Following on from a few other threads here and there it's got me thinking, what was your most memorable winter riding or driving experience? Good? Bad?
Mine was a couple of years back driving home from work. I knew snow was on the way but I had confidence in my trusty Suzuki Swift 4x4 would get me home. Mine was going down a gentle bank in one of the villages I passed through. A solid stone wall one side, a line of parked cars the other, a T junction at end and the ABS purring away. I wasn't speeding down, but I wasn't slowing down either. Do I crash my car into the wall or the cars to stop? Or do I just sail across the main road at the bottom, hope nothing is coming and drive into another wall opposite. Thankfully a short distance from the junction was a small patch of dry tarmac under tree, just enough to stop me. The psychologically scarring was, much worse than all the getting stuck or pirouetting down the road I've experienced. If it had all happened quickly I wouldn't have bothered me but it was all in slow motion.
I remember many years ago in Germany, freezing rain was forecast and we were told to leave work early to try and get home safely. I had a 30 mile drive, decided to take the longer way back, avoiding little country roads and stay on hopefully gritted main roads. This was before mobile phones, my partner at the time waiting for my return.... It took me 5,5 hours....!! Heavy snow, freezing rain, rear wheel drive cars sliding all over the road... Eventually I reached a motorway and stuck myself behind a truck....
Many years ago when i was young I had a triumph combo loved that bike and wish I still had it. Anyway I had gone to a girlfriends house and it had been snowing all afternoon the ride home was 1 of the best rides on a bike I have ever had. Every corner every turn was just a massive power slide no traffic and no police to spoil my fun. I didnt even feel the cold i was almost crying with the laughter.
Last Saturday the gritters dint come out.i didn't know.n thot il be grand ..roads like a glass bottle and back wheel slipping about like mad.crazy ride to work and v scary.work's car park like an ice rink and all the girls staring out the window at me like I'd 3 heads.never again!!!♧☆♧
Me and my mate on a Honda cd 200 and two up. We'd got caught in persistent snow deep in the Yorkshire Dales then slid off and as we picked ourselves up a car whizzed past with the occupants out the window laughing their asses off. Ten minutes later, after we restarted, we came across them again just over the brow of an hill and to our delight the same car had stuffed it into a Drystone wall as we sped by. Karma anybody 😃😂
Great subject. Always interesting to hear other stories. 🙂
My memory: 2003 NEC Bike show. I knew it was going to be a bit parky, forecast was for +3 degrees C for the trip home to Cheshire. Journey home on my CBR 600F took 3 hours. Very icey. Some roads closed due to accidents. Needed to keep stopping to warm up. I remember riding past an accident. Car was on it's roof. Police in attendance. I rode past at walking pace with both feet on the ground, acting as skis. I notice one Bobby mouthing " what the ...." as a trickled by the carnage. Once home & thawed out I checked the temperature... it was -6 degrees C!! No idea what windchill temperatures I'd experienced but it showed I had learned pretty quickly, having only started riding 16 months earlier.
Amazing what's possible when you put your mind to it.
oh my god the pain!!! running arou d feeling like my fingers are gonna explode!!! I always thought I ought to get some kinda mitten cover on my handlebars or heated grips but I never did and Sheesh I felt it!!
My (then) girlfriend's Mini was staring at an MoT failure through rotted sills, and she'd decided to scrap it as the whole contraption was held together by body filler. While it was still legal to drive, I took it out for a spin one wintry day on deserted icy roads, without a care in the world. Several spins, to be accurate, each one wilder than the other. Eventually the fun had to stop, and I drove home rather more carefully on roads where there was traffic about. First set of lights, I rolled gently to a halt on the stop line, which is more than the car behind me managed. He locked up all four wheels and slid full-tilt into the back of the Mini. His insurance paid for the lot. And the write-off value for a Mini with an MoT was considerably more than what the scrappie was offering. Result!
The first time I encountered snow, having recently passed my test. I was working, I looked out of the window I could see the roads were beginning to disappear under a white blanket.
Having pulled my big girl pants up and braved the trudge to the car. I gave myself a pep talk... You got this, Linz...
I managed to get myself out of the car park and onto A64, all was fine, although nose to tail traffic, until I took the stupid option (thought I was being clever) and took a 'short cut' up Halton Hill... Traffic queued to the left, I took the right lane, up to the top junction but couldn't get my car over into the other lane. Ok, let's go straight on through the grounds of Temple Newsam House (stupidity?).
I slowly battled my way through pristine snow, my poor little Hyundai X2 protesting every so often. I eventually got home (it took hours) it seemed once I got to A63 that everyone had forgotten how to drive and were abandoning their vehicles.
When I pulled up at home I was told in no uncertain terms (by my then husband) that I had been very stupid to go the route I did. As that would have been the last route anyone would think of using.
Ahhh well it worked for me. The only downside was that after protesting for months about not wanting or needing a mobile phone, I was immediately given one and told to use it!
I was so proud (*smug if I'm honest!) of myself having had a short chat with my mum about winter driving, after passing my test, that I got back without mishap. Thanks mum 🙏
Going over the moores on my brand new suzuki ts125j trail bike jan 1st 1974 first regesterd We stoppd for stoppd for lunch walkd arpund to sort of keep warm Time to set off again Cud ride my bike over snow drifts and it didnt sink One of the lads had triumph trail bike 500cc thingy He set off front suspension frozen solid He ended up raming it into the old stone wall to free it off It workd after 5 mins Worst part was going down hill on green road Brakes water logd z bend in the track Was a wild ride bike bucking and trying to chuck me off But made it even though bike was at the bottom of walls where grass meets wall on both sides of track Needles to say we all had coffee brake when we got to grassington All good fun
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