Your snow woes

Have you been struggling through snow on two wheels? Or did you see someone else in trouble and give them a hand?

Here’s some of the experiences of other motorcyclenews.com users;

Steve: Despite the deep snow on our estate in Newcastle , I set off for work on my Yamaha Serow.

Sticking to the deep and undisturbed snow on the footpaths I was able to slowly reach the ‘main’ road. But although it had been treated, the slush was freezing immediately to form sheet ice with little soft snow left to give me encouragement.

At the first roundabout cars were sliding all over the place, so I eased to the side of the road until one driver gave me enough room to sort myself out. I carefully crawled onto and round the roundabout and headed back the way I had come. It was just too dangerous and would only be worse trying to get home in the dark after work.

Coming the other way as I road back home was our local bike training school van complete with instructors. The look on their faces was a picture and left no doubt as to their opinion of my sanity!

Chris was on the A4 when he had the chance to experience rain, sleet and full blizzard conditions in just 7 miles. He also had the misfortune to drop his girlfriend’s CB500, with his girlfriend riding pillion. But he’s looked on the bright side, ” The one saving grace is that it wasn’t my Crescent racing GSXR600, but there’s always next week for that! ”

Phillip: I went over a speed bump and ended up wheelspinning in the road unable to get my bike back and rolling in a straight line. Car drivers thought I was crazy going round and round like an idiot. Embarrassing. I still got to college in time. but my boots were full of slush.

Some people managed to make some progress, and not always on the bike you’d think was most suitable

Woodska: Rode into work on my R1 2002 in bright sunshine… left work in a blizzard! Spent the first 5 mins with my feet down, bike sideways and the rear wheel spinning making VERY slow progress. When I eventually got onto the “Main” road, I kept the bike in 2nd & then had to endure locking the rear wheel just by rolling off the throttle.

Paul from Peterborough actually wished he had taken his bike due to the traffic jams in Peterborough, but for sheer bad luck, TLK takes the biscuit.

TLK: Yesterday my wife had a low speed spill on her CBR600 braking for a red light on an untreated road. She was really upset, but managed to pick the bike up, before leaving it and walking home. Luckily she was only a little bruised. I left work, went home, got all my leathers on, then walked 1.5 miles to get the bike. It wouldn’t start. It then started to snow, so I had to push it home, using the racks left by car tyres, whilst not getting squashed by passing buses. Today, I can’t raise my arms above shoulder height, and my wife cycled to work…

We want to hear how the weather affected your journey. Were you well prepared for the chaos it caused, or were you one of the unfortunate people who had to abandon their bike by the side of the road? Were you amazed to see a bike or a scooter coming past in such abysmal weather, or did you find yourself actually enjoying the conditions. Are you completely unaffected, and riding to work as normal on dry roads?

Post your messages on the News board by clicking on the link on the right, or email daniel.thornton@emap.com with your experiences.

If you have any tips for winter riding, then why not share them with motorcyclenews.com readers. Send them to daniel.thornton@emap.com, and we’ll publish one every day to make riding that bit more bearable.