Posted here and there.

It took me about an hour but I made it home in one piece. This is a shot of the bike when I got to the parking lot (the overhead light makes it look like the middle of the day).

My Bike

I didn't take the highway and apparently I wasn't the only one with that idea. It's usually about a 15 minute ride home, but with bumper to bumper traffic (going against the normal flow of traffic) it took me about an hour. Lot's of stop and go traffic that didn't seem to bother the Ural too much. Once I turned off the main road into my subdivision I had to go up a couple hills. At this point I ended up stuck behind a Honda Accord that had trouble getting up the hills, so I was stuck waiting and creeping along, but I didn't get stuck, at least not until I got impatient and tried to pass. I hit the thick stuff in the middle of the lanes (not plowed yet) and was doing pretty good until I tried to pull back into my lane while going uphill. I got stuck for a few seconds, but before I could put it into 2WD some pedestrian jumped onto the street and pushed me through the mound I was stuck in.

I got home to find the wife and kids working at the driveway with the shovels. I tried to run up the steep driveway with no room to get a run at it and I didn't quite make it. I put it into 2wd and tried again but there was just too much wet heavy snow and too much of a slope. I decided not to waste the fact that I put it into 2wd and wheeled up and down the snow covered road before helping out with the driveway.

By the time I got off the bike the header pipes were glowing a dull red, but the bike ran good all the way home. When I left work the windows were lined with people. I walked by the receptionist on the way out and she said, "Don't go yet, I'm suppose to call some people." Apparently I was the entertainment. On the way home I had a coule people take pictures with their camera phones and people didn't give sideways glances, they rolled their windows down and stared.

While sitting in traffic at one point I brushed the snow off the tank, big mistake as my glasses instantly fogged up as the steam coming of the engine from the snow surrounded me.

There's no more snow in the forcast for the week so hopefully I'll get the knobby on this weekend and see how well that works. Fingers got a little cold even inside the gloves and hippo hands, but nothing serious, and the rest of me was fine.

All in all, a great adventure. I'll looking forward to the rest of winter, at least once I get the knobby on. The other bonus is that the salt trucks hadn't come along, so no salt currently eating away at the bike, something I'll likely have to deal with tomorrow.

Tud

Now that is my kind of riding weather. I am really glad I put the knobbies on mine.

Dana
06Patrol in Blue

Beauty....I am envious of all that white fluffy stuff. Makes WI look puss.

I have fun with how greasy the rear end is..it is like when I was kid driving my old Mercury Capri w/ rear-wheel drive and learning how to drift the rear-end! Practice, practice.

I have a ton of salt on my bike, I am tring to decide how to wash it all off. Kinda scared to try to wash with water, who knows what might freeze up!

PS in the snow watch out for the a-hole tail gaiters that don't realize that they won't stop and run over you from behind!! E

You can wash off most of the crud at the local car wash. Just try not to get spray into the control levers or into the airbox. You can cover the airbox with a plastic grocery bag to keep it fairly dry, else you may have a "moment" when trying to restart and go home. Wet, cold drum brakes will not function hardly at all. Just drag the brakes a bit and they will heat up and dry out.

If all the operating stuff is greased well then ya don't get much problem from things freezing up.

I try not to wash off the rig very often, cuz it will just get nasty again within a few hours. The rig will build up a very nice " crust " which will protect the finish. OR.... not...... Washing the rig when you know you'll be riding every day in the snow and muck just seems to be a bit of a waste. Ya do reach a point at which the rig is just so nasty ya can't take it any more. The longer you ride the rig the more extended these periods will be...... ;-)



kermitski

Cool pictures, it looks like you have a good sidecar monkey to share the rig with too. But it seems your garage is a little crowded, maybe you could send me the Indian to "store".

The garage is definately too crowded. I keep telling the wife that we need to move but she likes the area we're in. Right now I've got my '74 CB550Four at my folks place, which still leaves my '70 Triumph chopper, my KDX80 (from when I Was a kid), my '72 Triumph Daytona (on the bench) and the Indian.

The Indian is a 1930 101 Scout and is in horrible condition. The bike was used in a wall of death show some 30 years ago and the original engine had been pulled and replaced with a '56 Villiers engine. The bottom end came with the sale but it's pretty much a paper weight. I went splits on this bike and a '32 Scout in better shape with my brother for $3500. He took the more complete '32 and I took the '30 with all the spare parts. I ended up selling an extra, but bent, leaf spring front end for $700, so I basically got the bike for $1150 Canadian. It'll be several years before I have the time and money to tackle that one.

Tud




WI likely gets more than us in the course of a year. We're on the coast and the ocean keeps the temps relatively mild. This snow will likely be gone in a week.



If I wash mine I'll stick it in the garage afterwards in order to keep it from freezing, IF I wash it.

I was lucky enough not to have anyone riding my ass last night, hopefully my luck will hold up this winter. There were a lot of people caught with summer tires still on their cars, it was fun to go by as they sat there spinning their tires.

Tud

Sheesh Tud, looks like a giant bird crapped on yer rig...



Oh wait, that's the "snow" stuff again, aint it? Very peculiar...

Jake is old enough to shovel snow? Dang, they grow up fast...

I used the term liberally. He's old enough to grab a small shovel and knock the snow that I've already shovelled back onto the driveway.