[TBear]

Yesterday while returning from a vacation driving east on I70 in the middle of Kansas in a pouring almost blinding rain storm that went on for over 50 miles I was passed by a wing and trailer. When I saw him coming in my mirror I thought now that takes guts in this rain and wind! I'll ride in rain but not that kind of storm and have no love for rain of any kind anyway when riding.
but now the best part, when he rode past me I looked over and sure enough he had a Forum Patch on his sleeve. I never caught up to him or saw where he stopped ,I sure would have had to say hi! One very determined rider. MY hats off to him

 

[unionjk]

Must have been riding on the 'Darkside'!

:dighole:

 

[jobe05]

I have found that in the rain, if I can maintain 60 to 65 MPH, I stay drier and water shed better / faster. The slower I go the wetter I get.

I do run Darkside so I do think that makes a difference in giving me the courage to do so. The only time I pull over is when there is a lot of traffic and traffic starts backing up, then I just pull over and let the traffic clear.

 

[bbeauchaine87408]

Living in the Northwest, you can't ride 7 months out of the year if you can't handle a little rain. The only problem I have never solved on the wing (mostly because I've never really tried) is the drip down from the windshield onto my crotch. Sort of a preview of my incontinent future.

A full face helmet, good rain gear, drop the windshield, and it's not that bad.

 

[matts156]

I've made trips from NJ to the Pittsburgh area and back a few times in moderate to heavy rain. In light to moderate, I don't even bother with my rain gear, I just need to cover my face. In heavy rain, my full face helmet and Wal-Mart rain suit do very well to keep me dry. Keeping the speed up is key, when you hit traffic, the rain hits you from head to foot. Rutted roads and lanes next to Jersey barriers are at the top of my Avoid list since the accumulated water is prime hydroplaning territory.

Sent from Motorcycle.com Free App

 

[Chromo]

"he had a Forum Patch on his sleeve"

Our forum? Hey I want a few of those for my stuff if we have them!

I've rode out some really nasty storms. If I got someplace to go and want or need to be there near a certain time I just keep on rolling.
I have a nice plastic rain suit that kept me almost totally dry for a couple years and now I have some Frog Togs also. Only got to use the Frogs once so far in a medium rain though.
"Almost totally Dry" means I need something for my feet and hands still.

Only 2 things that worries me about riding a Wing in a storm is the Antennas sticking up.
I have rode out storms where I really did not need a headlight, I could see great with just the lighting around me! I kinda wish those antennas were easy to remove and had a storage area for some storms, I'd stop and take them off LOL
The other thing that I worry about and watch for is crazy drivers! Some people just do not know when to park their cars and wait out a storm and try to drive through anything! :ROFL:
Really though, if people can't see the road or around their auto in a storm they need to just park it! Not try to drive 25-35mph on a 65mph HY going all over the road they can't see!
Though I don't let storms stop me much on the Wings, I do pull over at times in my cars and P/Us if it's a bad enough storm, always if I can't see the road!
At least with an auto your not just sitting in the rain, you got a roof!
With the Wing, well, if I can still ride fine and can see the road good why bother stopping just to sit out in the rain.

You never really know how far the storm will last either. Been a couple times I thought of stopping for a bit to eat and let it blow over, but I just kept riding since their was not a place I wanted to stop. Rode out of the storm in less than 10 miles.

Once I had rode into a storm, stopped for gas and talked to other bikers that were sitting it out at the station. I took off and rode out of it in a few miles. About 150 miles later I was taking a break eating and killing time a few hours when the bikers rode in and they said that storm just held over that little town and they were stuck there about 2 hours before it cleared enough to ride. If they had left when I did they would only have rode through about 20miles of hard rain and then hit good weather.
You just never know!

With some of the crazy weather and lack of any decent weather reports their is no telling about a storm how long you may have to sit it out or how far it stretches.
Here we were supposed to have heavy storms starting 6AM this morning and lasting about 3 days! This covers my entire 500 mile round trip ride I need to make, the whole area for the 3 days!
Well we got a little rain early last night, about 10pm to 4pm off and on, now 1PM today and still no storms and the weather is GREAT!
I really wish I had made that trip today.
It was not the storm forecast that stopped me though!
The trip was to look at a P/U truck I want to buy about 200 miles away, I could not get hold of the owner to be sure he'd be there today and he had taken down the CL listing for it also. So I was just unsure if the truck was there for me to buy or not.
Got him today, he took down the listing because of all the crazy junk mails he was getting. So tomorrow I RIDE storms or not!
The whole trip is 2 lane back roads, so if bad storms I'll have to watch close for crazy drivers and lots of DEER! Otherwise I am not worried about it. Since weather forecast was for the storms all the way, I actually expect most the trip to be bright and SUNNY though. :ROFL:

 

[clayusmcret]

When we crossed Louisiana last month, it rained so hard I didn't get to see that humongously long bridge...as we rode across. All I could do was focus on the tail lights in front of me. And that was on two Stones.

Confidence - that feeling you have before you fully understand the situation.

 

[Chromo]

Yep.
My day today!

Started raining at 4:20am, I left the house at 4:30am!
It was not really the rain that bothered me this morning. My glasses and visor kept fogging over bad and I could not see the road much. Black crappy road all wet in dark of night in storm with fogged vision. NOT GOOD!
Not but 2 places decent to pull over and clear off the fog for about 40 miles that time of morning.
I could only run about 45-50mph safely due to bad vision, if I could have seen better I'd have done about 60mph with that rain.

So should have been daylight about 6AM, I had stopped for a bit to eat and drip dry the outer shell and clean visor and glasses really well. At 7AM it was still pretty dark out but rain stopped, I headed over across the street and gassed up. Looking at the black sky ahead West in the direction I was planning to go I was wondering when the sky broke loose again and down it came.
Looking back to South I could see brighter sky and clouds.
Hmm, dark of Night West, and overcast day South.
I decided to take the southern route! No good, I got hammered with the rain about 30miles of the 35miles, kinda daylight I could see better but still a fogging problem.
I stopped for a bit to clean glasses and visor well again and drip dry the outer shell and get coffee.
Storm was coming in from direction I was heading, and talking to a couple people in cars that drove through it it sounded like a good storm too.
Sat an watched the rain about an hour off and on, then rode home.

Trip was only to look at a truck I plan to buy 200 miles away, it can wait till tomorrow which is supposed to have better weather anyway.

I'd have just gone today if not for the other problems. Just a rain storm would not have stopped me.
Bad vision, wet feet with heavy steel toed boots even, frog tog pants tore in crotch so wet pants already, did not sleep well last night, etc.... not a good start for a 400-500 mile round trip! Would have been a long day and probably not home before dark in this weather and all through deer country on 2 lane, and they like to run and play in the rain often.
I did get in about 100 mile wet ride today though so not a total loss. LOL
The lighting was pretty, but not allot of it.

All ready 11am here and rather dark out still, but the rain stopped as I got home.
Go figure!