Yesterday, I was riding Natsha, my Ural Sidecar Rig home from work. A few raindrops were falling as I started the 12 mile ride home, no big deal I thought to myself.
As I got closer to my home neighborhood, it really started to pour and within seconds I was soaked to the skin as I'd not bothered to don my wet weather riding gear. It was a bit chilly as there's no such thing as a warm summer rain here in Colorado! : )
It was raining so hard that our sewer drainage systems got quickly overwhelmed and rain started running in small streams along the sides of the roads. Cool stuff I thought to myself as I purposedly ran with the sidecar wheel closer to the curb to "engage" the stream and get some good splashing going as I rode along.
Things got even more fun as the water levels rose, and it started collecting to about 8 inches deep or more at road intersections! The sewers just couldn't handle the amount of water coming down, you could even see whirlpools forming where the drains were! I'd not been out on a motorcycle in such conditions before, it was great!
Natasha and her three wheels gave me the confidence to stay out, I was soaked anyways, and play around the intersections just outside my home neighborhood. The water was deep enough that as I forded some of the deeper portions of the intersections, I could see the water lapping the engine's jugs!
At one point, I entered one intersection and gunned the engine. The water splashed up and OVER my head as I plowed into the pool of water. In fact, it killed the engine and I coasted forward a few feet out of the water pool. Natasha restarted easily enough and I continued playing for a bit.
Lots of fun, finally had enough and rode on home. Too bad the boys weren't home, as they've been asking me for a ride to do "river crossings" on the Ural. No pictures, sorry, but it would have killed the camera.
3 comments:
Dear Charlie6 (Dom):
I would have laughed like hell if the Ural had died in the middle of a deep puddle! But as it was, I was thinking of all the effort you have put into replacing the ignition sustem and the dead loss battery system — undoubtedly making sure these systems were many times more watertight than the originals.
I too have rain gear, which I never carry. As the world's largest living mammal, my raingear weighs about 15 pounds and folds to the size of a saddle (for a quarter horse). So I always get wet when it pours.
But, I have been seriously losing dieting and losng weight. I will reward myself with a CyclePort mesh jacket and pants when I hit my desired weight. Can you imagine my surprise when I visited the CyclePort site and found a picture of you wearimg their gear?
That was all the recommendation I needed.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
Jack
so my picture is on motoport.com eh? I looked, could not find it...where did they place it?
Riding in the deep pools of water was a blast!
Yeah the ural can be demanding sometimes but hey....I wouldn't have tried that deep water on two wheels!
water crossings with the Ural are fun. I found that most of the water flies into the sidecar though which can make for a more "interesting" ride for the monkey. :) Mud also seems to follow the same flight path. ;)
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