Most memorable winter riding or driving experience

12 Posts | Latest replyΒ on 12/02/2023 19:32:05 by havfun | Go to original / last post
Steve_H's Profile
Steve_H

In: Teesdale
Posts: 2078
57% Karma57% Karma 57% Karma57% Karma

Following on from a few other threads here and there it's got me thinking, what was your most memorable winter riding or driving experience? Good? Bad?

Mine was a couple of years back driving home from work. I knew snow was on the way but I had confidence in my trusty Suzuki Swift 4x4 would get me home.
Mine was going down a gentle bank in one of the villages I passed through. A solid stone wall one side, a line of parked cars the other, a T junction at end and the ABS purring away. I wasn't speeding down, but I wasn't slowing down either.
Do I crash my car into the wall or the cars to stop? Or do I just sail across the main road at the bottom, hope nothing is coming and drive into another wall opposite.
Thankfully a short distance from the junction was a small patch of dry tarmac under tree, just enough to stop me.
The psychologically scarring was, much worse than all the getting stuck or pirouetting down the road I've experienced. If it had all happened quickly I wouldn't have bothered me but it was all in slow motion.
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TheSlasher

In: chesterfield
Posts: 1303
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I remember many years ago in Germany, freezing rain was forecast and we were told to leave work early to try and get home safely. I had a 30 mile drive, decided to take the longer way back, avoiding little country roads and stay on hopefully gritted main roads. This was before mobile phones, my partner at the time waiting for my return.... It took me 5,5 hours....!! Heavy snow, freezing rain, rear wheel drive cars sliding all over the road... Eventually I reached a motorway and stuck myself behind a truck....
JP's Profile
JP

In: Birmingham
Posts: 11141
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Many years ago when i was young I had a triumph combo loved that bike and wish I still had it. Anyway I had gone to a girlfriends house and it had been snowing all afternoon the ride home was 1 of the best rides on a bike I have ever had. Every corner every turn was just a massive power slide no traffic and no police to spoil my fun. I didnt even feel the cold i was almost crying with the laughter.
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Suziwuz123

In: Derry
Posts: 11
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Last Saturday the gritters dint come out.i didn't know.n thot il be grand ..roads like a glass bottle and back wheel slipping about like mad.crazy ride to work and v scary.work's car park like an ice rink and all the girls staring out the window at me like I'd 3 heads.never again!!!β™§β˜†β™§
yorkie mick's Profile
yorkie mick

In: Wakefield
Posts: 452
14% Karma14% Karma 14% Karma14% Karma

Me and my mate on a Honda cd 200 and two up. We'd got caught in persistent snow deep in the Yorkshire Dales then slid off and as we picked ourselves up a car whizzed past with the occupants out the window laughing their asses off. Ten minutes later, after we restarted, we came across them again just over the brow of an hill and to our delight the same car had stuffed it into a Drystone wall as we sped by. Karma anybody πŸ˜ƒπŸ˜‚
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Coffee n Cake

In: Stockport
Posts: 12
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Great subject. Always interesting to hear other stories. πŸ™‚

My memory: 2003 NEC Bike show. I knew it was going to be a bit parky, forecast was for +3 degrees C for the trip home to Cheshire.
Journey home on my CBR 600F took 3 hours. Very icey. Some roads closed due to accidents. Needed to keep stopping to warm up.
I remember riding past an accident. Car was on it's roof. Police in attendance. I rode past at walking pace with both feet on the ground, acting as skis. I notice one Bobby mouthing " what the ...." as a trickled by the carnage.
Once home & thawed out I checked the temperature... it was -6 degrees C!!
No idea what windchill temperatures I'd experienced but it showed I had learned pretty quickly, having only started riding 16 months earlier.

Amazing what's possible when you put your mind to it.
yorkie mick's Profile
yorkie mick

In: Wakefield
Posts: 452
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Blue fingers and the pain warming your pandies up on the real open fire afterwards. Oh the pain πŸ˜‚                                                                                                                                                                             
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Deleted Member

In: NA
Posts: 0
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oh my god the pain!!! running arou d feeling like my fingers are gonna explode!!!
I always thought I ought to get some kinda mitten cover on my handlebars or heated grips but I never did and Sheesh I felt it!!                                                                                                                                                                             
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Deleted Member

In: NA
Posts: 0
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sliding 50m sidewise, next to my cb200, on compacted snow at 8am riding to work. no damage to me or bike thanks to compacted snow                                                                                                                                                                             
Wills's Profile
Wills

In: New Brighton
Posts: 3265
73% Karma73% Karma 73% Karma73% Karma

My (then) girlfriend's Mini was staring at an MoT failure through rotted sills, and she'd decided to scrap it as the whole contraption was held together by body filler.
While it was still legal to drive, I took it out for a spin one wintry day on deserted icy roads, without a care in the world. Several spins, to be accurate, each one wilder than the other.
Eventually the fun had to stop, and I drove home rather more carefully on roads where there was traffic about. First set of lights, I rolled gently to a halt on the stop line, which is more than the car behind me managed.
He locked up all four wheels and slid full-tilt into the back of the Mini.
His insurance paid for the lot. And the write-off value for a Mini with an MoT was considerably more than what the scrappie was offering.
Result!
Lindsay's Profile
Lindsay

In: Leeds
Posts: 15126
53% Karma53% Karma 53% Karma53% Karma

The first time I encountered snow, having recently passed my test. I was working, I looked out of the window I could see the roads were beginning to disappear under a white blanket.

Having pulled my big girl pants up and braved the trudge to the car. I gave myself a pep talk... You got this, Linz...

I managed to get myself out of the car park and onto A64, all was fine, although nose to tail traffic, until I took the stupid option (thought I was being clever) and took a 'short cut' up Halton Hill... Traffic queued to the left, I took the right lane, up to the top junction but couldn't get my car over into the other lane. Ok, let's go straight on through the grounds of Temple Newsam House (stupidity?).

I slowly battled my way through pristine snow, my poor little Hyundai X2 protesting every so often. I eventually got home (it took hours) it seemed once I got to A63 that everyone had forgotten how to drive and were abandoning their vehicles.

When I pulled up at home I was told in no uncertain terms (by my then husband) that I had been very stupid to go the route I did. As that would have been the last route anyone would think of using.

Ahhh well it worked for me.
The only downside was that after protesting for months about not wanting or needing a mobile phone, I was immediately given one and told to use it!

I was so proud (*smug if I'm honest!) of myself having had a short chat with my mum about winter driving, after passing my test, that I got back without mishap. Thanks mum πŸ™
havfun's Profile
havfun

In: harrogate
Posts: 717
13% Karma13% Karma 13% Karma13% Karma

Going over the moores on my brand new suzuki ts125j trail bike
jan 1st 1974 first regesterd
We stoppd for stoppd for lunch walkd arpund to sort of keep warm
Time to set off again
Cud ride my bike over snow drifts and it didnt sink
One of the lads had triumph trail bike 500cc thingy
He set off front suspension frozen solid
He ended up raming it into the old stone wall to free it off
It workd after 5 mins
Worst part was going down hill on green road
Brakes water logd z bend in the track
Was a wild ride bike bucking and trying to chuck me off
But made it even though bike was at the bottom of walls where grass meets wall on both sides of track
Needles to say we all had coffee brake when we got to grassington
All good fun


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