Worst Weather You've Rode Through?

[Jcates888]

Just curious if anyone has any good stories. I've rode through some extremely heavy downpours, and even caught in a hail storm once. There was a tornado watch today, and I was thinking how scary and awesome of a story it would be to have to out run a tornado on a motorcycle! Of course I hope that doesn't actually happen to anyone, but it would be pretty cool after the fact.

[Ronny]

High winds and snow riding across a frozen rutted track on even more packed and frozen snow, then after an hour or so into torrential rain. Such fun!

[Slofuze]

Riding in fog has always been a PITA. Around here we're always cautious about known deer areas. I was riding the Cape Breton Highlands, Nova Scotia last summer....They don't have these signs up there for nothing...... huge mofos!

[zuma]

I was riding to a Midland gig 70 miles from home and came within ten miles of the city when I saw the skyline enveloped in red dirt which was moving my way. I stopped, called the venue, and was told their patio was shut down for the night due to 100+ mph winds which were heading toward me.

I spun around, headed for Odessa, got there before of the wall of dirt did, and I rode carefully through stop lights in order to get to Interstate 20. Once on I-20, I found it empty and took that ZZR1200 up to 100+ mph speeds to stay in front of the wall of dirt all the way to Monahans, and then had to cut back in the direction of it to get to Wink.

I had been abreast of it initially out of Odessa, but gained enough space on I-20 to be able to get across to Wink before the dust storm did. I got home, brought Chris out on the front porch, and we watched it roll up as long as we could, then ran inside with all the doors and windows firmly fastened. It was the worst weather situation I ever found myself in.

[Stumpy]

Personally - for me it would have to be Aberdeen to Edinburgh in a howling gale all 100 miles. Was heading down on a Friday night for a weekend party.

Even when turning right, I swear the bike was still leaning left with the wind Got absolutely drenched and even leaving my gear in my friends airing cupboard, it was still soggy on Sunday afternoon

Great party though

[rexazz2]

I was involved in a huge group ride, about 1500 bikes
As we started the poker run it started spitting rain
My group all put on our rain suits
As we neared the first stop it rained pretty hard
I used my bike to block a dead vintage Triumph that sputtered out in traffic , Bandit hazard light function came in use
The rock a billy rider looked like he was about to fall over from kicking the pig
As we were going to push it to the curb he gave it one last kick and it sputtered and coughed back to life
BTW the lights on vintage Triumphs suck to say the least
I caught back up to my group and got my poker run stamp

The planned route had us heading north looping back around to the south
The sky in the north was black as night
My gut said stray from the pre planned route and head the opposite direction however our group leader turned and headed right into it
Not 5 minutes down the road we drove into what seemed like a hurricane
I actually had water coming inside my helmet with the visor and vents completely closed
Water was ponding everywhere and even at 50km/hr the water was hitting my feet and trying to push them off the pegs
Winds had taken down tree branches
At first chance to redirect I called it quits and headed back home

I drove straight into the garage and started stripping down
I actually poured water out of my boots
My rain suit helped but was still wet to the knees

Ironically the next stop was a bike apparel shop , they sold out of rain suits that day

[Wild-Bill]

...Ironically the next stop was a bike apparel shop , they sold out of rain suits that day

What's the point of a rain suit after you're already wet?!


For me it's a toss-up. I did Houston to Wichita Falls (usually about 10 hours) in 34 degree rain and heavy winds back in '89 on a GS-450. That one had me stopping about every 45 minutes for coffee and warmth and bumming some plastic bags to waterproof my boots. It took a lot more than 10 hours!

The other max-pucker-factor ride was only about 12 miles in Maine on that same GS-450. The weather warmed up pretty well that day so I took the bike into town to see a girl. By the time I left to go home it had started snowing (visibility dropped to around ten feet in some spots around there) and the roads had started icing up. About halfway there my throttle cable broke so I ended up going the rest of the way pulling on a key ring I'd wrapped the end of the cable around and trying to keep it upright on the ice. The saving grace was that I had to go so slowly that the white-out conditions weren't really much of a problem!

[GSXFJim]

115 deg day in the Cali central valley. I picked the wrong day to ride from SoCal to NorCal. Massive dehydration, I was consuming water and Gatorade at every stop I saw. Took me 3 days to recover.

[Nero]

I rode into a sudden hailstorm in Oklahoma and the hail stones were golfball-sized. They hurt like hell until I got under an overpass. I had bruises all over my upper body the next day.

[jmd32477]

Mine was when a I left for work. Went outside nothing 1/2 mile up the street it started raining buckets with the wind blowing straight at my visor. Nearly hit a deer carcass that was in the middle of my lane. That had my butt puckerd!

[ahernandez74]

I had to ride home 5 miles from my girlfriends house... After light snow. It wasn't too much fun for me. White knuckles ride for sure..

[KevinGambrell]

Riding back from Stonehenge to gatwick in Sussex on the 22nd December when I was in my 20's. It started snowing as I set out and kept snowing all the way to Guildford. It didnt seem as cold when the snow was coming down but it got bloody cold for the last 30 miles.
I swore blind after that I would never ride in snow again and I havnt.
I was wearing an old set of Belstaff wax cotton trousers and a coat plus a rather dodgy open face helmet. My boots were army surplus and as cold as a witches tit!
The bike was a BSA A10 with Avon tyres.

[zuma]

What's the point of a rain suit after you're already wet?!




About halfway there my throttle cable broke so I ended up going the rest of the way pulling on a key ring I'd wrapped the end of the cable around and trying to keep it upright on the ice. The saving grace was that I had to go so slowly that the white-out conditions weren't really much of a problem!

(Rex...)



Key ring! That's killer!

[Wild-Bill]

It worked.

[mammut89]

maybe not the worst weather but definately the worst situation was on this road :
@

with fairly worn out and cupped tires , fog like stephen king fog. not much more than your front fender visibility, good bit of rain and it was after roughly 4-500 km of riding. it took a fair bit of concentration ( of which I did not have much left ).

arrived at the bottom below the fog layer:



this has to be a good second place , track day was canceled to put it that way and the ride back home was not fun.