RSV hydroplaning?

[Alex]

Does anyone know if it is even possible for a bike as heavy as the RSV to hydroplane?? Just being curiously cautious...

 

:no-no-no::no-no-no::no-no-no:

[kantornado]

Very much so, it happened to me last summer on a wet stretch of highway...............................Ron

[royalstarjac]

If an 80,000 lb semi truck can hydroplane, an 800 lb bike can hydroplane.-Jack

[Guest KitCarson]

Motorcycles and the rain.........when it first starts be very careful......gently on the brakes and throttle for an hour or so.....then when you have to suit up and keep on trucking on one of those days the rain sets in and is not going to let up........just be careful......leave the high speed stuff to others....slow down.....watch for puddles at the sides of the roads.....yes a bike can and will hydroplane......and those one inch deep puddles that collect on some of the ill maintained roads.......are very dangerous. On the other hand, a bike is very sure footed in the rain...at the proper speeds and with good tires.

 

Sure is a pain........cleaning all that road grime off the bike though!!!

[Guest tessa c2]

on our Saskatchewan roads you notice that all the time, stick to the hi parts of the pavement, keep good tires on the scoot, making sure that you still have tread to disperse the water out, watch for semi's and ride cautious but loose.

that had happened to me last summer, i was taking my Daughter to Calgary which is about 6 hours of driving time, and about 2 1/2 into the trip we hit a bad storm comming and was about 5 miles out of Medicine Hat, so i wanted to get there before it had started to rain, so i had turned the girls loose, and about a mile out of the city we hit a cloud burst, with wind, well needless to say, i was pushed from MY spot on the driving lane to the shoulder of the road, in a very short time. i have it happen lots when i am by myself, but when you have a passenger along it is a different story. yup slowdown and caution....

[Guest tx2sturgis]

I've done that one time on my Ultra...havent ridden the RSV enough yet in the rain but I have no doubt it can happen. In fact the wider front tire might make it more likely to 'float' across standing water.

 

On the way to Sturgis last year, I was trying to beat this sudden freak storm and I was in a heavy downpour, couldnt see much, and I was kinda 'pushing' it...I know, bad combination. I was trying to get to an overpass that I knew was just ahead, so I could put on my rain gear.

 

I slammed into some 'ponding' water that I had not seen in advance, and WOW! I thought I was going down! I was probably going about 50 mph, and when the steering broke loose, I gotta tell ya, well, a year later, I think I can still pick out pieces of the seat fabric! The water was probably 6 inches deep, and completely SOAKED me and the bike, like a huge rooster tail coming up from the front tire. The wall of water splashed into my eyes, and I later found out, drowned out my horn.

 

The steering went into a loose, floppy, side to side wiggle, NO contact with the pavement at all for probably about 30-40 feet or so....of course the water 'drag' was also slowing me down, and in less than 3 seconds it was all over with...scared the living (uh huh!) out of me!...

 

I had traffic behind and beside me, and in that tiny bit of time I saw myself going down and being flat run over....LUCKILY the bike and I rode it through. I'm very careful now of that sort of thing....it aint fun!

 

The lesson here is, for me anyway, SLOW DOWN, and dont overide what you can see on the road!

 

I found a webpage that talks about hydroplaning and motorcycle tires:

 

 

http://www.msgroup.org/tip.aspx?num=035

 

 

I hope none of us ever has to relate another of these hydroplaning stories...scary stuff!

[yamahamer]

Got mine sideways just by down shifting to soon!

[mraf]

I have never had a hydroplaning problem come up. But riding through South Dakota too fast with a 50 MPH crosswind I can tell you that a fully loaded Venture can become airborne. This happened when going over one of their bridges. The headwalls for the bridges are only about 3 feet tall built out of solid concrete. This makes for some pretty unusual wind currents when you go over them. I know this for a fact because the RPM increased considerably and the feeling of weightlessness was scary to say the least. :rotfl: