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Ridin' in the rain...

Mavagrand

Mavagrand

Senior Member
Came back from a very HOT visit to Saint Augustine yesterday..rode in the rain pretty much the entire time..took me 5.5 hours to get home. My son was in his car with his girlfriend so I had him take the wife home while I slogged on through the rain. I know some of you guys will understand this...I didn't mind the rain at all. I slowed down, turned on the radio sat back and just enjoyed the cool ride. Summertime riding in Florida can be brutal so the rain was a pleasant change of pace. It was intresting to wathc the oil temperature drop. Normally on I4 in the summertime my oil gauge will read almost 300*...riding in that rain it was reading less than 180*..nice and comfortable.

I had to pull over twice due to visibility but other than that, I enjoyed the rain. No rain suit, with all the water coming down there was no way to stay dry so I just dealt with it. Got home, changed and went to dinner. Good day all around.
 
Love riding in the rain...As you said helps to cool things down...Though no rainsuit I might find that a little miserable...I generally carry two suits with me, I carry my frogg toggs for when I'm out on an extended ride out in the country because they breath good and keep me cool...Then carry my HD rainsuit for when I'm in town and have to put my foot down at stoplights...Kept burning the toggs on the pipes, after the 4th time of having to clean that stuff off, decided to get the second pair...
 
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cool breeze said:
don't want to rain on your parade pun intended but 300" is to close to engine damaging heat:small3d031:
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Think so? My bike has ran this hot since day one, I quit worrying about it years ago. I do run full synthetic (Mobile 1). If you'll notice, the MoCo's newer oil gauges measure up to 350*.
 
As the weather around here is usually cold wet and miserable i do not like riding in the rain
on my recent trip to mainland Europe it rained heavily every day temperatures around 14 centigrade about 57 in f so it was pretty miserable most of the time and wife has refused to do it again :(

Brian
 
I don't set out to ride in the rain. I am not too crazy about riding in the rain ( traction, stopping distance, etc.), and I have been caught in many torrential downpours many times. Just this year we head out for a weekend ride where there was a twenty percent chance of rain. Well, we were in the middle of nowhere and looked up at the sky and figured that we wouldn't get caught in it so we opted to continue our trip.
As it turned out, the sky did open up on us big time. I didn't even bother to dig out my rain gear ( jacket, pants & shoes). In short order I was drenched. It is during that total saturation point, where i can't fight off the conditions, that I surrender to it and go with the flow making the best of it. I mean, I'm already soaked, what's the point in fighting it? What was pretty neat was that when we pulled over so that others could don their riding gear, a homeowner saw our comical plight and came running down from his house and invited us all into his garage where he offered us towels to dry off with, and even bottled water or soft drinks. His wife came into the garage with her laptop showing us a live radar viewing of where the thunder & lightning was. It was slightly north of us, in the direction we were heading!
All in all, it is that kind of human story that makes for good reminiscing about riding in the rain but still, I'd rather not do it!
 
What kind of gauge do you have, we ride the same kind of bike and my heat managment starts working around 275:small3d031:
 
When I was first learning to ride (still am), my husband and I went for a local ride over to the neighboring county. As we headed home, we hit a couple of sprinkles. He had both rain suits in his bike and he pulled over to see if I wanted to put them on. I pointed to the sky in the direction we were going and told him I thought we were about to get out of it. On we went, and then he turned onto another road.........with a big black cloud ahead of us. I kept thinking he would pull over, but no, he kept going. The rain came down harder and harder. My boots filled up with water. I could barely see at times. We slogged down our muddy road to our home and thank God we were safe. I asked him why he didn't stop so we could put the suits on, and his response was, "You said we were about to get out of it." So I guess it was my fault........ I don't mind running into a little rain during the summer time, but I don't dare want to be caught out when it's lightning.
 
When I took my road test years back it was pouring rain. Me being stubborn didn't want to reschedule it. The lady fro DMV must have felt sorry for me. It was a 10 minute road test at that. I just did two right circles, two left circles, two figure 8's and drove around the block. After I finished she told me to go home and get dry. Man I was soaked. It was April and about 50 degrees so I was cold as heck too.
I have to agree with riding in the summer rain though. While I don't purposely go cruising looking for it, it sure feels good when it's hot out. And it gives me an excuse to wash and wax the bike.
 
cool breeze said:
What kind of gauge do you have, we ride the same kind of bike and my heat managment starts working around 275:small3d031:
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I installed a Roger McEwan gauge on my 2008 Electra Glide Classic. I know it is not very accurate above 200* as I called Roger himself when I thought my bike was overheating. I've learned to use the gauge as an indicator of what is "normal" for my bike, but not as a diagnostic tool.

FYI, Heat management kicks in on my bike when the front cylinder head temperature hits 287*, I know, I had it checked at the dealership. Heat management only works within a defined set of parameters; bike travelling less than 2miles an hour, head cylinder temp above 287*, etc. so it wouldn't activate at highway speeds regardless of temp
 
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