Idiots in the SNOW!

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Originally Posted by TFOGGER

I've had to ride in the snow (not by choice). It's not so bad, unless the pavement freezes, then it massively sucks. Both legs out as outriggers, 10 mph. Or, take the dual sport bike with ice screws in the tires! [Muaha]

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I used to ride a Honda XL350 in Alaska, even took it out on frozen lakes at times- they had packed snow on them, and the bike did very well unless you found a patch that was bare ice- since I didn't have said screws...

On a lightweight dual sport, going slow, with legs out, when forced to, maybe. With ice screws in the tires, carefully, maybe. On my Concours, ever, not only no but HELL NO!

At least the vette has four points on the ground. Might not get any traction with what they wear, but it won't fall over. I wouldn't take a vette out in that weather by choice, though.

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Originally Posted by Troublco

At least the vette has four points on the ground.

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And a heater!!

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Originally Posted by opie011

And a heater!!

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YES!!!!!! I find that more and more important, the older I get....[ROFL1]

I got a '99 KLR650 after I sold my '98 ZX-9R, but I still wouldn't ride it in the snow. One hard patch, or icy spot is all it takes. I'd love to upgrade from my '02 Connie to a new one, but it won't be happenin' for a while due to my upcoming forced career change.

I'm getting new tires tomorrow. I got over 55,000 miles out of my current ones. That's great, considering I never got more than like 20,000 miles out of any tires back when I was into driving fast (dumb) and being young (dumb).

Current are Firestone Firehawk GT. They are VERY loud. So much so, that I'm scheduled to replace my front wheel bearings, and now believe the noise to just be the tires as they wear.

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Originally Posted by foxtrot

I for one, question how the hell that bike got *that* far.

I still question how stable you would be on a dual sport. If its a decent amount of fresh snow, you would be fine, no real problems. But any moderatly hard packed crap? I dont think there is anything that's going to keep you in the upright position - unless you drive no faster than jogging speed of course. Not even sure how much ice screws would help. They can dig into ice, but thick enough snowpack.. they would only offer so much unless it was hard frozen.

Hoping to get a 2010 concours around Jan by the way. Hey, it has traction control, I'll be able to go over the pass right? [LOL]

I ride a 09 KLR-650 so I have heavier dual sport experience. And I've been down a lot. Still ride in middle of winter but my chain is about to go so it's truck only for now. Generally I stay away from snow, if only because the only thing worse than snow on packed pavement is snow on top of mud. And I have to ride on that to reach pavement...

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Google "elephant ride".

Every year a bunch of idiots (yeah, I include myself in that group) start in Grant and go over Guanella Pass in February (or as far as we can get). You would be amazed at just how much traction is available with ice screws (except on dry pavement). That being said, I wouldn't want to be on a BMW R1200GS or pretty much anything larger than a KLR. [Help]

Rumor has it that on the ice, some people have exceeded 70 mph on the way down from the summit, but I wouldn't know anything about that, nosirree.....[Muaha]