Well yesterday we had some major storm rip through Southern Ontario, Canada which produced crazy winds, rain and dropped some tornadoes. This one line of storms stretched from Michigan all the way to Quebec, and I believe hit NY State later. It was just crazy up here. So watching this monster come in last night, I was thanking the lord I was not out on my bike. So made me think, some of you mush have some crazy weather stories out there that you have been caught in while riding. I would start one off, but I watch the weather and avoid the rain like the plague (ya I already know I'm a suck). So I was just wondering what happened out there and what you did?

 

Hey neighbor, I'm south of you in western new york. Yea we got some of that storm that hit you. Downed some trees and knocked out power for a while. I didnt take the bike out as they were predicting the storm all day. I been caught in some pretty nasty weather over the years. Rode for 5 hours in a rain storm out of Maine. Thought I could outrun the storm, wrong. The worst was a lightning storm on the way to West Virginia. I'm on my softail with 16" apes heading down the expressway. Lightning hits the road about 1/4 mile ahead of me. I was praying to the man upstairs that I be good for the rest of my life if he would spare me. I got under an overpass and sat there for an hour till it let up. Rest of the trip was great..............BG

 

Got caught in a nasty storm right before my back gave out on my Ultra while leaving work. Heavy wind and rain for the most part, then hail! Wasn't anything I could do, but ride it out til the tavern. Had some lumps on my head and one that drew blood. Had to stay there until it calmed down...d@mnit.

Take care,
Baldman

 

I was making an 850 mile run out of Iowa back into Memphis back in May when the weatherband radio said "dangerous storms" headed my way 'course I could see the darn thing coming.

Finally got to an exit off of I-29 and pulled into a little rural gas station where all the guys sit around and drink coffee. They let me pull the bike into the bay to avoid the hail and we all drank coffee and watched the storm pass over on their subscription farm radar.

All in all, one of those interesting stops where you get to meet the locals. Stayed dry, got some free coffee and learned about southern Iowa.

What I hate are those metal grates on some bridges!!!!

Ride safe.

 

Late June 1998 returning to CA from the 95th party in Milwaukee on I-80 west of Cheyenne, WY. The rain turns to snow, the temperature is in the high 20s. Snow starts sticking to the windshield, then my face shield. Finally reach the rest area at the top of the pass (Curt Gowdy State Park), thaw out for a while, and checking with folks coming in to find out if we should continue west or turn back to Cheyenne and hole up to wait it out. Eventually an east bound truck driver told us that the snow and rain ended about 12 miles to the west. We took off and as we dropped it changed back to rain and about 11 miles from the top we rode out of the rain into brilliant sunshine and a clear blue sky. The only reason we kept going at all was that the road surface was not accumulating snow or freezing over.

 

Got caught in May on the river road in Alton, Il. Bar hopping with a
buddy and caught the front while watching the news. We thought we
could out run it, the my buddys petcock starts leaking gas. 1/2 hour
fix which allowed the storm to catch up. Holy Sh__, never saw so
lightning and rain. The good news was no hail. Got to meet a couple
dozen riders at the gas station that were a lot of fun.

 

One frosty October morn, I left my house at 0-dark 30 with a temp reading of 17*F. 160 miles and 4500 feet altitude loss later temp was 85*F. Other than that the weather was great. Thank the Powers That Be for layers.

 

One June, I was going Motorcycle camping with a friend of mine, I had my Sporty at the time, he had a Roadglide. We knew there were possible thundershowers coming our way, but we said screw it and decided to go anyway. We left that Friday night, at went to gas station to fill up before we left town, and you could hear thunder in the distance. As we left town, it started to come down...now at this point, it was already dark. It rained so hard, that I couldn't see anything, not the yellow line on the road, not the white line on the road, everything was black all around me except for my moto instruments and the rear running light from my friend's glide. For the next 5 minutes, I followed that little running light, because at that time, nothing else existed. I swear that had he gone off a cliff I woulda followed him. After that, the rain let up, it got a little foggy, but we made it to our campsite safe and sound around midnight. I'll never forget that ride

 

A few friends and I rode from Oklahoma City to Steamboat Springs Colorado in July of 1982. The temperatures were typical for that time of year in Oklahoma and Colorado.

When we woke up from our first over-night camp-out in tents, we found about 2" of snow on the ground. We stayed there one day longer than planned. The next day way in the 60's before we left.

 

Canadian zoning ordinances must be allowing trailer parks - there's no better tornado magnet than a group of double-wides.

I've learned the hard way that a storm is really closer than it looks when riding. Summertime storms are very infrequent here, but can drop rain at a rate of 3"+ per hour when they hit. While riding, have been caught in a few of these and was in danger of drowning in the saddle.