Man what a scary ride last night!

I got caught off guard by last night’s snowstorm. The forecast called for snow “overnight” and I wasn’t going to be more then a couple hours so what the hell right? When I got on the bike, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Not quite the case when I was coming home though. I was on the highway when it first started and the road was getting wet and the snow was falling fast but really it wasn’t as bad as some of the rain that I’ve ridden through.

When I needed to leave the highway, I came to the off ramp…all I thought was “OH CRAP!” as I looked at the road ahead and I couldn’t see the ground…it was completely white with that really slippery kind of snow.

I remembered to ignore the front brake (using it is bad) and I tried only the rear and it started locking up. It was so slippery that no matter how lightly I pressed…it locked up anyway.

I double downshifted and used a combination of clutch and throttle to slow the rear wheel without stopping it from turning all together…but from the time I entered the ramp…all the way to the stop light…the back end was drifting out. Not exactly a fun experience. Especially when I can see cars in my mirrors waiting to turn me into a speed bump.

Then the snow really started coming down hard! Eventually I had to leave the main roads and get on the side streets to get home…and those side streets where 10x worse then the ramp was. I had another saucer-eyed moment, when I’m going down a slight hill with a curve and I see a car sideways blocking the road. I damn near wet myself. LOL
I didn’t hit him though…I was lucky and was able to skid around him.

Moral of the story…check the weather every hour if you are thinking of riding and if you get caught off guard…park it.

Shaun

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