Riding in the snow - yes or no

[D-Rider]

TC was a motorcycle traffic cop (hence the TC).

..... or his initials ....

but not any more.

Nah don't think he's changed his name.


As for the question - I'll ride in it if I'm out anyway. Fresh snow isn't that big a deal - it's when it gets compacted or melts and re-freezes that it becomes a real bother.
Like everyone else - now I'm older I'm less keen than I was to ride when it's not nice.

[T.C.]

TC was a motorcycle traffic cop (hence the TC), but not any more.

Actually the "TC" in my user name has never been anything to do with my previous life, that was just a coincidence

[fatboy]

If you are out and it snows then you have to get home,but the way I see it only a nutter with rubber bones and a big wallett willingly rides out in it.
Today I saw so much wreckage at the side of the road, in the hedges,in trees in all the areas we could not get to last week because of snow, police tape everwhere.....
nuff said

[Nooj]

Uh-huh, what Fatboy said, far too many people on the roads who shouldn't be there for it to be safe on a bike in the snow these days.

Plus the snow sticks to your visor, so you can't see.

Stupid idea.

[HisNibbs]

With the Falco I'd not head out in snow but have often ridden home with an inch or two of settled or falling snow on the road. Wheel spinning up "my" hill is usually the biggest problem. I don't consider snow itself too much of a deterrent when on the BMW and have often headed out on that provided my morning dog walk doesn't indicate underlying black ice. I would agree that the major risk is other people who aren't aware of your limitations in the conditions.

It is not really that I want to do it but the car can take so long when its snowing as Leicester tends to suffer grid lock, that and the train is so expensive.

When I was younger and had a dirt bike I would go out and play in the stuff. Great fun! These days it is very much steady as she goes and just make sure I get to work without serious incident. Sometimes when there has been underlying ice, that can be pretty stressful.

[Kwackerz]

I always had 'TC' down as being short for Topcat.. Like the cat and officer dibble..

Umm snow? I used to ride the Z440 in it.. ride despatch bikes in it but my precious RSV never turns a wheel in the damn stuff. It's a pampered and protected bike. I'll happily ride a hack in it though

[lazarus]

I ride a GS and no way would I take that big heavy lump out in snow. In fact my golden rule is never to ride below 5C because below that you could easily come across some un -melted night time frost under the trees

Winter is why god invented cars. with heaters. and heated seats. and wipers.

[Aladinsaneuk]

I thought they were fitted to GS's

[fatboy]

[falcomunky]

My old girl seems to love the snow! Not so much the salt tho...

[D-Rider]

Winter is why god invented cars. with heaters. and heated seats. and wipers.

Did a pretty poor job then!

Off to work in the car ... hang on - got to scrape the frost off all the windows.
Get in the car ..... start it up ..... screen misted up .... wait 5 mins for it to clear enough to see to drive. Set off for work .... stuck in a queue .... glad I've got my coat on ..... eventually get through the queue.
Begin to get close to work - ah .... the heater is just beginning to get the temperature up to something you might survive in.
Park .... in to work.

Off to work on the bike. Pull on nice warm bike clothes. Start up bike, ride to work past those queueing cars that had to leave much earlier to have their screens scraped and their screens demisted. Arrive at work long before the car would have done.

That said I've not been riding mine so much this winter - I will avoid the icy roads and I've just been far too tired for weeks to ride the bike - the car requires so much less concentration (of the type you need to control a bike - not the sort you need to drive a car safely through traffic)

[lazarus]

If the heater only warms up by the time you get to work, you must live near enough to walk it D rider. . Think - fitness. Health. Saving the environment.

I reckon it takes me longer to get my riding gear on than it takes for the car to warm up - I do that Scholes style. Cross fingers. Before I'm even halfway into town I'm turning down the heated seat lest it burns my bum. And of course at the other end there would be the chore of getting out of bike gear. I reckon it needs to be 15 miles or real congestion before the bike is quicker.

No - I've done my share of rufty tufty riding through winter. I'm a fine weather rider, between about 10C and 20C. Below its the car heater. Above its the car aircon. And thats shot any credibility I might ever have had on here.

[BikerGran]

And thats shot any credibility I might ever have had on here.

Oh well you and me both in that case! But I don't think so - like you I've been there and done that, got nothing to prove!

[randomsquid]

And thats shot any credibility I might ever have had on here.

Said the man with a BMW

The only reason I ride in the winter is because I've not got round to learning to drive yet. Every winter gets me a bit closer to getting my finger out and learning.

[HisNibbs]

Leicester is one of the most congested cities in Europe and when it snows it gets grid locked. It took about 4 hours to get from one side of Leicester to the other on Friday night a couple of weeks back. I was in the car at the time, the ice was really bad, so though not happy I wasn't wishing to be on the bike. A couple of stressed runs to work in the car with my normal 20 mile 1/2 hour commute taking 1 1/2 hours and I was trying the train. £10.90 return plus parking, plus actually having to drive 5 miles to the station has really spurred me on to get the BMW up and running. I've been back on the Falco this week but had the BM been running, with the exception of a day or two, I would probably have been on that.
Last year I think I used it every day and with the fairing, shin warmers and horizontally opposed stabilizers it wasn't that big a hardship.
The Falco on the other hand though not too bad on the main roads is just too "front end biased" for comfort. Particularly with raised ride height, dropped yokes and dollops of torque etc.

So round here sods law prevails; the only time you would really want to use a car you can't because the roads are grid locked by the other "lemmings".