How many run there bikes in winter?I ride all year i meant how many use a Ducati all year or swop to something else.
I ride all year round wherever the weather allows. I prefer to ride above 5°C but have been caught out by hail and snow more than once. Andy
I commuted a 70 mile round trip daily for three years in a row on my first 899. Deeply unpleasant and I wouldn’t recommend it one bit if you can avoid it. The wet and wind being worse than the cold.
Depends how much I feel like cleaning it when I get home. I dropped in on my aunt Christmas Day on the 999 a few years back. It rained.
I ride all year round but avoid wet days. As per Andy above 5deg I can handle. Lower than that and the car wins.
I ride my Multistrada V4 all year round, its my touring and winter bike. I do make sure to cover the bolts with the likes of XCP and I also spay the whole bike with some sort of ceramic spray as well but that's basically what I do to all my bikes and seems to work really well.
Anything under around 12c and that’s me not going out. Any chance of rain, that’s me not going out as well. No fun freezing on a bike.
Never really used to until I got the Pikes Peak, heated grips and seat make all the difference, weirdly quite like it when the frost symbol comes on, feel a right biking hero! Not bothered if I get caught in the rain, its just a PITA to clean. I use XCP clear coat quite generously.
Riding in the dark cold shit weather is a definite no. So occasionally in the day time when it's light, after rain has washed away the salt. Broadly up to October and after March! My Ducati only goes out in wonderful days, and makes them even better.
I know what you mean & the only weather that stopped me on my daily commute, on a V-Raptor, was the possibility of snow/ice or strong wind. I used heated gloves and had a full Rukka GoreTex Pro suit and can't ever recall been cold & wet. I've retired now and miss those rides (and not the work I hasten to add) and as you say the feeling of a biking hero.
Before I was a courier I did the ill-fated Hayling ride, when it took 3 hrs in front of an efficient gas fire before I stopped shivering. Then as a courier the Grantham delivery, where the bike broke down on the M1 in torrential rain. When I got there, regardless of it being the only way to deliver a legal tender in time, I was so cold and wet I'd have checked into overnight accommodation anyway. So I learnt lessons from those incidents - good, warm gear, obviously, but more to the point the means of checking into overnight accommodation. Even if it's the same when you go back the next day, you've got dry, got food and rest. In Grantham I had to buy a new pair of gloves since mine were still sodden. Maybe you need other clothing too. For that job I had a top box, that I certainly don't have on my Ducatis, but I always wear a backpack - so wet clothes could go back in there. But otherwise it doesn't bother me. I began my motorcycling career as someone who travelled throughout this island on two wheels. Though I had a couple of cars I've never taken the test, and now I wouldn't because I can't stand being stuck in traffic. No, I won't start a 200 mile round trip in pissing rain - but the weather isn't exactly reliable here. Except in the still rare enough heatwave, there's no guarantee it won't bucket down while you're out. On the other hand there are cold winter days it's not going to rain either, so decent warm gear is enough. Though if it's icy I'll probably stay home. Also I love riding at night - given a powerful headlight. I'm in my mid sixties and had arthritic aches for a few years now, but on a bike I feel like 30, only wiser.
All year for me but in the colder months it's on nicer days and when they haven't gritted the roads. Once that happens I wait for the rain to wash it away again, normally only takes a couple of days.
