See....shoulda bought a cover instead of all that bling!! (Creekside rules!)

 

We got back to our campsite at the Buffalo Chip when the hail started. I was parked in front of my tent deciding which tree to put my glide behind when i got hit in the face by a hailstone ( it broke my shades ). I decided it was fine where it was, dove into my tent, and proceeded to watch the hail PUMMEL my scoot!!!! it broke my mirror, spedometer, dented my front fender, and tank. i havent been able to clean it up and find the rest of the damage but I KNOW its gonna have more. It was freaking crazy!!!! We had hailstones the size of baseballs. My buddy has the pics and i will get them soon. The hail tore a dozen holes in the tent and we were just putting the air matterss over our heads as it stopped. Never did think of our helmets that were next to us in all the mele. She made it the whole way home no problem but you cant read the odometer anymore...guess its gonna have ZERO miles again.

SMURF

 

Interesting thing about this hail storm and covers. A few bikes did have covers on them. The hail ripped through the covers and still caused damage.

 

Guy we met in south S.D. at a truck stop with a Heritage Softtail had damage. Front fenders behind the forks must be a magnet spot. His was about that big too. And his headlight bucket, tank, etc. He had a towel over the tank and it did nothing. A sleeping bag might have slowed that one down some, but I doubt it. I guess next time, I'll have a plan to throw a sleeping bag and jackets over the bike and secure them with a piece of line or ratchet strap. Must remember to bring line. Good thing I built that trailer. That was a hell of a storm. It hit so fast there was no time for anything. It just started raining like every other night we were there and we went inside the tent to ride it out. Then the tornado siren went off and we ran for shelter. There was no time to try to secure anything. We stopped at the overhang of a large metal storage building. There was a deck and a bar that hasn't been used for a few years. The deck sat on telephone poles in the ground. I was more worried about a tornado. I told Dr.Linda that if she heard anything sounding like a freight train to dive under that deck next to the telephone poles. She said "Where will you be?" I said "Right behind you."

Meanwhile, here in NW AR two days before, we had the same thing. My friend Neal who rode up to Sturgis with us had his Explorer nailed by fist sized hail at home. His neighbor said it and his son's Explorer were totaled. We lucked out here at the house with that one too. Guess we lucked out double, as we had no damage in Sturgis either, besides a cold wet night. I'm calling Neal the Hail God or Hail Magnet.