Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge "playin in the rain".. a quiz

It's been pretty bad here the past two days, but I had to get to work this morning. I'm sitting on my back porch, drinking my coffee, watching it pour down rain. I'm watching the radar, news etc.... seeing if there's any chance for a "clearing".... Wind gusts are strong, severe lightning, possibility of hail and probably some flooding.

..then I had my first true "childhood revelation"..(or at least sober one anyway..)

When I was 10 yrs. old, riding bicycles in the pouring rain was "fun"... we used to ride through puddles, mud and openly defied the wind to even try to knock us around. "Obstacles" were just things you jumped over, "wrecking" was no big deal, but still sucked. You "lived" for really close lightning strikes and the ensuing thunder!!! A piece of cardboard was shelter, and impervious to "anything"....


So...as the warm coffee slowly dismisses the end of last night's Heinekin "assault". I realize my next course of action!!... I'm staring at the rain, glance over to the scoot and then back at the rain...

At age 40, and hopefully 30 yrs "wiser"....

THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU GET TO CHOOSE!!!

I'll tell you what I did, but first what would you have done??

Fwiw... how "grown up" are you?

smsdad





btw, bike remained "upright" all day...

Post deleted by Grump

Oh, come on Jeff! Who are you tryin' to kid???

I'm watching The Weather Channel at this very minute, and those smiling faces on my TV are tellin' me that the skies above "Close Enough" have been clear for the last 48 hours, with nary a cloud hovering overhead....and the forecast is the same for the next 36!!!

Cheers, and welcome to the site,
Dwight
(Okay...call me a wimp....or maybe "mature"....but I'd have taken the cage)

Get the waterproofs on and ride of course...!

But then I don't have a car and walking.....is nearly a bad a swear word to me as morning...

Would have had one of those big SE grins while thinking those thoughts riding down the road!

They run so much better in the rain!

OK OK OK, I will be honest and own up. I would have taken the car.

There, i've said it. Years ago i would have taken the bike with no question. But that was when i was young and stupid. Now im old and not quite as stupid (though the wife might disagree with that) and I like the dry, air conditioned or heated luxery of comfy heated seats and suround sound stereos. Played at 11.

My bike does not leave the house in the rain. She may return home in the rain, but not the other way round.

OH, and PS. Not that i am insinuating that if you ride in the rain you are stupid. Braver than me maybe, and possibly a little stupid

The words "It's not so bad now" are different depending if you're standing in an open garage door, or peering out the steamy window of a roadside diner


JH

I ride. But yesterday afternoon in RAINY NW Alabama, I woke up late for my 12 hour night shift and asked my bride if she needed her car. I took the car, because putting on my rain gear and mink oiling my boots would have made me late for work. There, I'm a wimp - you made me say it. Selling my truck last month is a different story.

It's not to bad to ride in the rain. You can always change cloths at work or the other way around. It's just the bike cleanup that is a bear. The Speedy and America have so many nooks and crannies to get the hardened mud out.

Dave

I rarely ride to work in the rain simply because I don't like getting to work wet and I don't like rainsuits. I ride home in the rain pretty regularly and it's a lot of fun.

So in the case you mentioned I would of taken the cage.

i'm not crazy about riding in the rain. if it happens it happens. however; running in the rain is one of my favorite things in life. just came back in from a 5 miler and i'm feelin' soooo fine .

When the bike goes from recreational vehicle to commuter you have a different view. I didn't ride to the Falls last month because that was recreational. I'm more likely to (and sometimes forced to) take it out in the rain as a matter of utility (my work clothes stay at work too).

How different the world is in the rain. Textures, colors, scents, all is different. Like dawn or dusk. I rode Vera in the rain just last Friday. I say rain, but is was a dry rain. For the first time in many moons, the fog was heavy. So heavy that the droplets condensed on Vera and rolled off onto her tank, dripping off her skirt onto her engine covers. Dry enough that my legs stayed dry well sortof, and mystic enough to recall that scene from the Twilight Zone (fog at the edge of town). Two wheels. Ahh. Peddle or throttle, don't we just love two wheels!

Mostly depends on the temps...
Rode Los Vegas 2 weeks ago... had rain and wind and cold...
Lots of all three...I dont' mind rain if it's not too cold, I dont' mind the cold if it's kinda sunny, but I'm beginning to hate wind!
Besides that, I got a flat front tire, and wore the rear flat...
I'm really strting to hate superslabs...
Ok, yeah... I winped out and flew back to Ohio from Texas.. weather forecast was rain or maybe clear but COLD!
Also need to change the rear tire and and fix my taillights.... seems there's a short somewhere...
that was a good enuf reason for me...<LOL
Mary

Last Wednesday we had real bad weather in our part of the UK. Very heavy rain and thunderstorms. The rain was really bad, lots of roads closed due to flooding.

I had to take my son 80 miles to a Ducati dealer in Aylesbury to pick up his new 999. I would have taken him on the BA but I had to carry the documents back and I didn't have any panniers - I would have LOVED to ride in the rain, but was forced to use the car this time !!

As it was his first ride since he was knocked off his Gixer totalling the machine and breaking his collar bone on November 11 last year, he was a bit apprehensive about the ride back.

I gave him a 5 minute start and followed on. The rain was frightening, I was sure he must have pulled onto a service area. I kept going at 70 - 80 mph where I could but was down to 40 in places. The spray off the trucks was blinding.

When I pulled up outside the house, there was no sign of him. I was a bit worried, but not having seen any incidents on the way back asumed he'd stopped for a coffee.

No chance - when I got in, he'd already put the bike away, dried it off and had a shower !!

Lord knows what speeds he must have been doing. It was a good job we'd spotted the speed camera van at Hopwood on the way down as they were still there when we came back.

So - he now calls me the wet weather wuss ! - he didn't say that when he was sitting in the warm dry pasenger seat on the way down !

Rain sucks! I don't like the rain, and that's a big reason why I moved here. But then I was living in Delaware at the time where they get 50 inches of rain a year. And you can have green. I like the various shades of brown of the desert.

People down here don't know how to drive when it rains, so it makes it much more dangerous. Especially if it hasn't rained in a month or more and the roads get slick from the ooozing asphalt combined with the rain that makes eveything slick as snot. The cagers just keep on going the same speed as a dry day, and tailgate as usual.

Quote:

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People down here don't know how to drive when it rains, so it makes it much more dangerous.

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Amen to that. Morons around here are clueless in the rain. It never fails, first rain after a few weeks of no rain and there are accidents all over the place. Driving a car is scarey.

Hell, they cant drive cars around here in the dry. Throw some water in the mix and it is a friggen nightmare.

Think the rain is bad? You should see how people in Texas drive in snow flurrys! I've lived here all my life and I get the hell off the road when it's slick and let the bubba's play bumber cars.

oops, I sorta forgot to tell ya'll I'm in Houston...and my cage is parked at work, so not an option. It was either stay home for the day, or ride the Dyna 50 miles to work.

Anyway, I put on my "walrus suit" and headed out into the world. Rain, really strong wind gusts, lightning...a few downed tree limbs to negotiate!

No cagers, no trucks...borderline nobody out on the roads.

I haven't had that much fun in a long time!
..it was kinda like I got to be 10yrs old again, if only for a little while. Bikes filthy, but it was well worth it!

Passed on the riding through the flooded parts, a beat up old enduro would've been great for that, but I don't have one anymore.

Just Fwiw!!!

smsdad