Topic: SNOW....

[Soos]

Having the unfortunate experience of having to ride home in the snow from work today....
Here are a few things i found out.

From a standstill, anything more than an idle while GENTLY rolling the clutch out (1500rpm cb650) can cause the bike to almost instantly roll onto its side.
NO THROTTLE on take-off helps a LOT.

Rear brakes are EVIL... repeat after me... rear brakes in the snow are EVIL.....
Unless of course you want to practice how well you can balance a 500lb bike.

Pumping the front brakes similar to how you do in a car without anti-lock brakes is your only stopping friend.... not enough is ok, and too much will send you skidding.
Your feet out like skids can also help.

DO NOT suddenly release the throttle!!!!!!! Or you to can learn the fun of squirreling your rear end around while trying to match tire rotation to MPH of travel is iffy at best.
DO NOT suddenly roll on the throttle IN ANY GEAR.
Not as bad as releasing the throttle when it comes to regaining control..... but not fun nontheless.
Unless you can control long distance burnouts. Or you want to practice doing do.


CASE SAVERS are just that..... tested and buggered mine bad today....
your feet out as skids REALLY helps in corners.

Doing doughnuts in the car is fun...... but in the middle of the street while laying down your motorcycle just attracts cops.
Hope yours is as nice as the one I met this morning.(no ticket )

the pain....... oooohhh.....
I think I pulled things I didn't know I had....
Saved my bike from tipping about 4 times, lost it twice....
Once trying to see what letting go of the throttle suddenly would do(in the parking lot at work), and once a block from home.


And the final words of advice from me....

CHECK THE WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are desperate or daring(stupid?) enough to ride in the winter(where it snows) CHECK THE WEATHER.........
!

SLOW....... SLOW..... SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW.
And you will reduce/negate any major damage to you and your bike.
I got lucky, and only bent my handlebars a little, bent the heck out of my case-savers, and
moved(didn't break) my right mirror.

All that learned/experienced in my 5 mile 30 minuite ride home.....
I used to LOVE snow.......


I gotta get my car fixed.


l8r

[UnCrash]

Man, O Man!  What a saga.

Glad to hear that there wasn't any unsurmountable damage, and that you had a friendly police officer come by.

Good luck getting your 4 wheeled friend back on the road so your 2 wheeler can go back in the garage till warmer times.

I hope to never need your advice on driving in the snow.   

[Steve F]

HOLY COW!  If I was in that situation, I would have called for the trailer to come an get me.  That slidin' around crap is like you said, "EVIL"!

[slabbedask]

Here in snowy Norway most riders are wise enough to keep their bikes in the garage all winter....
Actually, it was snowing like hell (Hmmm, that sounded somewhat wrong, didn't it...?) the evening I drove it to winter storage at our hobby garage, nine Km's from home. I know what you're talking about.......

[CBJoe]

Maybe a side car with some sand bags would help....

[sandcastcb750]

My CB350 was never any good in the snow. The Goldwing has better traction in the snow. Maybe a bigger bike would solve your problem?

Not!

[BobbyR]

Something tells me that a mono track vehicle would not do well in the snow. Glad you got home in one piece.

[tortelvis]

Get yourself a Ural outfit, the sidecar wheel is driven, great fun in the snow. A mate of mine was tooling down the motorway for a good long distance and needed petrol. He pulled up to the pump, stopped and when he went to put his foot down he discovered that his boot had frozen to the peg with the expected results.

[Soos]

Get yourself a Ural outfit, the sidecar wheel is driven, great fun in the snow. A mate of mine was tooling down the motorway for a good long distance and needed petrol. He pulled up to the pump, stopped and when he went to put his foot down he discovered that his boot had frozen to the peg with the expected results.

I have checked those out in the past.
If i found one for a deal, i'd go for it.
Or possibly a weld on trike kit.

l8r

[Demon67]

Oh I don't know guys snow can be a lot off fun, I drove a small dirt bike all one winter and when car drivers got stuck just kind of puttered past them, the only time I had a problem was about 500 yards from my apt, when a thought crossed my mind, that I'd been watching dirt track races out of the states a couple of days before and some of the guys were good enough to do power slides with their feet up, So I said why not try that, I mean snow is slippery so it should be easy to figure out where to brake or wind the power to it right, so on goes the twist grip and I start to get a nice slide set up and the back end comes around every thing is good, so I'm moving down the road sideways and saying to myself this is great, now to end it, what do I do wind more power on and do a 360 or cut the throttle down and bring it back in line, lets try backing off, oops, #$%*, too much, so the 175 Yamaha deposits me on my back on the snowy road howling with laughter at my idiocy at which point some kid walks out of his apartment looks a me spinning on my back like a demented turtle and runs back inside which causes me to howl even more. After I got my breath back, I got up and went over to bike pick it up and found out that I'd scratched one of rear signal lite lens. Any how I never did settle the way to come out power slide properly. So snow can be a pain in the ass but it can be fun.
Bill.

[azuredesign]

I don't know where you are, but getting caught in the snow on a street bike just plain stinks. Sorry you had to suffer the embarrassment and pain in providing your personal cb650 road test to prove it!

I also used to enjoy dirt bikes in the snow...in the 1970's. If I fell off a bike even in softish snow these days, I'd be whimpering and moaning if I was lucky! It's great to have a car as a back up in inclement weather. I hope you can get yours together and spare yourself another adventure in hell.

If we can move the clocks for daylight savings time, could we move them a whole bunch and just eliminate winter?

[Soos]

two strokes... those are fun in the snow.
Have rode a under 100cc 2 stroke dirt bike in upper wyoming as a kid, and loved it.

But as you said a street bike.... for a 5 mile ride.
not too bad IMO.
I was seriously expecting to loose turn signals and mirrors before I got home.

l8r

[Jonesy]

Pumping the front brakes similar to how you do in a car without anti-lock brakes is your only stopping friend.... not enough is ok, and too much will send you skidding.
Your feet out like skids can also help.

CASE SAVERS are just that..... tested and buggered mine bad today....
your feet out as skids REALLY helps in corners.

So, it's like doing supermoto-style riding, huh? 

Thanks for passing along those tips, heaven forbid I get caught in the same situation!

[Johnie]

Looks like I will be staying home a while...

[troppo]

SNOW  =  COLD
COLD   =   BAD
 therefore
SNOW IS BAD!!!!!!!!!!!




can you tell i grew up in the tropics lol

[fixahonda]

Get yourself a Ural outfit, the sidecar wheel is driven, great fun in the snow. A mate of mine was tooling down the motorway for a good long distance and needed petrol. He pulled up to the pump, stopped and when he went to put his foot down he discovered that his boot had frozen to the peg with the expected results.

My stepfather has one of those and they are great fun in the snow (unless you are the poor sap in the sidecar). Snow is the only time that bike will ever see the rear wheels spin.
I make it a point to cruise it around the Promised Land lake in the Poconos every time we go up there, winter or not. The Jersey and NY tourists do look at you like you are crazy though.

[Dave Wyatt]

A buddy in high school was having a great time doing doughnuts with his CB125 in the snow.  At least it was a great time shortly before the surgery to install the two plates in his forearm to hold things together.

As for me, wet is as far as I want to take things.

[Gregorymoto]

My friend Jim fallowed a snow plow off of Grants Pass in OR one year after getting caught in a snow storm trying to get back to Seattle from Tex on his 78 750F.
He has pics i should get him on this sight and post them, Funny shlt

Snow and Street Motorcycles not a good Mix,