Home with the BMW

[Mr442]

I think I saw Dorthy and Toto fly past?

Saturday the wife and I drove to Kansas City to pick up a sweet 96 R1100RT.  As we came into town that afternoon, the good weather was turning bad.  We checked into the motel, called the seller, then headed over to view/purchase the bike.  While taking the bike for a short test ride, the rain started.    Not much, but drops were coming down.  We concluded the deal, mounted up, and headed back to the motel.  It was then, the clouds opened up, and I witnessed the RT's weather protection first hand.  In spite of a good shower, I stayed pretty dry as long as we were moving.  We made it back, secured the bike, and took the car across the street for a celebratory feast.  When we got back it was fairly dry, but that didn't last, so we turned in, instead of going for a ride.

The next morning it was raining a little off and on, and the wind had picked up.  After watching the weather channel, we decided to head east toward St. Louis, instead of our originally intended north to US36, then east.  Either way it was going to be wet, but it appeared our best chance to ride out of it would be go east.  While I was sitting in the car putting a new route into the GPS, Melody came out and informed me of tornado warnings for the next county, with the bad stuff headed our way from the south west.

We finished loading up and headed out, with me leading on the bike, and her following in the car.  We left Olathe, heading north to I-435 east, then onto US 50 east.  Not bad so far, other than a sprinkle or two.  Somewhere west of Warrensburg MO, things went from decent to horrible.  The rain started coming down in sheets, and the wind picked up something fierce.  I found myself literally struggling to keep the RT on the road.  At one point I was pushed out of my lane, and across the next, and almost onto the left hand shoulder.  Thankfully there was no traffic, and I was on a four lane divided highway.
After fighting to keep the bike upright and on the road at 20 mph for a short distance, we found refuge in a nearby C store, and rode out the worst of the storm. 

When we did start up again, the rain was still coming down and the wind was still blowing, but it was manageable.  Eventually the rain let up, and all I had to contend with was the gusting wind.  And damn near all the way home, I did just that.  Out of 560 miles, it was only around the last 20 that I didn't fight it.  It made for a long day.

Now I need to clean the bike up, to make it look as good as it did when I picked it up.  It looks like the back side of an old pig at the moment.  It did perform well all the way home, other than a sticky front brake light switch that cropped up about halfway home.  I'll attend to that this evening.  All I can say is, "Why didn't I get one of these sooner?"  It does have a tendency to run well above any posted speed suggestion (aka limit), so I have to constantly slow it down, but man oh man, is it one sweet ride. 

[me]

Glad to hear you made it home safely.  Hate to hear that the weather was so bad and you didn't really get to enjoy the trip though. 

[Ma and Pa]

Well, anybody can ride one in good weather! Sounds like you really wrung it out. And I bet YOU needed to be wrung out too, when it was over! Glad you made it home safely, and with positive feedback on the "adoption". Hope the next ride is a real dream for the THREE of you.    Pa

[Sandy Eggo]

Talk about a true "test" drive You may wanna be extra careful during sunny weather 'cause that tendancy to run over the posted limit might inspire a highway patrolman's tendancy to write a ticket . I'm glad you guys made it home okay.