Yesterday - Wednesday, August 19th - I had the great opportunity to use my bike to go to an off-site meeting.
107 miles each way, and through some very nice country roads and rustic scenery. Well, at least 60% of it anyway. This is up through Northern / Central Illinois, and up into South/ Central Wisconsin.
Accuweather.com predicted only a <10% chance of rain, and that beginning at roughly 6:00 PM. I curse them...
Beautiful, event-less, sunny sky ride on the way up, took 2 hours and 20 minutes. No issues. Made it right on time for the 10:00 AM meeting.
Left the meeting place at 3:00 PM, Sun shining, birds singing, butterflies flitting... life is good.
15 minutes later... GAWOOOOSH! Rain - and Thunder - like you wouldn't believe! Soaked to the core in like a minute, and as to be expected, left the Rain Gear at home on the other bike. Only 82 miles to go!
I really had no choice, so I battled on, and no problems really. Tires are new Metzeler Lasertecs, so no traction issues, My infamous "Dyna-Beads" must be working, as she held the slick, wet road very, very well, at times up to 75 MPH or so. It never let up for a second all the way home, just pouring.
Two points maybe of interest here:
1.) When this bike was new ('07), and anytime I've done any tinkering to it, I coated EVERY electrical connector liberally (read "overdone") with Permatex Dielectric Grease. I do this on all bikes. Zero issues with anything becoming wet, or shorting out in the rain/wet. Bike ran flawlessly.
2.) It was pouring - as in 'cats and dogs' style rain, and I experienced no issues whatsover with the Air Cleaner Housing intake taking in water. This was a solid 100 miles (and the third instance of considerable rain riding by the way) of super heavy rain, and a mixture of Freeway, twisty country road, rush hour snail pacing through two mid-sized towns, and I had to wait for an endless frieght train at one time!
I bring this up as this "Rain / Water ingress" is one of those naysayer comments that always comes up when discussing this type of Air Cleaner modification (dual entry to tubular filter, AC Housing gutted of all anti-reversal and venturi style intake innards - see my photo album if you wish) pro's and con's.
Again, the bike ran faultlessly, and zero moisture related challenges. Better than the rider!
Luckily, I had worn my Belstaff jacket but without any liner, in the morning as it was a nippy 55 or so when I left the house (7:15 AM). I also had on a full face Z1R Helmet, so again lucky. Coincidently, I had just cleanedpolished the clear visor of this helmet with 3M Plastic Polish a few days ago, so the water just beaded up and rolled off. An unexpected bonus.
Jacket is... 70%(?) waterproof, but I was soaked through on pants, hands and feet. Squishy shoes are great! Squishy gloves are fun!
Fortunately the temperatures were roughly mid-high 70's, so not too bad. Worst part was the pre rush and rush hour cage drivers near the end of my run. It's like a death race out there! WTF! I saw so many people taking so many risks, all in the spirit of getting home quicker??? I guess I'm getting old and boring, but what unbelievable stupidity (and death wish?) in the crazed lane changing, speeding, tail-gating, etc. I guess you notice this a heck of a lot more in the pouring rain... on a bike... in the middle of the madness.
Once home, a super-hot shower and dry clothes did the trick, then some good home-made deep dish Pizza... yes!
I have no excuses for my own idiocy in not bringing along my rain-gear, which is bright yellow BTW, and might have helped. Lesson learned... again. But try the dielectric grease if you haven't, good stuff.
Ride Safe!
