Fix dodgy starter motor before it snows - its a right pig to bump start on an icy road!
Thus spake ian field () unto the assembled multitudes: <looks out at snow and ice> <looks at bike, with or without dodgy starter motor> <looks at car> <looks back at bike> <jumps into car> Sorted!
When I worked at an out of town company and travelled along country roads to get there, I looked at all the cars on their sides in ditches and thanked my lucky stars I didn't have one.
I've ridden a motorcycle into a ditch and I've driven a car into a ditch. The latter experience was far less painful.
It's not just the driving, its the equipment! Driving on icy on my 68 Torino with RWD and basically NO weight whatsoever over the rear wheels, and a heavy V8 over the front wheels, and auto trans and no chains - very difficult! Even with a positraction rear axle Driving my 80 Datsun with RWD but very light car and manual transmission and no chains - much easier and somewhat fun Driving my 95 T&C van with AWD and ABS, and new modern all weather tires and no chains - easy as pie, and boring. You would have to be an utter idiot to go into the ditch with this vehicle. I wouldn't dare touch a big 4WD truck with an empty bed in ice and snow unless it was chained. Ted
Any crosswind strong enough to push a car around on ice will dump in a heart beat on your bike. How old are you anyway? You haven't been diving very long have you? Clay
Thus spake frijoli () unto the assembled multitudes: Diving? You must have pretty deep ditches round your way!
I've been motorcycling about 30 years, though nowadays I tend to use my smaller lighter spare bike when there's snow and ice.
I think the most fun I EVER had (with my clothes ON) was on a Honda S90 in about 4 inches of snow out in the farm pasture. That was just a tad bit more than 30 years ago. I do NOT find it fun, however, to scroll through 3 pages of useless quote, only to find 2 lines added at the end. PLEASE trim your quotes. Thank you.
I've slid a car into a ditch and flown into a ditch behind a motorcycle that was headed for a ditch. I've been blown out of my lane by a gust of wind in both a car and a motorcycle. Neither a car nor a motorcycle will *steer* while on ice, but at least a car doesn't tip over. It won't necessarily stay in one place on ice, but it doesn't turn over. I was driving a friend's Triumph sportscar on Whitney Portal Rd. in the eastern Sierras when I encountered a 50 foot long patch of compacted snow. I figured that momentum would keep the car going through the snow, but it didn't. We were stopped in the middle of the snow and the car was creeping toward the edge, heading towards a cliff, even though I was standing on the brake pedal and pulling the emergency brake for all it was worth... My friend jumped out and grabbed the front bumper and turned the car around as if it was on...er, ummm...ICE, and I rolled down hill, back onto pavement. "To Hell with Mt. Whitney," we decided, and went back down to Lone Pine.
Heh, heh, not regarding mountains per se, when I was about twelve and with youthful muscles and strong bones, I remember skating with a bunch of Boy Scouts and covering over ten miles in about twenty minutes across one end of the frozen Lake Simcoe, a powerful January wind at our backs. It took us over six hours to return against the wind. Years later, almost the same thing happened except that time it a different lake and I was driving a small sailboat. Just to sort of stay on-topic, I believe they put studs in the tires and still race motorcycles on the Lake Simcoe ice, but I'll never go back there.
Thus spake . () unto the assembled multitudes: I suspect the Civil Aviation Authority will take a dim view of this. ;-)
Um, Colonel Bandy, I presume? I thought 'e was dead. ;-) I've slid a car into a ditch and flown into a ditch behind a motorcycle that was headed for a ditch.
I've flown over a ditch and fell in it pushing the bike back to the road because I didn't know the ditch was there.
