(18-12-17, 10:12 AM)YamFazFan link Wrote: Having said that I admire anyone that does ride all weather. I couldn't face it now.
I don't admire people who ride in all weather. Maybe they have to because it's the only transport they have - fair enough. Or maybe the commute would just take too long in a car when there's a lot of traffic. Ok. But admiration? Why? I've ridden in the wet as much as anyone over the years, and maybe you do learn from it. But it was never something I particularly enjoyed doing, even when I was younger. I used to commute each weekend from London to nr. Wolverhampton, and I remember hating being freezing cold, having kit that just couldn't cope with heavy rain on the motorway, hands so numb with cold I got the hot aches when I finally started to warm them after getting to my destination. I used to put off leaving home till the last possible minute, and would have given anything to have a car to do it in. I was in my late teens at the time too.
(18-12-17, 12:17 PM)YamFazFan link Wrote: Respect then maybe?
It's harsh and foccin dangerous on a dark night when it's absolutely chucking it down.
I'll certainly agree with that one.
The amount of people that just cross a road in front of me wearing dark clothing on the way home from work at night when it's raining is just phenomenal.
They can't comprehend that every drop of rain on your visor is being illuminated by oncoming headlights, or worse still brake lights that make each drop red in colour.
Then you get potholes that can appear out of nowhere that weren't there the day before.
I changed my route into work the last few weeks because they've totally messed up my normal route with some weird reconstruction of the road and pavements which has caused major traffic problems now, and on the new route there's a sunken drain cover in the middle of the road which keeps catching me out almost every day. I know it's there, and I use it as a warning to miss the next one about 200 metres ahead, but I somehow still keep hitting it, and that's in daylight.
If I see any bad potholes I just report them myself now, as everyone will moan about them but do sod all about them.
More people are born because of alcohol than will ever die from it.
18-12-17, 01:29 PM (This post was last modified: 18-12-17, 01:33 PM by tommyardin.)
[size=1em]Like has been said in the post that riding in winter is not good, but like a lot of bikers in here I have done it as it was my only form of transport from age 17 up until 46. [/size]
[size=1em]I have had to ride in all weathers and getting to the building site soaked through before the days work has started, fingers so cold that its hard to uncurl them from the bars, and with the snotty water that is streaming from you nose and eyes freezing on your face, scarf full of frozen shot and breath, bloody open face space helmets [/size]
[size=1em](The full face made it a bit better when they came along)[/size]
[size=1em]I remember my old BSA Rocket it had a small split in the stitching on the seat and water used to get into the foam and when you sat on it the water squeezed out and made your arse wet even before starting out on the foccing thing, and it was no better when the weather was freezing either it was like sitting on a plank of wood that eventually made your arse wet as it slowly melted and squeezed out of the split. [/size]
[size=1em]Oh! the good old days.[/size]
[size=1em]Good old days my arse[/size]
[size=1em]Good old days my wet arse. [/size] :rolleyes :'(
I'm a retired brickie remember it well, had forgot how s**t it was being wet and frozen most of the day in winter. Just switched the heating up to help put that flash back out of my mind. So I'll stick to riding in the good weather and leave the bad weather to the poor soles that have to, or those that get some strange perverse pleasure from it.
(18-12-17, 01:46 PM)steve 10562cc link Wrote: I'm a retired brickie remember it well, had forgot how s**t it was being wet and frozen most of the day in winter. Just switched the heating up to help put that flash back out of my mind. So I'll stick to riding in the good weather and leave the bad weather to the poor soles that have to, or those that get some strange perverse pleasure from it.
Riding in it is just part and parcel of living in this country, it rains a lot so i just deal with it.
The main thing is wearing the right gear to stay warm and dry.
Once you feel ANY water anywhere on your body then that’s when it really becomes a major issue.
I’ll never forget riding back from the coast to London years ago on a job for work, i don’t think i had heated grips then, my jacket was leaking and i could feel water coming through my boots and gloves, then i hit traffic near Heathrow because of an accident and i literally felt like giving up and finding the nearest train station, i was so cold.
Not pleasant at all.
More people are born because of alcohol than will ever die from it.
(18-12-17, 02:17 PM)darrsi link Wrote: Riding in it is just part and parcel of living in this country, it rains a lot so i just deal with it.
The main thing is wearing the right gear to stay warm and dry.
Once you feel ANY water anywhere on your body then that’s when it really becomes a major issue.
I’ll never forget riding back from the coast to London years ago on a job for work, i don’t think i had heated grips then, my jacket was leaking and i could feel water coming through my boots and gloves, then i hit traffic near Heathrow because of an accident and i literally felt like giving up and finding the nearest train station, i was so cold.
Not pleasant at all.
Been there done that. When I was a learner I remember coming back from Fishguard in the rain with less than waterproof boots and gloves. When I accelerated the water sloshed to my heels and to my toes when I braked. I was so cold that when I stopped for a drink at a layby I had to warm my hands under the hot tap in the bogs before I could buy a cup of tea.
I remember back in the ' couldn't give a flying foc' days of my youth, riding back from a rally in Liverpool to Manchester in the pouring rain wearing a leather jacket with denim cut off, leather laced up the side trousers and doc martens.
Soaked to the bone by the time I got home but back in those days for ' one reason or another' it didn't bother me.
It's funny how things change, back in those days I used to drink a lot of bourbon (bottle/week) but would only drink Rebel Yell. I don't drink these days as a rule but swmbo thought it would be nice to get me a bottle for old times sake for Christmas. I opened it on Friday when I got home and the smell nearly knocked me flat. Swmbo ended up drinking it, one capful diluted through the evening in 1.5 litres of coke, and this from someone who drinks Japanese whiskey neat.
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Never bothered me too much riding to to work and back in the rain, but it was only 7 miles each way. I always swore by the (relatively) cheap outdoor waterproof gear to keep me dry, rather than the overpriced designer label top end stuff. I think theres something to be learned from wet riding, forward planning/anticipation/focus wise
I have ridden to Donnington many times in the rain and back, watching moto gp, 100miles, I didn't mind it,, be careful.. 150 miles to Harrogate a few times, wet is ok , cold is a no no. Now heated grips rule...
On longtrips , I start careful then k relax and can really get a move on as you learn the safe level
An ageing test pilot for home grown widgets that may fail at anytime.
18-12-17, 11:49 PM (This post was last modified: 18-12-17, 11:50 PM by celticdog.)
Riding in the rain is a pain in the ar5e but you just put up with it. It's all those little coloured rainbows I worry about and I'm not talking about gay pride flags.
Treat everything in life the way a dog would- if you can't eat it or foc it, forget it.
Rain is not fun, fog at night is bad.....but hailstones!!!
Now we're talking.
That really is a challenge.
What idiot sits down in hailstones? They pummel your legs, rattle your crash helmet and feels like you're on a marble assault course designed to put you down.
Not funny at all.
More people are born because of alcohol than will ever die from it.
It's funny when thinking back to my early days on a bike, passed test in 66. On a 175 BSA Bantam I bought brand new that year £129-19/11d. Bought it on finance, at the time I was an apprentice brickie earning just under 7 quid a week, bike tax and insurance, 2 stroke oil and petrol, bike repayment, and £1-10/- to my mum for keep, It left nothing for waterproofs or a crash helmet so I rode my first few years without either.
Wasn't law then to wear a bucket. My first bike was in 1964 again a BSA Bantam 175cc a 1959 model
19-12-17, 01:04 AM (This post was last modified: 19-12-17, 01:05 AM by tommyardin.)
(18-12-17, 11:49 PM)celticdog link Wrote: Riding in the rain is a pain in the ar5e but you just put up with it. It's all those little coloured rainbows I worry about and I'm not talking about gay pride flags.
Damn that picture of fuel all over a wet road make me shiver, I recall coming off a Cotton Conquest back in about 1968 because of a road surface just like that, and thinking about it I can almost smell the diesel on my clothes after being dragged up the road with my leg trapped under the bike. 5 hours in Guildford hospital while they patched up my ankle and cleaned road rash off my hip, knee and elbow. Foc the thought of it the smell of fuel and the stinging is as if it was yesterday. Thankfully I had a space crash helmet by then it was a Bell Helmet, no you dirty minded lot that is something completely different. :eek
(19-12-17, 12:52 AM)tommyardin link Wrote: [size=1em]It's funny when thinking back to my early days on a bike, passed test in 66. On a 175 BSA Bantam I bought brand new that year £129-19/11d. Bought it on finance, at the time I was an apprentice brickie earning just under 7 quid a week, bike tax and insurance, 2 stroke oil and petrol, bike repayment, and £1-10/- to my mum for keep, It left nothing for waterproofs or a crash helmet so I rode my first few years without either. [/size]
[size=1em]Wasn't law then to wear a bucket. [/size] [size=1em]My first bike was in 1964 again a BSA Bantam 175cc a 1959 model[/size]
My brother passed his bike test on his 17th birthday in 1980 and had already bought a Honda CBX1000 which was sitting at home waiting for him, then had a Kawasaki Z1300 when he was 18.
Both beasts of bikes, especially for a kid!
More people are born because of alcohol than will ever die from it.
