Lamonster
10-06-2013, 05:34 AM
I'm in Springfield MO right now and put on just over 700 on my ST with the corrected alinement and I got to say I love it. As soon as I got on the highway I could tell it was a different ride, it drove like it was on rails and I did a lot of testing with the cruise on and letting go of the bars a half mile or so at a time and if the road was flat it held its line at 70 mph.
I've always had issues with tanker trucks and car haulers and for the first time I had no problem with their turbulence like I use to. My trailer was loaded pretty heavy and I could feel that in the wind but that was about it.
So now the real test. Just as I was ready to cross the Mississippi into MO I saw I was heading into a big bad storm, I mean ugly. I had been riding with a cutoff shirt as it was 89 degrees and I didn't want to put on my big jacket so I just put on my good Frogtogs pants jacket. In the past these have kept be dry and I even considered not putting them on at all because it was so hot anyway. I knew I would get soaked but figured I would dry off before I got to PitBull but I checked the radar and it looked like I was going to hit it another storm right after I passed through this one so I wouldn't dry out in time.
So I cross the bridge into MO and the wind picked up pretty good. It would have been blowing me all over the road if it drove like it did before and I still got pushed around a bit because of the trailer catching wind but still I knew it was much better. So now I'm about ready to head into what I called "The wrath of God". I'm in the middle of no where and there was no where to seek shelter and I knew I could punch through it if I didn't get killed in the process. This was at 3 pm and the sky was so dark that my gps and dash went to night mode. The lightning had big horizontal bolts that had four or five bolts coming down from that. They were hitting in front of me and I had to go right through them. I got to tell you I was a little freaked out and I don't freak out on lighting very often. At one point I just said " Lord if you're going to take me out now just make sure I don't survive it". It was raining so hard that even my good Frogtogs couldn't handle it and I was soaked.
It was a nice straight road but I couldn't get out of third gear because I was needing the power to correct for the driving wind. I wanted so bad to pull off under shelter but there was none. Then the big scare happened. I guess I was doing about 45 mph in a driving rain and you couldn't really tell what the road was doing and I guess I hit a flooded part of the road and it just about through me over the bars and then headed me into oncoming traffic and I corrected in time to miss a big truck but I over corrected and went into the shoulder of the road. Good thing I was already soaked because I may have pissed my pants a little bit. I then slowed down to about 30 mph till I got to a little town where I could pull under the only canopy in the town. I changed my dark glasses to clear and continued to ride. Not more than a mile down the road I saw flashing lights and sure enough there was a car in a big ditch, I was thinking that could have been me.
I got though that storm and stopped in a little town for fuel and to chill out a little. I kept my gear on because I was heading into the next storm. What I didn't know was the temps were going to drop from 89 degrees to 49 degrees. If I had known that I would have put on dry clothes and my Thermal suit and gloves. I didn't know this so I spent the next 160 miles getting colder and colder till I needed fuel about 14 miles from PitBull and that's when I decided to put on a warm jacket and gloves even though I was soaked. My hands were so cold that I couldn't open them up and I had to slide them off the end of the bars and then move my fingers with my other hand. They were so soaked and sticky that I could barley get my fingers in the glove because they just stopped as they started in.
As I was finishing up the last 14 miles I was trying to think happy thoughts as my teeth were chattering and was thinking how glad I was that I did my alinement before this trip. I was also thinking how I wish I had put heated grips on this ST and how I wish I was on my 2014 RT and that a hot shower was really going to feel good when I get to the hotel. The other thing I was thinking was thank the Lord I was on a Spyder and not on one of my bikes, this would have been twice as bad on two wheels. I've been real cold before and real wet and have driven through some pretty bad weather but I got to say this made it to my top five bad weather trips on my list. It's a good day to be alive. :doorag:
I've always had issues with tanker trucks and car haulers and for the first time I had no problem with their turbulence like I use to. My trailer was loaded pretty heavy and I could feel that in the wind but that was about it.
So now the real test. Just as I was ready to cross the Mississippi into MO I saw I was heading into a big bad storm, I mean ugly. I had been riding with a cutoff shirt as it was 89 degrees and I didn't want to put on my big jacket so I just put on my good Frogtogs pants jacket. In the past these have kept be dry and I even considered not putting them on at all because it was so hot anyway. I knew I would get soaked but figured I would dry off before I got to PitBull but I checked the radar and it looked like I was going to hit it another storm right after I passed through this one so I wouldn't dry out in time.
So I cross the bridge into MO and the wind picked up pretty good. It would have been blowing me all over the road if it drove like it did before and I still got pushed around a bit because of the trailer catching wind but still I knew it was much better. So now I'm about ready to head into what I called "The wrath of God". I'm in the middle of no where and there was no where to seek shelter and I knew I could punch through it if I didn't get killed in the process. This was at 3 pm and the sky was so dark that my gps and dash went to night mode. The lightning had big horizontal bolts that had four or five bolts coming down from that. They were hitting in front of me and I had to go right through them. I got to tell you I was a little freaked out and I don't freak out on lighting very often. At one point I just said " Lord if you're going to take me out now just make sure I don't survive it". It was raining so hard that even my good Frogtogs couldn't handle it and I was soaked.
It was a nice straight road but I couldn't get out of third gear because I was needing the power to correct for the driving wind. I wanted so bad to pull off under shelter but there was none. Then the big scare happened. I guess I was doing about 45 mph in a driving rain and you couldn't really tell what the road was doing and I guess I hit a flooded part of the road and it just about through me over the bars and then headed me into oncoming traffic and I corrected in time to miss a big truck but I over corrected and went into the shoulder of the road. Good thing I was already soaked because I may have pissed my pants a little bit. I then slowed down to about 30 mph till I got to a little town where I could pull under the only canopy in the town. I changed my dark glasses to clear and continued to ride. Not more than a mile down the road I saw flashing lights and sure enough there was a car in a big ditch, I was thinking that could have been me.
I got though that storm and stopped in a little town for fuel and to chill out a little. I kept my gear on because I was heading into the next storm. What I didn't know was the temps were going to drop from 89 degrees to 49 degrees. If I had known that I would have put on dry clothes and my Thermal suit and gloves. I didn't know this so I spent the next 160 miles getting colder and colder till I needed fuel about 14 miles from PitBull and that's when I decided to put on a warm jacket and gloves even though I was soaked. My hands were so cold that I couldn't open them up and I had to slide them off the end of the bars and then move my fingers with my other hand. They were so soaked and sticky that I could barley get my fingers in the glove because they just stopped as they started in.
As I was finishing up the last 14 miles I was trying to think happy thoughts as my teeth were chattering and was thinking how glad I was that I did my alinement before this trip. I was also thinking how I wish I had put heated grips on this ST and how I wish I was on my 2014 RT and that a hot shower was really going to feel good when I get to the hotel. The other thing I was thinking was thank the Lord I was on a Spyder and not on one of my bikes, this would have been twice as bad on two wheels. I've been real cold before and real wet and have driven through some pretty bad weather but I got to say this made it to my top five bad weather trips on my list. It's a good day to be alive. :doorag: