Hello fellow friends, I’m Dixie caveman’s granddaughter (pap).  I just wanted to say       how it sucks riding in the rain while it’s freezing cold.
When we went to Bryce Canyon it rained the whole time, but it was still very beautiful. When it rains you need to worry about staying dry ( Well at least I do ) so pap has frog togs and to be honest I look like a human sized trash bag lol. The good thing about frog togs is that it keeps you nice and warm, because it prevents most of the wind from hitting me.

                                              (This is me in my frog togs)
     The cold on the other hand sucked even more because of a few reasons. One is because, when we were camping I just couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep, so when I was on the bike I would just doze off all the time. The second reason is because you always want something hot to eat or drink ad I usually never drink hot stuff but now I do for sure. (we were also in very night elevation) The third and final reason is because you have to wear all the clothes you packed for the trip and it’s also very uncomfortable. 
                                            (This is Zion while it was raining)
       Zion was a very pretty place but it rain most of the time but not hard just little sprinkles.  We hiked a half a mile to the top of the canyon and a half a mile back down. (It wasn’t that bad of a hike so pap went with me and Uncle Forrest)  Zion is definitely unique in all kinds of ways like it beings very small place but it’s like a whole new world when we all hiked up to the top. Another reason why is because I have just never seen such a cool place because I’m always around the same things.
        Well I think I am going to rap this up and I hope I get to post again because, it was very fun doing this.

Hi Pap, You sure look like a seasoned rider/pillion in that gear.  I think we all worry to an extent about getting wet as it lets the cold in very quickly. I would have thought that grandad of yours would have ordered better weather but then you don't always get what you want.
Good to hear you are enjoying the trip it will be a great memory for a long time.

give me to cold over to hot any day , trying to keep cool when its to hot is more difficult i think , looks like a great place to visit

In years to come you'll treasure the time you've spent hanging out together on the trip, hopefully you'll have forgot about the cold.

The scale and size of that canyon would be absabloodylutely spectacular to see in real life, keep the photos coming.

Planning a trip is easy - planning what to take for various weather scenarios is an artform. Except here. Ireland is always wet

I forgot to answer your question, why is it so cold and why does it rain.

Years ago we blamed the weather on the bloke with the beard in the sky.

Then during the enlightenment we discovered that we can have some control, for example building a dam to control floods, which would also provide us with water for the growing season.

Then in the twentieth century we found more ways to control the weather, like this one for example.

daveyson wrote:
Then in the twentieth century we found more ways to control the weather...

Right you are, daveyson.
Thank you for this piece of art.

To be continued: Man has now decided to outlaw any changes of weather.

You must not have a lot of vacation experience.  Cold and wet is traditional vacation weather unless you have the financial resources to get to the horribly expensive places where the weather is mind numbingly boring and perfect. 

The downside of those places, besides the expense, is that they totally deprive you of great adventure stories you can tell 30-40 years from now.  You are also forced to try and have a good time surrounded by flamers who are absolutely certain their stuff doesn't smell bad.

Here is a photo from one of my vacation trips:

Late September in Swiftcurrent, Saskatchewan.  It's pretty obvious why Canada, Eh?, is referred to as the "Great White North".

.75 reminds me of my attempt to ride from NYC to Nova Scotia in September.
made it as far as Bar Harbor Maine only to wake up 2 days in a row with ice on my k100rs. I learned my lesson. Only attempt that trip between August 1st returning on the second!

'For the record .75, that happened to me in Saskatchewan in late June back in the early 80's.  Full whiteout conditions but I was driving a tractor in circles and the bike was parked up in the barn.

In my uni days, late '70s, I rode my R75 in every condition (sometimes sauced, yes), but one day the forecasters were dead wrong and the cloudy day turned to 1-1/2 feet of white. Since I was in the dark room developing images, I had no idea 'till a classmate, knowing I rode often the only bike in the car park, asked how I'd get home. Two feet down, no brakes, light throttle, not stopping at red lights or stop signs, for several miles through a silent, dark city, accompanied only by snowplows. 

I did not fall.

Yeah, Woodie, I'm thinking you need to be pretty tough to live on the Canadian plains.  Summer can't be more than two months long.

The day that photo was taken I was trying to get to the Rockies to ride north to Banff to spend a couple days there.  A few miles west of Lethbridge the police stopped me and wouldn't let me pass because of a blizzard that had dumped 20cm of snow on the road.  And it was only September 25th!

Two Wheels Better wrote:In my uni days, late '70s, I rode my R75 in every condition (sometimes sauced, yes), but one day the forecasters were dead wrong and the cloudy day turned to 1-1/2 feet of white. Since I was in the dark room developing images, I had no idea 'till a classmate, knowing I rode often the only bike in the car park, asked how I'd get home. Two feet down, no brakes, light throttle, not stopping at red lights or stop signs, for several miles through a silent, dark city, accompanied only by snowplows. 

I did not fall.

I have done this but only in 4" of snow. But it only works when the snow is fresh. K100LT and it got me home. No brakes, no stopping, very little throttle. It works.

I tried it and broke my wrist.
What am I doing wrong? (apart from trying to ride a 200 kilo, two-wheeled bike in the snow, obviously)

I used to ride and race dirt bikes in the winter in snow over a foot deep, but I can't imagine riding one of these 550lb pigs on snow with street tires.  Especially the heavy wet snow that you get when the temperature is around the freezing point.  Great way to break bones and lots of plastic bits.

Point-Seven-five wrote:Yeah, Woodie, I'm thinking you need to be pretty tough to live on the Canadian plains.  Summer can't be more than two months long.

I lived in Saskatchewan for four years and the weather was unlike anything that I had experienced before or since.  The weather can swing from bitter cold to beautifully warm in the space of a day or less sometimes.  Winter weather could hit you in the summer and summer in winter.  Incredible place to live though.

Woodie wrote:The weather can swing from bitter cold to beautifully warm in the space of a day or less sometimes. 

Exactly!  The day before the photo, I was in Regina and the temperature was 20C.

Suzi Q wrote:I tried it and broke my wrist.
What am I doing wrong? (apart from trying to ride a 200 kilo, two-wheeled bike in the snow, obviously)

Any chance you remember the winter of 1985? A 540 mile round trip to the Dragon Rally where 350 miles of that was on ice and snow. Snow. Bloody... snow. Drifts up to way over our heads on the way home. Temperatures so far below zero the Arctic must have been warmer. Had our own snowplough for a few miles too! The bloody weather man got that well wrong. It took almost thirty-six hours to do what was normally an eight-hour ride, but miracle of miracles, NOBODY FELL OFF!!!! Not in our group anyway; I know of one bike that did learn to skate in the other group. There were a few cases of frost nip but nothing serious.

So... how cold was cold? Shortly after I got home and almost fell off my bike with stiffness (a fully-faired Yamaha XS250), I took a picture of it. There's bloody ICICLES hanging off the sump!!!!!!!!

Woodie wrote:I lived in Saskatchewan for four years and the weather was unlike anything that I had experienced before or since.  The weather can swing from bitter cold to beautifully warm in the space of a day or less sometimes.  Winter weather could hit you in the summer and summer in winter.  Incredible place to live though.

Oddly enough it did/does the same in Kentucky, up in the Appalachians. There were a few days in the winter when I started the day around 7.30am in full-cold bundle not far above freezing, but by 11.00am I was back in t-shirt and shorts. I'd been warned about this by a mate who'd lived near Lexington and worked somewhere in Illinois; he said on quite a few occasions the 90 minute ride to work had started as full-winter clothing and ended, four stops later, in t-shirt and shorts.

The simple answer to the original question…’Why does it rain and why is it so cold?’ is because, if it was dry and sunny all the time, the roads would be choked by broken down or about to break down Harley’s. The peace and quiet of your adventure would be ruined by the noise of their exhausts and their exciting tales of how long it takes to polish all the chrome.

Actually, the weather forecasters could be our friends - all they need to do is forecast a bit of rain for tomorrow and then the Harleys will never come out of their garages…and we can ride smuggly in the sunshine.

Paul
you made my day evening!

Paul, you know I have a HD ultra? You also know why I have the bricks right? Of course so I have something to ride in the rain!

The funny thing about it is Zion NP in normally packed with visitors but the rain and chill let us enjoy the park as if it was our own.

caveman wrote:Paul, you know I have a HD ultra? You also know why I have the bricks right? Of course so I have something to ride in the rain!

The funny thing about it is Zion NP in normally packed with visitors but the rain and chill let us enjoy the park as if it was our own.

Ah, you’re a wise man…best of both worlds. 

I was very recently on a memorial ride on an unseasonably hot and dry (by UK standards) October day…about 7000 registered bikes (nearly 1000 bikes from my starting location) and even more joining along the route. Lots of HDs out for the day (they did look and sound good!) and their owners extolling their virtues in the bar afterwards. 


It was good to read of your adventures.