Mmmmmmmm.

RW> I've never ridden mine more than 60 miles from home but have had the
RW> pleasure of riding in the rain with that windshield in place.
Getting RW> soaked isn't my idea of fun.

 MH> No, and getting stuck in a massive thunderstorm is even worse.  Not to 
 MH> mention very stressful, I poured the water out of my 
 MH> boots when I got home.  

 MH> Made the mistake that I thought I could outrun the storm - and lost.  

 MH> - Mark

When I bought my BMW R60 from a friend who moved to Phoenix and rode it
back to Bryan, TX, back in 1963, I made a SERIOUS error.  I stopped in
Lordsberg,New Mexico for the night, then got up early the next morning for
the ride back to Bryan.  I forgot to check the weather!  Hmmmm.  It had a
long seat and I just laid down on it horizontal and jammed the throttle
open roaring off over the Interstate 10.  No windshield on it either, by
the way.

I was just riding it full wide open all the time.  Errrr until I got just
East of Fort Stockton.  I had forgotten to check the weather and yep, there
was a HUGE front coming through I hit!   Uhhh, hail.  Bigger and bigger
hail until it was way over a half inch and getting bigger and bigger!

What in the %$%$%$% to do?  Out in the middle of nowhere there was NO place
to duck into or hide.  I finally pulled off the side of the highway and
crawled under the Beemer and laid it down on top of me to protect me from
the hail!  I survived.  As a VERY high time multi-engine instrument flight
instructor and commercial pilot even then I really did know what I was
faced with as this all developed.  Anyway, I survived the hail shaft
passage and got back up with the bike and fired it off again toward home.

At least the tornado did't hit me.

No more incidents all the way home.  And .. with my Austin Healey 100 with
my hand installed 350HP Corvette fuel injection engine in it that I also
owned at the time that would float the valves in high gear at about 175MPH
that I drove it at all over everywhere, I think you can see some more here.

I finished my ride home on the bike from Lordsberg to Bryan in 13 hours and
ten minutes total that day.  I'm probably the only one you'll also ever
know that after 85,000 miles on this R60, most of it wide open wherever
possible this way, even wore out the engine in it so that it locked the
crankshaft up in the engine one day.  Even with full oil still in the
crankcase.

Chuckle, ;)

Mike Luther N117C posted from 1:117/100



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