Your Funniest Bike/Rain experience

This one is not about me riding in inclement weather but rather a poor unfortunately soul on an old Yamaha RD350 in front of me. Austin, Texas had experienced one of those once in a decade freak snow storms that caught everyone completely by surprise. Fortunately, I was in my cage that day and tried to get home after everyone was let go from the shop. (4 hours to get home on a normal 20-min commute).

For a section of the drive I found myself following this guy on his RD. Of course, the roads were a solid sheet of ice by now and he would drive about 100 ft and fall over. He'd pick it up (kinda funny to watch) and try again. Go another 100 ft and fall over. After 3 or 4 of these events he turned into an apartment complex and gave up. Frozen, bruised, frustrated. Poor guy.
 
Just remembered...this wasn't a rain issue but has to do with frozen water. Last year was a freak winter. We had ice of some sort on the ground for about two weeks. When the sun finally came out, I took my bike out and went to check on a job in Ft Worth. All went well and as I was headed back home I took a route back through Ft Worth proper. I was on I 20 blasting along and droppend into a canyon where the interstate went under Hulen St., the bike started skating from left to right. There was a stretch of black ice under the shade of the over pass. Fortunately I didn't freak but I had absolutely no control running appx 65mph for about 100ft! Talk about a put bucker!
 
Well done staying on.. black ice , no thanks !!
 

Was he wearing a yellow one piece raincoat? (Laugh-In)
 
A few years ago returning from bike week in Laconia we had a 12 hr numb butt run to get home as we all had to work the following day. about two hours into the ride it started to bucket down and we stopped, put on rainsuits and carried on. We elected to stay on the hwy because of the rain and this route took us North towards Montreal, not as scenic as the route through Vermont and N.Y. but quicker in the rain. We were going through the mountains at a reasonable pace when we made our first wet gas stop. One of our gang was in his pickup with his girlfriend and when he caught up with us he said weren't you guys worried about the speed in the rain because he noticed he was hydroplaning in some corners trying to keep up!! oops we slowed a bit after that but the bikes were pretty steady. 6hours of steady rain,even with good rainsuits had boots full underwear soaked and getting pretty miserable. Much better later in the afternoon when it finally stopped and we could change into nice dry (thanks to waterproof Givi bags) though previously worn clothes for the last four hours. Nah it wasn't funny though I never hesitate to ride even if rain is forecaste. I used to ride my bike year round as a lad in the East End of London
 
From my next book, here's an unfinished excerpt from the chapter: Run Away From The Wall

The other day I was disremembering (my version of reminisce) my return trip from Washington DC after the festivities of Run For the Wall of 2009. In the jaundiced rear view of time (and pain killers) I vaguely recall some of the “interesting” moments of that 4-day ride.
We left Washington on Monday following the Memorial Day weekend. My brother Pat and I had spent the weekend seeing the sites of DC, eating and drinking too much. We actually spent quite a bit of time at the Smithsonian (mostly because I thought it was a Ben Stiller movie set) where culture sort of oozes into you whether you want it to or not. The only stop we made that was at all expensive (more than two bucks) was the Spy Museum located off the National Mall. I thought it was a MAD Magazine tribute site (Spy vs. Spy) only to be disappointed with the reality it was about stealing secrets (government and industrial). Being disappointed meant I didn’t want to pay to go in, but Pat chimed in a paid the freight for our tour. It was interesting if you like long tours that make little sense, otherwise I was underwhelmed.
I should note that during our migration across the nation to get to DC we had enjoyed beautiful spring weather with crisp mornings and warm afternoons filled with sunshine. The daily temperatures had been in the 80’s from the day we left Kansas to when we arrived in DC. There was no hint of inclemency to our weather during the entire herding migration and was (I found out) a rare gift from above because usually there is rain somewhere along the ride getting to DC. Pat, Monty (my co-worker on the journey) and I had in fact packed our wet weather gear in anticipation of wet riding during our trip. But all that gear stayed neatly stowed until Monday.
Monday arrived with temperatures in the high 50’s with rain coming down like a cow urinating on a flat rock. Water was flowing in the city streets one inch deep and going no place in particular. The ride from our hotel to Monty’s hotel provided us the opportunity to use our wet weather gear and test the buoyancy of motorcycles at speed. I have a car tire on the back of my Rocket III and it was throwing a rooster-tail of water about thirty feet. I looked like a drag boat going down Fairfax Drive to the Holiday Inn. When we got there Monty and Faye (his wife) whom we were traveling with were still packing and so we spent some time drying out and getting some breakfast. We hoped that with the slight delay the weather would lighten up a little. It did but in the opposite direction, as in thunder and lightening. Well we were on a schedule (we all work for a living) so we couldn’t hold off in leaving; besides it couldn’t last that long, right? Wrong. We spent three days in torrential downpours followed by a few deluges only to be doused again when it stopped for a few miles.
 
When I first got the Rocket the I was polishing it nearly every day it looked spectacular after a few months we decided to ride about 800 ks North of Perth to Monkey Mia on a weeks holiday, got all the packs, tank and rear rack + s/bags all kitted and ready to go we set off at about 8am planing to stop North of Geraldton in a cabin on a caravan site.

Saori hadn't had any bike riding pill experience, I had told her imagine you are a Balarina, just relax, where I go you go.. worked well. We got about 1 hour into the trip and the sky was Black, so I pulled over and got into the new wet gear..

It was funny Saori looked like the Michelin Man, being Japanese and about 5 feet tall the smallest wet gear was 2 sizes too big. We got going and the sky burst my shiney bike was wet and so were we and our crap glove soaked water like a sponge, this went on for the remaining 5 hours all the way to the caravan park and my bike was gruby ..

We signed in and they pointed out directions to the cabin. we followed the bitumin road that suddenly turn to roadbase and it was full of large pools and sloppy mud after traveling slowly to the cabin, no cover for the bike and I put the side stand out and it just sunk into the Mud.
I couldn't get off the bike, so I had Saori searching around in the rain for something to go under the side stand, finally we got in the cabin freezing cold and wet and no heating or shower inside, the shop was closed so no hot food either.

My shiney bike was covered in orange mud I couldn't see the water pump or the rego plate.. this crap was everywhere and it continued to Rain all night. The following day was fine and it got warmer as we got to Monkey Mia.. I was devostated my beautiful bike looked like we had ridden in an off road rally and there was water restrictions so I couldn't clean it, I remember people passing the bike without even the usual second look or stopping for admiration..

The holiday was great white beach sunshine and moon lit night wine cruises in the bay, when we left we rode the 800ks Numb Bummed straight through to Perth on my very dirty Triumph Rocket 3 Trail Bike

A little TLC and it was back to Shiney again
 
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Funny .. i often put off washing my bike when it's filthy after a trip. Guess it is a reminder of the adventure ... adventures a bit thin on the ground these days .
 
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