Extreme weather!

[Questor]

I had to ride in a snowstorm when I was bringing my Super Enduro home from Colorado in late October.




Q~

[Kommando]

Originally Posted by Thanantos

Now, I know no one in the ADVRider community would be put off by a little rain

What sort of gnarly adventurers would we be?


However, what about thunderstorms? Tornadoes? Hurricanes? Or other (as my local news channel puts it) EXTREME WEATHER!


Where do you draw the line and end the ride?

Or what kind of crazy weather have you said "F*&$ it!" tucked in and ridden through?


P.S. Anyone ever been hit by lightning while riding?

Yes, riders get killed by lightning almost every year. I try not to ride in lightning. I try not to ride on icy roads either, but it won't stop me from riding offroad. I just don't trust cagers on ice. I can dress for cold, rain, or heat.

[randyo]

Originally Posted by randyo

its official now, my V-strom has cancer, new wire harness minimum, + several sensors and ECU

Originally Posted by Thanantos

Ouch, sorry to hear.

Any way to prevent that in the future?

I thought I had it protected, before winter every year, I pulled all the electrical connections apart, clean them, applied fresh dielectric grease, even if I get a brand new harness, I'm gonna split it, re-wrap with 3M 33+, prolly use ACF50 or similar product, maybe fabricate some enclosures, dunno, my goal would be to make it roadworthy for a winter trip to Deadhorse, AK, I also need to beef up the electrical output, prolly an external independent alternator, delete the stock exaust for a 2 into 1 save 40 lbs to help make up for additional weight it might gain with extra protection for electrics and more electrics

[ttpete]

Originally Posted by randyo

I thought I had it protected, before winter every year, I pulled all the electrical connections apart, clean them, applied fresh dielectric grease, even if I get a brand new harness, I'm gonna split it, re-wrap with 3M 33+, prolly use ACF50 or similar product, maybe fabricate some enclosures, dunno, my goal would be to make it roadworthy for a winter trip to Deadhorse, AK, I also need to beef up the electrical output, prolly an external independent alternator, delete the stock exaust for a 2 into 1 save 40 lbs to help make up for additional weight it might gain with extra protection for electrics and more electrics

Don't use 33+ to tape a harness. It won't work as well as the original stuff. Use the proper adhesiveless harness tape made for the job. It's very stretchy and will conform and seal well if it's wrapped with sufficient tension. Tape it twice, once each direction and anchor it with cloth tape at the ends. Think about replacing non sealed connectors with Weatherpack or AMP ones where possible. I did this for a living at one time.

[randyo]

Originally Posted by ttpete

Don't use 33+ to tape a harness. It won't work as well as the original stuff. Use the proper adhesiveless harness tape made for the job. It's very stretchy and will conform and seal well if it's wrapped with sufficient tension. Tape it twice, once each direction and anchor it with cloth tape at the ends. Think about replacing non sealed connectors with Weatherpack or AMP ones where possible. I did this for a living at one time.

original Suzuki wrap doesn't even come close to doing the job

[Thanantos]

I have to admit thunderstorms scare me. I'll ride through them, but the pucker factor is high.

I guess I need to toughen up. All these pics/stories of guys riding through snowstorms has me thinking why is my pussy ass giving up two to three months of riding every year (I did ride every month this year, but only a few days in between snows in December, January and February).

I need to break down and either buy a Ural or get some studded tires.

[eric2]

Don't have many issues with snow down in mexico but riding in the middle of treeless flat fields during a raging thunderstorm was a thrill I didn't need.

[More_Miles]

I was out for a couple hours in early stages of hurricane Earl when it buzzed NB a couple years back.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_At...Hurricane_Earl

I was in Moncton NB and the bike was the only transport I had. I had some stuff I wanted to get done, and plan was to be back before it hit in earnest. Frankly, I've been in thunder storms and nor'easters that were more intense than the edge of a category 1 hurricane.

Probably not the smartest thing I ever did, but now I can honestly shrug my shoulders and say "I've ridden in a hurricane, what's the big deal?" By the way, my girlfriend and her co-workers all agree, I'm nuts!

[moparren]

I got caught in this dust storm a few days ago http://azstarnet.com/news/local/eb02...a4bcf887a.html

"Winds in Tucson were blowing between 45-50 mph earlier today, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts higher than 50 mph were reported during the storm, which has moved off to the north."

Visability was about 1/4 mile, leaned over about 10 degrees jsut to keep a straight line, felt like my tires were made out of grease.

[bush pilot]

I been in big monsoons where it was like riding underwater. Floods with water nearly to top of my front tire, heavy winds and thunder showers in OK and the Texas panhandle. Heavy wind along the Colombia river.

The worst by far was the wind I recently encountered down in Argentine Patagonia near Esquel. The wind brutally turbulent, so strong I couldn't stop because it would have knocked me over. Had to proceed in first gear nearly scraping the foot pegs banking the bike left and right. Big semi trucks were sidelined. Finally I had to take shelter in some trees by a bridge embankment, and wait till morning, as it was really too much. It was literaly painful to hang on to the bike. It was really pretty scary, I was saying "fock this shit" over and over again. Brutal is my only way to describe it. I dont ever want to see that shit again. Yaouch!

[Mambo Dave]

I ride 40 miles to work. These days in the dark, and always on a major highway.

The most extreme weather I've ridden through were the feeder-bands for Hurricane Rina. That was in October of 2011. Rina did not hit Florida as a hurricane, but its feeder bands went over south Florida which meant a deluge of rains and lightning.

It was about as bad as it could get on the highway with most cages pulling over and stopping (if they dared to try to stop and possibly get hit since no-one could see other cars' turn-signals or running lights - imagine a white-out, but due to rain either night or day). Thankfully, as I've written in the past, my cruiser has a 21" front tire, so it cuts right through both standing water and, that evening (or evenings? might have been two nights there) streams of flowing water crossing the highway.

Way back when I was a kid and just as dumb, I lived up north and decided to ride the MX100 in some very, very cold weather (I didn't check the temps for that day). I ended up with frost bite on both hands from the mid-way point up through all fingers, and still have the nerve and capillary damage 25 years later. I moved south for a few reasons - and my hands in cold weather, now, were one of those reasons.

[mb90535im]

Had a near miss lightning strike up on the Cumberland Plateau in TN a couple of years ago. Fellow riders said it hit the side of the road just a few yards behind me. Another rider with us on a V-Strom and I both felt it in our hands and arms. I'd prefer not to ride in a thunderstorm now.

[randyo]

On time on vacation in North Carolina, I was returning from a day ride in Tennesee, riding back to the vacation house south on Rt 129 at dusk, as I was riding along Chilhowee Lake, the skies suddenly became dark much faster than dusk was coming , just as I rode over the Tabcat Bridge, the sky opened up with more water than I have ever seen come out of the sky, the wind kicked, barely could see where I was going, dark, wet, debris scattered everywhere, still I managed to make the 11 miles thru the Dragon in 20 minutes

[Mambo Dave]

I posted this in another thread (the bike-specific DR650 thread), but it's worth mentioning here... I was dumb and lucky. More dumb though.

I left for the ~120 mile highway-trip home at 1:30 Thursday (May 16, 2012) morning. This was on I-95, and I-95 through a lot of south Florida is a raised highway compared to the flat land around it - so there is no protection from any weather event. Sure there were heavy rains, wind and lightning all around... but then I passed under a highway info sign that read "TORNADO WARNING"... and that's when the trouble started. Now that I'm home, I pulled up the radar from up there and can only guess I rode through one of the big red spots that are now out over the ocean. That specific cell area had very cold temperatures, severe rain, severe gusts, and more lightning than I've ever seen in one small area ...

That lightning was not 'all around' me... it was more like I was in it, or it was directly over me (cloud-to-cloud I guess... I couldn't see past the guardrails of the highway).

It was something like 79 degrees north of the cell, frigid in it, then 80 degrees south of the cell. I was so cold (having been rained on the whole ride, but especially there... I only had on protective mesh gear) that I was ready to give the ride up and just find some place to lay low, but that wasn't an option on this long stretch of highway.

...

Of course I wasn't near an exit, so I had to push on... albeit suddenly leaned almost sideways at times. The one truck that hit the cell tat the same time as I was being pushed almost an entire lane over, multiple times, as the driver wrestled it back. For some reason I feared it tipping over on me more than it being pushed into my lane as I passed it, but at this point the southbound lanes had three lanes - so there was some separation. The frequency of the gusts, for as strong as they were, was as incredible as anything.

[shelion]

Originally Posted by Thanantos

I have to admit thunderstorms scare me. I'll ride through them, but the pucker factor is high.

I guess I need to toughen up. All these pics/stories of guys riding through snowstorms has me thinking why is my pussy ass giving up two to three months of riding every year (I did ride every month this year, but only a few days in between snows in December, January and February).

I need to break down and either buy a Ural or get some studded tires.

+1

Rain doesn't bother me and I'll leave on the bike unless it's really coming down hard. Ice and snow, forget about it. Here in Maryland, the bad drivers get infinitely worse when you add snow into the mix. They won't keep their dumb asses at home though, nope they have to clog the roads with their non-driving in snow skills so I try to stay off the roads period.

I've only pulled over due to weather once when riding. Me and the hubby were heading home after a trip to Pittsburgh and it was raining so hard that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you. We were on the freeway at the time and traffic was slowing to a crawl. I had been bitten on the face by a dog the day before and spent 8 hours getting stitches in the local emergency room. Since I was riding 2.5 hours home, I was on aspirin and nothing else for my throbbing face. So when traffic slowed to 10-15 mph because of shit visibility, we ducked under the next overpass to wait it out.

After we got home, my husband ran to the store to grab food for dinner and while he was in the store, a tornado blew through and assaulted his truck with a shopping cart corral. So in the same trip, I got bit by a dog, we rode in a thunderstorm, and a tornado blew through our neighborhood. Needless to say, I haven't been back to Pittsburgh since!