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Pucker Power in the Hail


awsmsrv

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Yesterday as I left work, I looked to the east where home is & saw very dark clouds. I thought, "Guess I'll be in quite the downpour by the time I get home." I also noticed it was quite cold. (My Gerbing's heated gloves are a joy.) So, as I reach the plateau (where I live), it's hailing. No big deal. Well, about a half-mile ahead it decides to dump with an accumulation of about a half-inch. Whoa! Tires a-slippin' & a slidin'. I'm down to a crawl between 5-10 mph, as are all the cagers. OK, I'm thinking I should just pull into the high school parking lot & park, call my wife at home & tell her she needs to pick me up there. Can't. No one will let me get into the right lane to turn into the lot. OK, maybe I can make it down the hill without an incident & go kind of the long way around to get home. Yeah, it's a flatter route once I get down that hill. I'm trying to stay in the tire tracks of the cagers while I'm thinking that everyone must think, "What is that guy doing? He must be an idiot riding a motorcycle in this kind of weather." All is well, so far. Now I'm at the light ready to turn left with the green arrow & this turn is about a 120 degree turn, with hail covering the ground, with wide wet painted lines for the crosswalk that I can hardly even see. "OK. I can do this. I hope." Going about 2-3 mph through this turn. Ah, made it. I'm puttin' along in 2nd gear (usually do this road in 4th). Half a mile later I must go through a round-about & make my exit at the 3rd right (270 degrees, 3/4 of the way around). Again, I'm only going walking speed through this round-about. OK, almost home. Only a 1/4 mile to go. I've got to start going uphill & then turn left into my driveway. Oh man, not looking forward to this. Driveway totally covered in hail. Successfully turn into driveway, tap my brakes twice to open the garage door, paddle through a 3 point turn so I can back into the garage. Yippee! Home safe. Sheesh! Talk about pucker power.

 

Still icy this morning. Took the 4wd truck to work.

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Glad you made it home safely!! Donna and I got caught in one heck of a hail storm on I-10 near Jennings,La. about 6 months ago. By the time we got to the next exit it had turned into rain and we made it to a gas station and shelter. As I recall it took 3 cups of coffee to get my pucker factor back down to zero.....:whistling:

Boomer....who sez he could hear the hail bouncing off de pygmies heads and dere wuz a whole lotta cussin going on too.....:rotf:

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Rode to work in 6 inches of New snow ONCE! Only once!!!

Hey, now I know who the real nut job is. I had no choice. You, on the other hand, had a choice. "Hmm. Let's see. Oh look. There's 6" of snow on the ground. Think I'll ride the bike to work." Glad that thought didn't pop into your head again.

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Hey, now I know who the real nut job is. I had no choice. You, on the other hand, had a choice. "Hmm. Let's see. Oh look. There's 6" of snow on the ground. Think I'll ride the bike to work." Glad that thought didn't pop into your head again.

 

 

 

Guys at work had told me I wouldn't do it!!:duck: I had no choice!!:whistling:

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Not to hijack the thread or anything, but my story is a dirt riding ,, or should I say a snow riding story on my old Yammi xt500,, I had ISDT tires, you know, the huge knobbies. Thirty plus years ago I might add, I was 28 or something I think.

 

Well when the dirt season was over, I would ride in the woods with the snow, and usually, since there were three wheelers even back then and snowmobiles riding the trails there, as long as I kept the speed moving, I could stay on top of the tracks. Do I need to tell you, I was one ,,,,,desperate to ride a two wheeler puppy ,,,back then.

 

I was going thru the trails, and came out to an open field, that I had never been on, pristine snow, but it was glazed from thaw and refreeze, so I set out across it, as long as I was keeping my speed up, all was well, but I slowed, and the whole works sunk into eighteen inches of snow. And that refrozen, crust that had held me up,, and allowed me to ride out about a hundred fifty yards into this mess, now became an obstacle, to drag that three hundred sixty pound thumper back thru. I might add, that the way back, was rather uphill to boot. All I can say,is thats the closest Ive ever come to having a heart attack, dragging that bike end after end back thru that snow, uphill, it must have taken me an hour to get it back to where I could get traction. Needless to say, I will never trust unknown snow again, haha. Have a happy new year to all ye.

Edited by yamtom
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Glad you made it home with no incidents!!! Do yourself a favor, if you don't have a radiator cover check the fins of the radiator. I got caught in a hail storm, and when I got home I looked the bike over absolutely no damage.. I dropped the rag I was wiping the bike with. As I bent down to pick it up, I looked at the radiator. Bunch of the fins were bent. I spent 2hrs.combing it out. I got one of Steve Wagner's radiator covers

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