Bad weather, bad decision, thank God for frame & axel sliders

[Nelly]

Two weeks ago I got up as usual to ride to work. I was delighted that the
-15C weather had at long last abated. It was a beautiful morning, dry and very mild at 6C.
My thirteen hour shift finishes and I get ready to ride the 25 mile trip home. As I got out of the main town (Tullamore) and headed toward the countryside. The weather suddenly changed drastically. The temperature was -1C and it started to snow like I haven't seen before. Had I bothered to check the weather forecast I would have know that the snow was coming.
No problem, I have ridden in the snow plenty of times. The first fall is usually the easiest as the snow has not turned to slush.
I pulled over to tell my wife I would be late as the roads were bad.
The journey went from bad to worse, the snow was freezing as soon as it landed and within ten minutes there was about four inches on the ground.
I had to slow down to about 16kph as it was very slippery.
The cars behind me were getting really pi55ed off with my limited progress and started to tail gate me.
I pulled over to let them pass thinking that if I went down. There would be no way for the driver to stop without hitting me.
So I got underway again and conditions got even worse, a car coming toward me was going to fast and skidded off the road demolishing a fence. The driver was ok.
I could not ride on the main road anymore as it was pure ice. I decided that I would pull into the next house (with lights on) and ask to leave my bike overnight. The next house was about six miles away.
I lost the front doing 15kph and dropped my bike. This happened twice before I got to the house. My slider was well and truly bent. No damage to my bike though.

I got to this strangers house and like the decent country people they were they let me leave my bike no problem. I gave them the keys in case the alarm went off and said I would be back the next day.

I then started the remainder of my journey on foot in full bike gear. Lucky for me a family from my nearest town were coming back from Dublin, and stopped to give me a ride. So I only had to walk 2 miles from town to home.

The next day I went to get my bike and gave the kind people a bottle of Jameson for their help.

The slider was knackerd I had to saw it in half to get to the bolt.

Fortunately I was able to undo the nut with a ratchet

I was hoping that the multiple drops had not caused the frame to crack.
There appeared to only be slight damage to the engine bolt mounting surface

I got some new sliders from e-bay yesterday.

Moral of the story, check the weather forecast.

Thanks for reading,
Nelly:thumbup:

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Nelly,

Did you have any difficulty in picking the bike back up once it fell? Seems to me the slippery footing from the ice and snow would make it difficult.

I don't really consider this a Hall of Shame moment. Give credit to yourself for knowing when to stop riding. I don't think most of us on this forum would have managed to get as far as you did.

 

[lytehouse]

Wow! Happy to hear it wasn't any worse than a broken frame slider. Kudos to ya for stopping too, I don't know if I would have left my bike at a strangers house, with the keys no less!
The bright side is: you won BOTM before this happened

 

[FZ1inNH]

Thank God you're OK Nelly. You're braver than I am because my bike doesn't come out unless the roads are clear and no snow is in the forecast. Even then, it's a rare winter day that I venture out. Glad you parked it when you did. :thumbup:

 

[Nelly]

Nelly,

Did you have any difficulty in picking the bike back up once it fell? Seems to me the slippery footing from the ice and snow would make it difficult.

I don't really consider this a Hall of Shame moment. Give credit to yourself for knowing when to stop riding. I don't think most of us on this forum would have managed to get as far as you did.

Hi Kenny,

It was very slippery, I had a towel in my bag that I use after work. I laid it on the ground and used the picking up method as posted by wrightme.
It was okay.

Nelly

 

[Nelly]

Wow! Happy to hear it wasn't any worse than a broken frame slider. Kudos to ya for stopping too, I don't know if I would have left my bike at a strangers house, with the keys no less!
The bright side is: you won BOTM before this happened

Thanks Brenda,

I figured that they were good enough to open the door at 23.00, to a complete stranger wearing a helmet. They would be okay lol. Plus I would have been embarrassed if my bike alarm ruined there hospitality.

As for the BOTM I kinda won that due to a technical error. There was a slight meltdown with the hardware that calculates the votes. The member with more votes than me kindly let the decision stand. I am delighted though.

 

[Nelly]

Thank God you're OK Nelly. You're braver than I am because my bike doesn't come out unless the roads are clear and no snow is in the forecast. Even then, it's a rare winter day that I venture out. Glad you parked it when you did. :thumbup:

Cheers Eric,

I taught myself a lesson, in that I now check the forecast lol.

Nelly

 

[FZ6-ZN]

Nelly, I’m glad you came out ok; A little bit of cosmetic damage adds character.

Where I live the temperature seldom drops below 15 deg C and then we think it’s cold.

I couldn’t imagine commuting in such bad weather.

FZ6-ZN

 

[Erci]

Good Lord! Glad you're OK.
Maybe we should all get Ural sidecars or Can-Am Spyders for Winter riding

 

[grommit]

As the others said good you are OK mate.:thumbup:

How did the axle sliders looks after these drops?

 

[Motogiro]

Glad you're okay Nelly. :rockon:
I look outside and if there's anything that looks like it could rain I wimp out! I have done a lot of rain riding in the past but that was a different part of the country and I can't imagine having to ride in snow!

 

[Nelly]

Nelly, I’m glad you came out ok; A little bit of cosmetic damage adds character.

Where I live the temperature seldom drops below 15 deg C and then we think it’s cold.

I couldn’t imagine commuting in such bad weather.

FZ6-ZN

I don't mind the cold to much, the only bit of me that suffers is my forehead and nose lol.

Nelly

 

[Nelly]

Glad you're okay Nelly. :rockon:
I look outside and if there's anything that looks like it could rain I wimp out! I have done a lot of rain riding in the past but that was a different part of the country and I can't imagine having to ride in snow!

\Hi, I don't normally go out in the snow as part of my regular riding. I have been caught in it a few times though.

Nelly

 

[Nelly]

As the others said good you are OK mate.:thumbup:

How did the axle sliders looks after these drops?

Hi M,
I thought that the axel sliders were just a gimmick. The bike actually slide on three points of contact.
1. Frame slider
2. Bar end (very slight scuff, bars not bent).
3. Front axel slider ( Again slight scuffing, none on the rear slider) I have just turned the slider so the scuff is in the 21.00 position.

Defiantly worth the £20.00 investment and the slight hassle in taking the rear one off to adjust the chain.

Nelly

 

[wolfe1down]

Glad you're ok and the bike too. I'm amazed that you made it as far as you did. I'm mentally replaying the imagined ride in my head, and coming to the same conclusion... Rider down! Again, good job noting when to call it quits, and for not hurting yourself or your bike (too badly). :thumbup:

 

[Humperdinkel]

Ohh crap mate , glad you are OK :thumbup:

Could have been much , much worse

 

[Stumbles06]

Damn Nelly, glad to see you're ok.
As Kenny said, good to see you stopped (well wanted to stop) before anything bad happened. I can't imagine riding on ice... *shudders*.

Looks like the bike survived the drops well, perfect situation for sliders to do their job.

:rockon:

 

[lonesoldier84]

woo

That could have ended much worse. People tailgating in that scenario? WOW some people are really jerks. You clearly know they are behind you. What jerks.

And yeah, checking weather forecast is a must in potential-snow situations.

 

[youngy]

Glad you're ok mate. Could have ended a lot worse. :thumbup:

 

[Wolfman]

Glad your ok Neil, looks like that frame slider came very close to damaging your frame...nmuch like my recent get off....

Glad your ok, glad the bike is ok, those riding conditions sound diabolical, but i suppose yopu had to keep going as far as you did, at least until you could find a safe haven..

Re the contact points...people, do as Neil has done, get yourself some fork sliders, everytime i have put an FZ6 on it's side, the fork sliders, or the bottom of the front forks have taken a hit...rear axle sliders are also a good idea...

As for frame sliders...i reckon the jury is out on their value with a cast frame, and insertable frame sliders....maybe caged sliders are a better option, regardless of the fact, that they are not the prettiest things in the world...

Once again, glad to see your ok!

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup: