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The first few hundred miles of my trip were uneventful, just me and the bike riding at Interstate speeds, which is good, since I have an Valkyrie Interstate. All the shortcomings about seats and shocks, bad tires, forgetting to pack necessary things or whatever, were either fantasy or reality, depending on if I actually needed any of the items everyone said I should take. As I filled up again in Newport, TN, I took time to grab a burger and make a couple of phone calls.
“Yes, it looks like rain, probably before I hit Nashville.” “I will be all right, I have a rain suit and a liner for my Joe Rocket super industrial strength, skid protected jacket.” About 30 minutes later, I was contemplating taking the jacket off as I approached Knoxville. Even the mesh jacket, with no liner in it, was still leaving me sweaty at “Interstate speed,” (you fill in the speed number). Shortly after leaving Knoxville heading towards Nashville, I stopped to stretch my legs and return the better part of a Coca Cola to the environment. It was then I decided that the thunder and lightning warranted at least the waterproof liner to be put in my jacket. I heard someone comment that I was going to get wet, “looks like it,” I replied. Wet, was an understatement, I did have my jacket with liner, and my leather chaps, which later resembled soggy beef jerky!
As I left the rest stop, the rain began, “no problem,” I thought to myself smugly, “I am on the Interstate, I have a full face helmet and rain gear,” “crap,” was my next response, when the rain hit so hard I couldn’t see the road in front of me. Just to let you know, my Shoei helmet has given me problems with fog up from day one, and today was no exception, but I normally ride with the shield up, so I don’t think about it. Today I observed that nothing is like having rain coming down so hard that you can’t see or hear anything. I did notice the lights of a truck trailer that had passed me earlier going by on the left (I had caught up in the rain). I needed to slow down rapidly (probably a good thing since everybody was slowing or stopping). We sloshed forward at speeds so slow that my windshield was useless, the water just ran over the top and into my face. I had to leave my face shield open to see, so the rain then hit me in the face. “Oh, joy, this trip is starting to suck”. “I need positive thoughts,” so I just turned the adventure side of me on and “this rain won’t hurt me, I was hot a few minutes ago.”
Then the onboard stereo and clock quit, I guess the rain was too much for it. It did come back on after rebooting itself several times. We need more computers on our bikes, especially in the rain… geez! About a hundred miles later, I was nearly dried out in time to stop for for gas again. Nothing like hot sun and wet clothes to steam you up a bit! (read more...)
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