White Knuckle Ride

B

Bo67

Hopped on the bike today at 5am for my 45 mile commute to work. Temperature was 32 degrees F. Cold, but I was geared up for it (no heated hand grips yet). We had some pretty good rain the night before but the roads where I lived seemed dry enough. About 5 miles east of Boise (35 miles into my commute) the road got slick quick. There must have been an isolated shower that rolled through recently and the temperature was just right to freeze up the road a bit (not a good situation). I GENTLY slowed from ~83 MPH down to about 40 MPH for the last 4 miles on the interstate. The bike handled good enough, it didn't lurch or **** over on me, but still a bad deal to get into. After saying "this sucks, this sucks" a thousand times in my mind, the road dried up and I got to work ok.

Things I'm glad about:

1. It wasn't that icy, but icy enough to increase my pucker factor a bunch.
2. The bad stretch wasn't that long, maybe 4 miles or so.
3. At 5am I'm usually the only person on the interstate so I could concentrate on keeping the bars square and slow down without becoming a hazard to anyone next to or behind me.

By 4:30 pm it was sunny and 67 degrees; another great ride home.

I guess why I'm writing is remind you all what you already know; Fall is here in most parts and with that comes unpredictable weather conditions so please do a gut check instead of just checking the weather station before you hop on your bike. Had I done that, I would've taken the car to work today.

The roads are dry now and the forecast is looking good for the rest of the week!

Have fun and stay safe!

-Bo
 
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