What is the worst weather conditions you guys have ridden in

[bscrive]

When I was 18, I got caught in a snow storm in October.  The day started out pretty nice, about 15C.  About an hour later the temp dropped 10 degrees and a blizzard struck.  It happened real quick and since I was near the city where my brother lived, I decided to drive there.  By the time I got to his house there was about 8 inches of snow on the road and I almost dumped it a half dozen times.  Looking back, I should have stopped and called someone but being young, stupid and stubborn I was determined to drive there.
Another time, I got caught in a severe storm almost got blown off a bridge, the bike was literally lifted off the road from the wind and moved over about a foot.

[Roy]

Arizona Weather. 

1983 . . .   Lake Powell on the Utah border.  Hail stones 2 inches long and about 3/4 inch long, like small blades!  Denting gas tank.

1993 . . .  Dust storm West of Phoenix, visibility near zero, eating and breathing thick dust.

[Pete]

2 full days of riding in the frog strangling rain, lighting, hail, fog and wind from sea level to 8,000 feet.
1300+ miles of pure hell. Would never do it again. Saw every weather condition except snow.

It rained so hard I could not see the lines in the road. At night it rained so hard that I sometimes just had to stop, because I could not see the road at all, and wait til it eased up to continue.

Crossing over the Rockies in a lighting storm is a memory not to be forgotten, it seemed the lighting was ground level.

Was coming from Vancouver back to southeast Tennessee so I could be at work on time.  i ran out of the front in Wyoming and then out ran it to the southeast, Wyoming to Tennessee dry as a bone.

[alph]

flew back from arizona from visiting my father before he died.  flight was an hour late taking off due to sever storms in MSP.  circled minneapolis for another hour to get clarence to land, by this time it was 8pm, there was about an inch of snow on the grass, but it had warmed up to 43 degrees.  rode two hours home in a constant rain/sleet mix, thankfully i had my frogtogs on, but didn't have very good gloves.  was planning on stopping 1/2 hour before i got home to warm up my hands, but decided to tough it out.  it was 40 and rain when i got home at 11pm.  when i pulled into the garage and i got off that cycle, my hands were frozen stiff and had i stopped earlier, i know it would have been near impossible to get back on!!

[sugerbear]

about 5 yrs ago, coming home from work.
missed a tornado by about a mile. no where to hide. turned the bike into the wind(I/S), and held on.
luckily it turned away from me. lasted about 2-3 min.
had to go home and change underwear!
just a little sand blasting of the windshield.

[Valker]

Several...but one that sticks out is the 18" of snow in NM back in 1975. Snow (it was dry and wasn't very slick on the roads) hit me about mid shin with feet on the pegs. Two hours of that and my feet were frostbitten. They haven't sweat since (which means they no longer stink either) which means it wasn't all bad.

[Pete]

Left Daytona Bike Week a few years ago with a buddy to ride up the Atlantic sea coast.
Great weather the first 2 days. We were in North Carolina spending the night. The next morning there was 6 inches of snow on the ground, but the roads were just wet. It was 33 degrees and snowing.

The mountains were between us and home and closed due to ice and snow.

We had to turn toward Atlanta for open roads.

We road all day in 33 degrees with rain and snow, no windshields or fairings.

Had to stop every 50 miles and huddle someones heater to keep riding.
Halfway home we completely changes clothes to get dry.

The last 80 miles we did not stop, when we got home my buddy got off his bike and went to his knees, he could not stand up.

We were both cold and wet, but recovered.

[Brovietnam]

When I got back from Vietnam and I was riding a Triumph, I rode the winter with  the temperature down to -20 F and the roads were always a sheet of ice.  In Wyoming we always has a pretty good wind chill also.  I don't do that anymore.   I still ride but not that extreme.

[Alzacs]

June 1st 2011, (just passed) ... riding home from Fort Dix.  Got into Massachusetts just as the tornados decided to show up.  I was able to get of the road and hunker down safely.  But that 6 miles to the off ramp was a scary as the movies show it to be.

[RoadKill]

I think the F-0 tornado on I70 headin home from whiskey run has to be the worst for me....that left a bruise !

[Daniel Meyer]

Trying to decide between the snow, ice, or hail.

Rain can't even make the top 10... 

[Fudd]

In the early '80's I rode a Yamaha at night on a 5 hr. trip back to college.  The temp was in the teens.  Although I dressed as warmly as I could have, it still wasn't nearly enough.  In the last hour I started "seeing" crows flying beside me in the full moon lit night sky.  I was imagining the crows to be in formation with me at my speed and less than 20 ft. away, like escorts. The last 75 miles was brutal on the lonely 2 lane road with nowhere really to stop.  I arrived at school frozen and hit the bed for a few hours.  I slept through the exam that had been so important for me to come back for.  My room mate tried to wake me hours later but I was unresponsive.  He moved my cover back and tapped me on my still very cold leg.  He thought I was dead.

I'm sure lots of you have ridden in colder conditions, but not to many have had this degree of hypothermia and lived to tell about it.

[Mr Steve]

Well, the other day I caught a chill when it dropped to 60 F.








I'm kidding, of course (I was properly dressed, no chill), I just had to interrupt all the testosterone driven "I've ridden in worse than you" oneupsmanship flying.

[fudgie]

Anything 40 deg and below for a few hundred miles.

Worse so far was coming home from da Q in da woods. Started to sprinkle so we headed for the light, which was very heavy rain. Rain gear in the bag with no place to pull over (I-69) we hammered it up to 80 mph. For ten miles I hoped the road was straight. Only saw a faint white line and tiny tail lights. Rain pouring into my crotch and running down my leg into my boots. I think it was rain.   Finally pull off at a town and missed a F-1 by less then a min. Crossed the I in front of us.

Worse wind was in 06 on solo journey to Sturgis From Souix Falls to Wall the wind was so strong it wore a flat spot on my left side of my front tire. It would blow me from center line to the outter edge of the road. Rounded a curve and it was gone. Had a 3/4 helmet on and the dam thing strangled me for hours. Havent wore it in 4 years.
Wore my crotchless pants in 08 and the cross wind was so bad in SD it tore my pants the rest of the way to my ankle. She made me throw them out that night.  

[Oss]

The tornado missed me   (feet dont fail me now)

below freezing dont bother me

The thunderstorms catch me often especially in the mountains especially in the early evenings.
hope my new smart phone will help there with the weatherbug app

The hurricane wasnt so bad,  cept for all the crap on the road

The 91mph wind between Limon and Denver tho was the worst. My hands couldnt be broken off of the bars and the left one still locks up on me 6 yrs later.  I wasnt toooooo scared      

2nd place is any summer ride in pennsylvania after about 9 hrs on the road  That state is always HOT AND HUMID  even worse than down south at least to me
 

[YoungPUP]

Spring breakout ride a few years before the Valk. 60degree day to start, rode up into michigan, realised we might have made a mistake when we saw the guys Ice fishing up there.  Was down to 30 before we got home, had Ice on the handlebars hands, and helmets before we made it to home base.

[wlgrice]

Number 2 was riding in snow in new mexico, 6" deep I have pictures , number 1 was riding on Ice in new mexico, need to stay away from their. My self and two buddys were going home from calif. and all of a sudden in front of me they both started sliding side ways, well my turn next, after we all setteled down to our amazement,none of us hit the ground. we rode in the tire tracks for 20 miles at 20 mph, feet out like we were going to fall any moment. When we got to a off ramp we went to the nearest hotel, promised GOD I would never do that again. I was to scared to stop and take pictures, It was getting dark so we keep going.

[Michael K (Az.)]

Hurricane Charley, 2004.

[Grumpy]

3 years ago ,Going south out of Mount Dora Fl, went through a close encounter with a twister, rain so hard, I was 20 feet behind a pickup and could barely see his tail lights. I was afraid to stop as I surely would have been hit by some one. Unbelievably strong wind, made it under an over pass, and slid to a stop in 2 foot of water. A gold wing was behind me, and it blew him completely off the road into a ditch. A trooper stopped a few min later and asked if I was all right, and questioned why I was parked it 2 foot deep water. Told him it beat the hell out of what I had just went through. The Goldwing rider came out ok, no injuries. Broke a mirror and some scratches on the right side when it went into a ditch.

[The Anvil]

Seen a little bit of snow once on the Halloween ride. That sucked but it was nothing compared to riding through a forest fire on either side of the road. The fire had moved on but the heat and smoke from the remnants were still fierce. Not really "weather" but a condition.

[BigAl]

2009 Feb. heading to bike week Daytona,, on ole Blue, got in about 1650 miles on that one.

Rain, snow, lightining, wind out the wazoo.

Tornado warnings in Northern Fla along I-10.

Then it got cold.

46 for a high the first day in Daytona.

Not going back for another one of those.

AL

[vanagon40]

. . . . Wore my crotchless pants in 08 . . . .  

And the winner of this contest is Kit, ridding with fudgie and "crotchless pants" in 08.

[vanagon40]

OOPS, missed the qualifier of "weather" condition.

[Hoser]

Rain and sleet and 36 degrees across Kansas on the way to GOTF March 31st.  Hoser   

[Ice]

Golf ball sized hail, no where to hide...Virginia
-13 C, 3 feet of snow on the ground....Germany
Monsoon type rain, made the rain gear fail......Florida
Tornado's in the front and from the rear...Kansas

All sucked but now you can laugh about it 

[John Schmidt]

Like the rest of you, in well over 50 yrs. of riding I've dodged tornadoes(scary stuff on the plains of Nebraska), been caught in extreme downpours w/hail, ridden in unexpected snow/sleet and extreme cold....all the stuff mentioned above. But for me, some of the worst riding conditions are here in Florida in summer. Temps in the upper 90's and beyond with humidity to match, and you're caught in traffic. After a few blocks I start peeling off some layers but there's only so much you can remove and stay off the "most wanted" list.  Of course, at my age I haven't been on a "wanted" list for quite some time. 

I've often wished I had kept a journal with details of various trips. Many of us would have some interesting books to write if we had done that. I think one of the scariest experiences for me was when I was traveling as a young man and stopped to sleep on a picnic table overnight. When I woke up the next morning, I felt something against my left side when I tried to roll off the table. When I looked down....there was a huge snake keeping warm up against me. It was still quite chilly so he was a bit sluggish....however at that moment I learned how to levitate and fly. I have no idea what kind it was and didn't stick around to make a closer examination.

[B]

Sept 2009 ... snow and sleet Colorado I-70. Solid Ice both sides of Eisenhower Tunnel; the Big Girl shimmied and slid around the the truck ruts; was sure I was gonna dump it. Coming down the Loveland Pass side the bike kept sliding to the outside shoulder (many areas no guardrails, i could see) kept easing it back into the lane. About an inch of ice on the front and windshield when I finally pulled into Idaho Springs; only made 38 miles that day.The HotSprings were a welcomed sight.

28 degrees and 1-2" of snow when I left the next morn. Forcast ... SNOW, the next 4 days; Snuck out between snowstorms. It warmed to near 50 with Denvers lower altitude. Then I hit high 30s to low 40s & sleet in the Colorado plains; had to stop every hour or so to warm the hands. Nobody in the plains had any good cold/wet weather gloves. By the time I hit Kansas I was pulling off Layers.

What doesnt kill us makes us stronger; but im definitely NO FAN of snow & ice on two wheels.

[Black Dog]

Like others, too many to list    Two that stand out are...

April of 1978, my buddy on his Honda CB750, and I on my '77 GL1000, take off from the Milwaukee area to visit some friends in Lacrosse WI.  Friday afternoon weather was upper 60's breezy and beautiful...  We made the trip in just under 3 hours.  Sunday, the day we were headed home, we woke up to a 'Crystal' world...  Major ice storm, and temps hovering around 30...  Waited till about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, to give things a chance to warm up and melt...  It didn't happen    I had a job interview with AT&T at 8:00 Monday morning (I still work for AT&T).  We decided to try to make it home...  Stopped every few miles to dig through the saddlebags, find something to scrape the ice off the shields, and to check again for any article of clothing I could have missed, because I was freezing    Over passes were a new experience in 'Pucker Factor'...  Glare ice.  Stopped at a truck stop to warm up, and we were met by the waitress, already holding a pot of coffee...  She looked at us as we walked in and said "I can't believe you guys are on motorcycles!"  The freezing rain never stopped, our trip took up over 5 hours (with all the warm up stops), and I took an hour long hot shower once I made it home...

On the other end of the scale was the return trip from the first InZane held in Frisco CO...  The road temperatures were already in the 100+ range at 8:00 in the morning...  After almost losing Harv's (then) girlfriend Robyn, to heat stroke, we all tossed $20 in a hat, and hunkered down in an air conditioned motel room, until the sun went down...  We put on over 750 miles, riding across Colorado, Nebraska, in to Iowa, between the hours of 8:00 at night and 10:00 the next morning (realizing that the shadow, a foot from yer right handlebar grip, was an Antelope, you just missed at 85mph, is another category in the pucker factor scale  ).  We made it to Laura's house (Steve K's wife), and colapsed...  Rode the rest of the way home to WI, that night...

The crazy thing is, I'd do each and every trip again    Something about an adventure on a bike, that would be just a 'ho-hum' day, if experienced in a cage.

Black Dog 

[solo1]

Too many to list.  One stands out.

December 1947.  I rode a 1935 HD flat head  about 35 miles in a snow storm.  Temp was bout 30 degrees. No good clothing protection back then.

[hubcapsc]

I've often wished I had kept a journal with details of various trips.

That's what ride reports are for - check out what happens when you google "hubcap valkyrie pictures"...

There's tornadoes in the Congaree Swamp one and rain in Natchez Trace one...

I've never had to ride in the bad stuff for hundreds of miles, so my weather horror stories don't
hold a candle to most of the ones posted here...

-Mike

[Cattman]

I bought my Valk on Feb 28,2002 in Jacksonville and rode to Daytona for the first day of bike week. The next day I had a throttle lock installed and some highway pegs and bought a set of Frog Toggs. Left that afternoon and going across north Florida I hit blackout rain this side of Dothan AL that caused intense pucker when I hit a stream of water flowing across  I-10 about 8" deep and 6 feet across, went from 60 mph to 20 mph in a heartbeat. Then the next day it was 50 degrees when I left Dothan for the Franklin, IN just south of Indy. When I got to Montgomery it was down to 30 and I stopped to put on every article of cold weather gear I had with the Frogg Toggs on top to help block the wind. Stopped in Nashville( down to 25) at BassPro for a the warmest set of gloves I could find. Crossing central Ky I began to run into snow flurry's and some whiteout moments. Stopped south of Louisville ( down to 15) and called home to check roads and decided to go on home.  The throttle lock lasted to Louisville and snapped from the rain frozen in it from the previous night. When I pulled into the garage it was 8 degrees and the wind chill was -10. Who knows what that converts to riding a bike 60-70 mph?   Some frostbite on one finger that still is the first thing to get cold yet today.  

The number 2 has to be going to GOTF 4 years ago and hitting a Texas toad strangler in Beomont, TX on I-10 in a construction zone. It got so black and rain so heavy I didn't even see the rest of my group pull off under an overpass.    I got 5 miles down the road before it cleared enough for me to see I was riding alone.