fitted the chains..."

My verdict: The best "get you home" measure you can carry on a bike equipped with road tyres.

These days, I run Mitas E-10s or TKCs, so these just sit in my garage unused. Any UK FFs (or folks from overseas prepared to pay whatever shipping actually costs on what is quite a heavy item) wanting to buy mine can send me a PM with serious offers, although I'm in no rush to sell them.

Caution; if you are cutting off 'spare' links off the end, make sure you only do so after fitting them on a new tyre and even then, leave one more link than you need (in case you ever want to go with different tyres). If you size them on worn tyres, you'll end up with them being too small to fit new tyres. Ask me how I know.


As an aside, they fit perfectly (along with the tensioning springs) in the touratech bash plate toolbox. It's a great place to carry them; low down, unlike tools it doesn't matter if they get wet there, etc. Chains "settle in transit" like cereal; if at first they seem to big to0 fit in, put the larger of the two in and then ride the bike half a mile, then stick the other in, it will then fit.

That's one good comment that I'll keep somewhere in my "good to know" file. I might even make you an offer after buying my rear mudguard from a fellow inmate

[Mongo357]

This shot needs to go in the HDR thread - great work!!

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=789878

Originally Posted by Avner

[costas68gr]

check this!!!

http://vimeo.com/18122897

[toowheels]

Originally Posted by costas68gr

check this!!!

http://vimeo.com/18122897

Yes exactly! That's "W" the flying Finn. That's the video I've been been trying to remember.

He's got the best snow pics/vid I've seen on the F8! These are his from the pics thread:









Studded Trelleborgs and all.

Dave

[biodieselandon]

That is so awesome. The Fins are crazy! In a good way of course.

[picard]

Originally Posted by runnin4melife

I hate the sand and gravel in it.... Jeez just use nacl and be done with it!

Salt (and even MgCl2, which goes a bit lower than NaCl) work until around 15 degrees F and that's it. Below that sand is the only option. That's why they don't use salt in the mountains around here.
It also kills trees. Not only fasteners, bearings, aluminum surfaces, whathaveyou.

I ride my bicycle to work everyday. fresh snow is fine, but the heavily compacted stuff in our neighborhood streets (which they don't plow at all) is nasty. Studded tires would be the only way I would try that on a motorbike. Soft snow on trails and roads is nice and offers surprising traction, until it gets too deep.

[WarLlama]

Originally Posted by toowheels

[markas]

Hard, but can do. Its very tiring but its quiet an enjoyable experience. In this video we both had TKC80 knobbies.

[Johnson0311]

Snow is a yes. But ice....