I've had an interesting day. I took my weekly 4 hour trip today and started off on the wrong foot. I was stopping on the side of the road to adjust my music and as I was slowing down I apparently was a little too aggressive with the front brake because before I know it I'm standing over a running bike lying on it's side. Nothing but my shoes hit the ground and the only damage was a bent shift and clutch lever. I rode it home spent 20 minutes hammering the shift lever back into shape, threw a spare clutch lever on it, and then rode out to try again.
It was a hot sunny day and the short jaunt I had made before my little spill had left me drenched in sweat, I decided to leave my riding jacket and gloves at home this time. The next few hours were filled with beautiful scenery, nice roads, getting lost, a lack of traffic, the lovely scream of my little Nighthawk, and everything a good ride should have. However 30 minutes from home I began to see a line of dark clouds on the horizon. This puzzled me because the radar had only shown popcorn when I left. I rode on hoping it would pass by the time I reached it. About the time I got under the edge I found a good place to stop and I stowed my phone and wallet under the seat, there was no way I was avoiding this one. I also phoned my father to let them know I was probably going to be late for dinner. He suggested I find a bridge and wait for it to pass. I've never been a particularly patient person and I decided to blow through it. About 5 minutes after I hung up it found me. My boots had an inch of water in them inside of 30 seconds. I've ridden in rain before but this was one hell of a storm! The rain stung like hornets but after a minute or two the nerve endings realized they're weren't going to win and shut up. Lightning and thunder what a sight! A bolt comes down 500 yards off the road ahead of me and the thunder rattles the keys on the handlebars "Haha this is one hell of a show!" I yelled through my helmet. I was still doing about 50mph when the wind started really blowing. It was blowing across the road driving the rain and me sideways. I slowed down to 30 but I was rapidly loosing visibility, I had to stop. As I slowed down I realized the rain hadn't stopped hurting even though I wasn't moving. It occurred to me a second later I was getting hit with hail the size of .22s and I looked left across the field I had stopped next to. It looked like a snow storm, the wind was playing with the curtains of hail and rain blowing them up like whitecaps on an angry ocean. I just stood in awe of nature's fury for a minute or two just sitting there idling and ignoring the little needles bead blasting the outer layer of skin off my arms and neck til it slowed enough that I could get past the field. I crawled on for 2 minutes at 20-30mph til the hail finally stopped and the wind slowed enough that I could see. As soon as I got back up to speed a bolt hits a tree 50 yards ahead and to the left of me as if nature was taking a parting shot after failing to get me with the hail. It rang my ears good and I practically jumped off the seat from the shock wave but maybe next time nature. It took 10 minutes for the after image of that bolt to clear from my retinas. The rain slowly tapered off as I pulled up to a intersection that had a restaurant with a handful of bikes parked out in front of it. As I pull away I hear cheers and yells from the covered veranda, apparently they at least found me amusing. "Well damn if this isn't living I'm not sure what is!" I told myself. And I then spent 20 more rather chilly minutes riding the rest of the way home in and out of little squalls. :) I have to lend credit to both my little bike and that helmet. The Hawk didn't squawk one bit even when it was coming down hard enough you could've considered it a water cooled bike. It was idling a little funny at the stops til it dried out but ran beautifully on the road. While everything else on me was soaked my head was completely dry, no seepage through the visor, no leaking around the neck, nothing. I still couldn't see very well but I was using bug guts as RainX so I wasn't expecting miracles. The system itself was one of the most powerful lake effect thunderstorms I've seen in quite a while and I got front row tickets for it. :) So who else has some good storm stories? Matt -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en.
