What was the worst weather you've been in.

[Justin726]

Just curious, while out on the road, what is the worst weather you have run into or rode through?

I've run in the rain plenty of times before. I just suit up and keep going. Only one time I stopped because it was raining so hard the tire ruts in the road were filling with water and I was worried about getting into those ruts and hydroplaning. So I stopped more because of road hazzard than the weather.

The worst weather I ran into was this past August while with 2 of my Harley buddies at the Sturgis rally. We had been out riding most of the day. We were heading back to the campground and approaching Rapid City. The clouds had been building and quickly turning a dark, eire color. Pretty soon I could see lightning, and not too long after that I could hear the thunder because the lightning was getting nearer and nearer.

We were getting pretty close to town when I noticed a few large rain drops. The large rain drops continued for only about 1/2 a mile before the rain drops turned to hail. At that moment I wasn't too worried. I had been hailed on before and I was fairly well protected with my helmet, jacket, and gloves. My Harley buddies (and thier wives) were however wearing the standard Harley gear which pretty much consisted of jeans, sleeveless shirt, sunscreen, and not much more.

We only went through about 1/2 mile of fairly light, but pea to marble sized hail before we came to an overpass. We quickly stopped under the overpass. The paved shoulder was only 4-5 feet wide with a guardrail just off the pavement, so we barely fit the 3 bikes single file under the overpass. But at that point, we weren't too worried about the bikes.

We had no sooner put our kickstands down and the hail started coming down harder....the rain started coming down in buckets....and the wind picked up quite drastically. All 5 of us bailed off the bikes, jumped the guardrail and headed towards the large support pillars that held up the overpass. The wind was whipping the rain/hail under the overpass, so we did the best we could to all get some protection from the concrete support beams. After just a minute or two of the terrible wind, we were all looking up the at the concrete slope that lead to the protection of the overpass beams and wondering if we could make it up the slope in case we though a tornado was coming.

We huddled behind those pillars for at least 5 minutes before the hail finally stopped. The rain was still coming down in buckets, but by that time we were all soaked anyway. We each took turns getting back to our bikes and riding though the downpour to the hotel with a large awning that was less than 2 blocks away. Another 15 minutes later the rain finally started to let up. There was hail covering the ground.....the streets were flooded with rainwater runoff.....and we were all wet and cold. One of the gals ended up with 2 bruises on her back from getting hit with hail before we got to the underpass.

We should have probably pulled off earlier when the lightning was getting close, but we thought we could make it into town. This was by far not my brightest moment on a bike. Hopefully I've learned my lession.

[firefighter81]

I normally only ride on nice days, so I haven't been through anything crazy like hail or snow or anything.

My worst riding experience related to the weather was 50knot cross winds. That was fun, I would try to lean the bike against the wind and kept getting pushed back up and running wide.

[likebikes]

Man, hail, that's crazy.

Bad rain is the worst thing I was caught in. When I left home it didn't look like rain. It started looking bad so I headed home. I was about 3 miles from home and the sky just opened up. There were no little sprinkles, it just went full on rain.

In the 3 mile ride home I got soaked completely. I mean every piece of clothing and even every thing in my wallet was soaked.

My leather took a few days to dry out. That sucked.

[06_ZZR_600]

Ride to St Louis (about 2 hours) in one of the worst downpours I have ever seen. I was too stubborn to stay at home, had no rain gear then, because the Streetfighters in St Louis were having their Holloween ride, and that alone was worth the trip. This year, I have all kinds of wet weather gear.

[mojo1094]

I've been caught in rain a few times without my rain gear. Once it was during a track day at Gateway International Racepark.

The worst was after I bought my 954. I left for Chicago from Peoria on my GSXR 750. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive, I knew the storm was coming, but it was a slanted front (it was going to hit northern IL before middle) and I figured I had till about 5 before the storm hit. Well, taking a wrong turn and hitting a traffic snafu I got to my destination at 3pm. The bike looked fantastic (and it was). I rode it down the street, thought it was the best feeling bike ever, and promptly returned and bought it, decided to leave the 750 where it was (at a car dealership ... checked with the manager and it was fine) and then headed for home. I underestimated the speed of the storm. It was 4 and starting to rain.

The sky was black and it was summer. A massive wall cloud was moving over the south of the city, right where I was headed, but I figured I would just ride the leading edge of the storm the whole way. What did I forget about?

4 pm. weekday. Chicago.

The traffic was horrible. I was driving through the south west side where all the trucks like to go. Gridlocked traffic, I had a t shirt, helmet, jeans, boots and gloves. I felt the first rain drop and said "fuckit" and started splitting cars and riding on the shoulder. I told myself I was going to do this to the first exit and then take side streets to the south end. Yeah right.

Traffic was jammed up on the streets too, but at least it was moving. A truck stopped next to me and the driver was laughing. He rolled his window down and told me "you better get movin! Me and my convoy are pullin' off and waiting for this weather to pass!"

Great.

I start moving south again, making good time. It's comin' down hard now, and the sky is looking worse. Green, which isn't a color the sky should be. I hit highway now, and keep going south. Traffic is much better on the highway, but the clouds are now moving fast, low, and there is rotation.

This is where I start to get worried, pull off the road, and wait under an overpass.

There never was a touchdown of a tornado, but I tell you what ... that's as close to riding in a tornado I ever want to get.




I also left a friends house about 15 miles from home one night in what I thought was rain (no big deal) but turned out to be sleet (big deal). I had a decision to make ... go fast or slow. There was no real traffic, so I had my options. I opted for slow ... the sleet didn't hurt so much when I went slower (30), it was just COLD! This lasted till about the last mile, and I just couldn't take it. I went faster (50) and ended up with cuts all over my arms.

One other time there was snow, but it was melting and the roads were clear. So I decided to ride my bike home from the dealership (it was the day I bought my 750 gixxer). I got lot's of looks. It could have been the cold, the snow, or the CAST ON MY RIGHT ARM.

Since that first year of riding ... I'm much smarter now.

[Buellbomb]

When I lived in IL, I took a ride to CA and back, '81 it was. It wasn't the worst storm, but we pulled off in Hastings for the night, Justin.

[bush]

It's a tossup for me.

Two years ago I tried to outrun a pretty thick snow on my way back from Ithaca. I had to stop for gas in Mansfield and it caught up with me. I didn't have to spend much time riding in it though, because I was going down in elevation and it eventually turned to rain. But the 20 minutes or so I spent wiping flakes from my visor was pretty cool.

Last summer I was on my way to work and started getting a few drops on the visor. No big deal, I have no problem riding in the rain. But less than a minute later I ran into a wall of water and couldn't see a hundred feet in front of me. Wind was blowing so much and the rain was coming down so hard that I finally pulled off at an overpass and tried to shelter myself, which really didn't work out with the wind blowing as hard as it was. I was soaked head to toe, it came on way too quick for me to pull over and put on my raingear.

Got into work and found out a tornado had touched down about 3 miles away right around the time I pulled off the road. So now I tell people I rode through a tornado... kind of.

[TRaGiK]

While on tour, the worst I've gotten in is some thunderstorms, which lasted for hours on end.

Doing the daily grind, I've ridden during snow, and freezing rain.

[g®eg™]

it snowed when we went over Stelvio in '04

they wouldn't let us up in '01, chains only

[texBahn]

Marble sized-hail. Ouch!

Grabbed these pics on the way home from work with my cell phone!

I had to hang out at a gas station for at least 20 minutes. A five minute ride later, I got home and the streets were completely dry!

[F&D]

November, in New Hampshire, riding over Franconia Notch in the snow, with my carbs icing up.

[busarider54]

My worst weather riding happened about two years ago. I was in OK heading south into Texas for a Pie Run. I must have rode thru 4 or 5 thunderstorms. Buckets of water. I was drenched, cold, and having the time of my life. I could not believe how much more confidence I had on my strom in the rain versus my busa or tiller.

[1quick1]

Mine was when I was, of course, trying to push putting my bike away for the season as far as possible. I work third shift and came out to ice covering my bike and about 28 degrees. Way too cold for my likeing.

Another time I was on a Harley poker run and we got caught in a pretty strong storm out in the country. Hail, lightning, pooring rain to the point I couldn't see out of my helmet. We actually had to pull over under an overpass.

[Hotwheels]

1992 coming over Raton Pass NM. Hail and lightning not to be believed. I hooked up with a guy on Ducati 750 near Amarillo and we powered through it. Head down at 20 mph.

[F4sSprintST]

Well, I used to ride my 1979 CB650 all year in the snow, in Michigan