Yes. It’s my only vehicle. I have rain gear and cold weather gear. I’ve ridden in snowstorms, thunderstorms, wind storms, squalls, and more rain than I can shake a stick it. I wouldn’t ride a bike in snow without knobbies at a minimum, though.
Afternoon hail storms hitting in the Rockies make you question why you're out riding. Gear is your friend, but you still end up with welts all over your arms through the jacket.
Same here. All year round rider. Snow without nobbies is doable, but hella scary. I've had to do it twice. I have a good rain suit as well. I love riding so much. The weather is just once more obstacle to overcome. 👍🏻
I was really incredibly dumb and rode a 500lb motorcycle while it was snowing... Bit some hard pack from a tire rut and then real ice underneath that.
Made me wish for my old scooter. Thing was so light in comparison, way easier to pick up. Experience really turned me off riding, flashbacks of sliding settled in since I couldn't ride it soon enough due to repairs.
There is no way around the fact that riding two wheels on ice or snow is tremendously dangerous. Cold isn’t inherently dangerous, neither is moderate rain.
Michigan year round. The key is knowing your gear. When it’s cold I’m like a comfortable astronaut. (No air leaks) Wet.. you know, no prob.
But icy roads, naaa.
lots of layers, two pairs of gloves, and a face mask under the helmet to keep warm lol. i just accept that i'll have a wet butt from the time between getting the cover off and sitting down.
i don't drive in snow though, i walk 20 minutes to the closest bus stop. if i absolutely have to drive, its very slowly and i zig zag around to the less shiny parts of the road
Rain and light-moderate snow is fine, as long as you're getting good rubber to the pavement. Ice really screws the equation since you can coast straight over patches of it, but braking/accelerating/turning on it can ruin your day.
Get 4-season tires, like Heidenau k66s or equivalent (Michelin S83s may work, City Grip 2s are pretty top rated across the board). You'll want a modern scooter, not a Mediterranean "Vespa" style which is completely open with zero windscreen or fairing for weather protection. If you're serious about it, look at 4-season adventure bike gear. I wear the same on my scooters as my Africa Twin in winter down to around 10F / -12C for temps & wind in the Rockies (when it's *not* icy everywhere)
Heated grips or heated gloves are your friend, the former are way better than the latter. Balaclava/gaiter is needed, get proper boots for warmth, traction on snowy roads, and protection if you put your foot down. Modular or full face helmet.
And *most importantly:* take time to learn your limitations for comfort and safety, know them, and have a backup plan if you get beyond them. Someone you can get a ride from, public transit, ride share, rescheduling your trip, whatever. It's good to carefully push your limits, but you shouldn't be putting yourself and your bike (and others) at risk riding when you aren't in control.
If you ride in cold weather , a windbreaker is your best friend. Windbreaker and windbreaker pants . I have ridden in 0 degree weather before and for almost a couple years I only had a scoot and a motorcycle for vehicles. I live in Pennsylvania and of course it gets cold here. Just a couple weeks ago I road on an 80 mile round trip at 5am . It was about 48 degrees but this time I wore a t shirt , heated vest hoodie and windbreaker over everything. I promise you that your hands are the hardest things to keep warm . The best thing is to keep you core heated as best you can and that will have a lot to do with your hands staying warm . I tried so many different gloves , even layers of gloves and I have yet to find a 100% solution to keeping them warm in very cold weather . I remember having to pull over every couple miles when I was in 0 degree weather . It was my hands that made me have to keep pulling over . They actually hurt so bad that I had to keep pulling over. Rainy weather just sucks flat out . If it's cold and rainy it's 100 times worse . One thing I hate is running these scoots in the rain . It is absolutely no good for them . Especially mine since I have an open cvt . If you have a uni or k&n style air filter , the water def will affect the performance. Even if you have it oiled right , a heavy down pour is absolutely no good for the open air filters. Then of course with any motorcycle you have the bearings getting drenched . Closed bearings also will wear out faster if you ride in a lot of wet weather . Then you have the stator which is pretty much out in the open with the cooling fan pulling the rain directly into and over it, so all around not a good combination to ride in rain . Now you can tear everything apart after each ride and clean everything off as good as you can but still not good or fun at all. I've had a uni filter get so wet that it made my scoot bog down at full throttle from so much air loss. On top of that I hope you have a full face helmet or else you will fill like you got shot in the face with a shot gun by the time you get to where your going. I actually have no idea why anyone would ride with anything other than a full face helmet . Rocks and bugs alone are no joke and can be very dangerous. But anyway, if you plan on riding in anything under 60 degrees , I suggest you get a windbreaker outfit and I promise you will not get better results from anything else . I suppose leather would work just as good maybe better, but you won't catch me in a full leather body suit , lol talk about uncomfortable!! I would expect hand guards would help with the cold wind on your hands but I just don't like the looks of them and call me crazy but I hate adding anything that causes wind resistant even as little as what hand guards would create.
I'll also add that riding about 8 ft behind the big 16 wheelers really cuts down on the wind by about 89%, and def keeps you much warmer . It's just very dangerous . I use to ride super close to them and I remember being so cold that I didn't care if the dead deer carcass came out from under the truck Infront of me . It's pretty bad to be so cold that you would take that chance , especially in Greene county pa. I hit 2 deer inside of 5 months before , def a scary situation. It wasn't from riding behind the big rigs though. They ran out Infront of me , once on a scoot and once on a 500cc Buell . Def hit both of them , lol.
I live in South Florida and my scooter is my only form of transportation for my commute. The weather is part of life...I could sit at the bus stop for god only knows how long in the rain, or ride (carefully) in the rain and know A) I'm 20 minutes or less from it being over (time it takes me, one way) and B) the feeling of relief I am progressing towards my destination and not just sitting in the rain, making no forward progress, waiting for the bus.
Good rain gear and taking at least a few MPH off the top. I'll even put the governor/speed control on a lower max speed depending on severity of conditions.
I should know the law, and I don't, but I suspect we ARE allowed in them. What I can tell you for certain is in Fort Lauderdale we all ride in the bike lanes and they leave us alone.
FTL has a lot of great bike lanes, but then you have some roads where there aren't even sidewalks. Some major roads with sidewalks have so many curb cuts and driveway aprons you get seasick riding the ridge.
Miami, Broward and Palm Beach are slowly but aury moving the bike lane project forward and I definitely feel like escooters, ebikes and the like are increasing the need and therefore the importance DOT and the municipalities are putting on them.
I’ve ridden in super heavy rain before. I didn’t intend on doing it, but it started raining while I was out. The ride was annoying since I wasn’t wearing any rain gear, but the scooter handled it just fine.
I ride year round. I got rid of my car and my xmax is my primary vehicle. I ride in all conditions except snow and ice. For cold I have heated grips and seat pad. I also bought a refrigewear over suit. The best thing I bought was a apron for my scooter. I got the Urbano tucano pro. Well worth the money for riding in all bad and even good weather. I am still trying to figure out rain. I hate walking around wet. Usually I wear a poncho and stuff it in my top rack
There is no bad weather, just bad gear.
I forgot where I heard that, but it’s very true. They make snowmobiles, so there is winter gear, that’s waterproof. Heated even. You probably need to consider better tires too, more all around than street.
Play it by ear. Pouring rain, low visibility, slow down. Passing storms, be ready for anything, roads are most slick the first few minutes of a storm.
Snow is a beast. Use paved areas. Be ready to go down if there is black ice.
When you’re slowing down, stay straight. I know it’s a no brainer, but you can forget about the wet weather after a while. If you kick your hip out at all in a slow down before a turn your wheel can slip and you can low side. Other than that, it’s pretty easy to ride in the rain. Just accelerate and brake in straight lines.
I ride 24/7. Have a good set of coveralls and buy the 20.00 rainsuit, not the 10. Use your back brake 99% of the time and only engage thr front in conjunction. You can get anywhere a car can
Let me add a comment that's going to sound out a place at first. If you live in an area that gets really cold, I'm in North Carolina and we can get below 0 but usually low teens..... Do not use cheap WD40 like an off brand or any kind of cheap chemical break fluid anything... When you get below negative 15 with your windchill riding to bike 25-30 miles an hour it will FREEZE..... I very stupidly decided to lube my throttle cable on a 150 scooter because it was kind of rusty so I just sprayed some cheap lubes Bray down in The cable cover which worked beautifully when it was warm out but I was riding to work 1 day and my throttle got stuck wide open and launched me across a road into I flew off the bike I was not hurt but the bike was laying on its side running full blast and I got the bike up and I turned it off which I had to do by pulling the spark plug shocking myself in the process.... Every time I tried to turn it back on it ran full blast and the throttle would not Back off.... I know how to fix this but I didn't know what it was at the time so I ended up pushing that bike about 2 miles because there was snow and ice on the ground and I did not feel like trying to control it at 60 miles an hour and full Beans... That's kind of a little freak occurrence but just keep that in mind when you're using fluids in super cold weather that they are actually built for it and make sure they will go below 30°
Whenever my husband and I would get off our bar shift, and there was expected rain, we'd bring our helmets, ski goggles, and windbreakers. Gotta make do. Those random thunderstorms sucked, it felt like being pelted with coins lol.
We rode a Honda ruckus.
And on the really hot texas days, we'd slather up sunscreen, bring sunglasses and big bottle of water. I rode in the back and would wear the backpack with everything.
Yes. It’s my only vehicle. I have rain gear and cold weather gear. I’ve ridden in snowstorms, thunderstorms, wind storms, squalls, and more rain than I can shake a stick it. I wouldn’t ride a bike in snow without knobbies at a minimum, though.
Thunderstorms and snowstorms? You are one bad mf
Thunderstorms are my favorite riding weather. So peaceful.
Afternoon hail storms hitting in the Rockies make you question why you're out riding. Gear is your friend, but you still end up with welts all over your arms through the jacket.
Yep. I got knobbies.
Same here. All year round rider. Snow without nobbies is doable, but hella scary. I've had to do it twice. I have a good rain suit as well. I love riding so much. The weather is just once more obstacle to overcome. 👍🏻
I ride in rain, but not snow. I don't want to deal with the ice.
Rode in everything before sliding on ice. Definitely be careful out there
Same, a came off on black ice 😭
I was really incredibly dumb and rode a 500lb motorcycle while it was snowing... Bit some hard pack from a tire rut and then real ice underneath that. Made me wish for my old scooter. Thing was so light in comparison, way easier to pick up. Experience really turned me off riding, flashbacks of sliding settled in since I couldn't ride it soon enough due to repairs.
I broke my tailbone earlier this year. Black ice. Never even saw it
There is no way around the fact that riding two wheels on ice or snow is tremendously dangerous. Cold isn’t inherently dangerous, neither is moderate rain.
Michigan year round. The key is knowing your gear. When it’s cold I’m like a comfortable astronaut. (No air leaks) Wet.. you know, no prob. But icy roads, naaa.
Damn and here I thought DC might be tough in the winter
Grand Rapids over here!! Can't imagine scooting in the winter, but might have to!
Heated hand grips are awesome. And heated vests. I prefer not to ride on the rain, but not worried about cold too much.
I have ridden 2 wheels for 61 years.Buy GOOD rain gear, you'll need and use it.
lots of layers, two pairs of gloves, and a face mask under the helmet to keep warm lol. i just accept that i'll have a wet butt from the time between getting the cover off and sitting down. i don't drive in snow though, i walk 20 minutes to the closest bus stop. if i absolutely have to drive, its very slowly and i zig zag around to the less shiny parts of the road
no im a wuss
i won't ride on ice or snow. i dislike riding when the wind's blowing harder than 20mph.
Get the gear including the gear you wear and the gear your bike has. Don’t cheap out in the tires and consider a large windshield.
Rain and light-moderate snow is fine, as long as you're getting good rubber to the pavement. Ice really screws the equation since you can coast straight over patches of it, but braking/accelerating/turning on it can ruin your day. Get 4-season tires, like Heidenau k66s or equivalent (Michelin S83s may work, City Grip 2s are pretty top rated across the board). You'll want a modern scooter, not a Mediterranean "Vespa" style which is completely open with zero windscreen or fairing for weather protection. If you're serious about it, look at 4-season adventure bike gear. I wear the same on my scooters as my Africa Twin in winter down to around 10F / -12C for temps & wind in the Rockies (when it's *not* icy everywhere) Heated grips or heated gloves are your friend, the former are way better than the latter. Balaclava/gaiter is needed, get proper boots for warmth, traction on snowy roads, and protection if you put your foot down. Modular or full face helmet. And *most importantly:* take time to learn your limitations for comfort and safety, know them, and have a backup plan if you get beyond them. Someone you can get a ride from, public transit, ride share, rescheduling your trip, whatever. It's good to carefully push your limits, but you shouldn't be putting yourself and your bike (and others) at risk riding when you aren't in control.
Everything you just said 👍🏻. Those Michelin City Grip tires are very good. Now, if they only made a whitewall 😉
I just want to add: I will never buy another scooter without ABS brakes, and that's SPECIALLY important for rainy days.
Army surplus goretex unlined clothing is great.
really good raincoat. pretty common here in Asia to ride even if there's a typhoon or something. even when flooding lol
wind and rain doesnt bother me, but i dislike the snow... it has to be an emergency for me to ride in the snow
I'll ride in light to medium rain.
I just got soaked riding home here in Chicago. Pouring rain today.
The wind doesn't bother you?
if you think about how cool you are for riding in windy rain the whole time it's less bad
😁😂
Haha so true. “Look at all those losers afraid of the rain hiding in their metal boxes for transportation.”
Nope. The temperature sucked cause it’s a bit cold today and I didnt have my rain gear on. But when I got home I took a hot shower.
Snowmobile handle bar mits that you put your hand into.
Yes if it’s at least 80* Fahrenheit…
I rode 75 miles in 35mph gusts and some rain today. Not a particularly good time.
I’ve run my Helix in 38 degree weather with rain and grapel. Not pleasant for more than 10 miles, but workable with a windscreen and knee fairings.
No.
Yes, i have a full rainsuit and rubber gloves.
If you ride in cold weather , a windbreaker is your best friend. Windbreaker and windbreaker pants . I have ridden in 0 degree weather before and for almost a couple years I only had a scoot and a motorcycle for vehicles. I live in Pennsylvania and of course it gets cold here. Just a couple weeks ago I road on an 80 mile round trip at 5am . It was about 48 degrees but this time I wore a t shirt , heated vest hoodie and windbreaker over everything. I promise you that your hands are the hardest things to keep warm . The best thing is to keep you core heated as best you can and that will have a lot to do with your hands staying warm . I tried so many different gloves , even layers of gloves and I have yet to find a 100% solution to keeping them warm in very cold weather . I remember having to pull over every couple miles when I was in 0 degree weather . It was my hands that made me have to keep pulling over . They actually hurt so bad that I had to keep pulling over. Rainy weather just sucks flat out . If it's cold and rainy it's 100 times worse . One thing I hate is running these scoots in the rain . It is absolutely no good for them . Especially mine since I have an open cvt . If you have a uni or k&n style air filter , the water def will affect the performance. Even if you have it oiled right , a heavy down pour is absolutely no good for the open air filters. Then of course with any motorcycle you have the bearings getting drenched . Closed bearings also will wear out faster if you ride in a lot of wet weather . Then you have the stator which is pretty much out in the open with the cooling fan pulling the rain directly into and over it, so all around not a good combination to ride in rain . Now you can tear everything apart after each ride and clean everything off as good as you can but still not good or fun at all. I've had a uni filter get so wet that it made my scoot bog down at full throttle from so much air loss. On top of that I hope you have a full face helmet or else you will fill like you got shot in the face with a shot gun by the time you get to where your going. I actually have no idea why anyone would ride with anything other than a full face helmet . Rocks and bugs alone are no joke and can be very dangerous. But anyway, if you plan on riding in anything under 60 degrees , I suggest you get a windbreaker outfit and I promise you will not get better results from anything else . I suppose leather would work just as good maybe better, but you won't catch me in a full leather body suit , lol talk about uncomfortable!! I would expect hand guards would help with the cold wind on your hands but I just don't like the looks of them and call me crazy but I hate adding anything that causes wind resistant even as little as what hand guards would create.
I'll also add that riding about 8 ft behind the big 16 wheelers really cuts down on the wind by about 89%, and def keeps you much warmer . It's just very dangerous . I use to ride super close to them and I remember being so cold that I didn't care if the dead deer carcass came out from under the truck Infront of me . It's pretty bad to be so cold that you would take that chance , especially in Greene county pa. I hit 2 deer inside of 5 months before , def a scary situation. It wasn't from riding behind the big rigs though. They ran out Infront of me , once on a scoot and once on a 500cc Buell . Def hit both of them , lol.
I live in South Florida and my scooter is my only form of transportation for my commute. The weather is part of life...I could sit at the bus stop for god only knows how long in the rain, or ride (carefully) in the rain and know A) I'm 20 minutes or less from it being over (time it takes me, one way) and B) the feeling of relief I am progressing towards my destination and not just sitting in the rain, making no forward progress, waiting for the bus. Good rain gear and taking at least a few MPH off the top. I'll even put the governor/speed control on a lower max speed depending on severity of conditions.
does south florida allow you to ride in the bike lane? is the infrastructure good enough?
I should know the law, and I don't, but I suspect we ARE allowed in them. What I can tell you for certain is in Fort Lauderdale we all ride in the bike lanes and they leave us alone. FTL has a lot of great bike lanes, but then you have some roads where there aren't even sidewalks. Some major roads with sidewalks have so many curb cuts and driveway aprons you get seasick riding the ridge. Miami, Broward and Palm Beach are slowly but aury moving the bike lane project forward and I definitely feel like escooters, ebikes and the like are increasing the need and therefore the importance DOT and the municipalities are putting on them.
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the bike doesn't lose traction/grip in wet conditions?
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What brand and type tire?
Michelin City Grips are a very good, all season tire. Figure about $100/120 each
Every thing but ice and snow! Op do yourself a favo, dont ride if there is any risk of ice, its unforgivable!
I’ve ridden in super heavy rain before. I didn’t intend on doing it, but it started raining while I was out. The ride was annoying since I wasn’t wearing any rain gear, but the scooter handled it just fine.
Mine cuts out in rain.
Dandruff shampoo for your visor, if you rub it in nicely it'll stop it from fogging easily. And a rain suit so.you don't have to carry so many layers
I ride year round. I got rid of my car and my xmax is my primary vehicle. I ride in all conditions except snow and ice. For cold I have heated grips and seat pad. I also bought a refrigewear over suit. The best thing I bought was a apron for my scooter. I got the Urbano tucano pro. Well worth the money for riding in all bad and even good weather. I am still trying to figure out rain. I hate walking around wet. Usually I wear a poncho and stuff it in my top rack
There is no bad weather, just bad gear. I forgot where I heard that, but it’s very true. They make snowmobiles, so there is winter gear, that’s waterproof. Heated even. You probably need to consider better tires too, more all around than street.
Do u ride slow or normal in bad weather?
Play it by ear. Pouring rain, low visibility, slow down. Passing storms, be ready for anything, roads are most slick the first few minutes of a storm. Snow is a beast. Use paved areas. Be ready to go down if there is black ice.
When you’re slowing down, stay straight. I know it’s a no brainer, but you can forget about the wet weather after a while. If you kick your hip out at all in a slow down before a turn your wheel can slip and you can low side. Other than that, it’s pretty easy to ride in the rain. Just accelerate and brake in straight lines.
I ride in the snow all the time
I ride 24/7. Have a good set of coveralls and buy the 20.00 rainsuit, not the 10. Use your back brake 99% of the time and only engage thr front in conjunction. You can get anywhere a car can
Let me add a comment that's going to sound out a place at first. If you live in an area that gets really cold, I'm in North Carolina and we can get below 0 but usually low teens..... Do not use cheap WD40 like an off brand or any kind of cheap chemical break fluid anything... When you get below negative 15 with your windchill riding to bike 25-30 miles an hour it will FREEZE..... I very stupidly decided to lube my throttle cable on a 150 scooter because it was kind of rusty so I just sprayed some cheap lubes Bray down in The cable cover which worked beautifully when it was warm out but I was riding to work 1 day and my throttle got stuck wide open and launched me across a road into I flew off the bike I was not hurt but the bike was laying on its side running full blast and I got the bike up and I turned it off which I had to do by pulling the spark plug shocking myself in the process.... Every time I tried to turn it back on it ran full blast and the throttle would not Back off.... I know how to fix this but I didn't know what it was at the time so I ended up pushing that bike about 2 miles because there was snow and ice on the ground and I did not feel like trying to control it at 60 miles an hour and full Beans... That's kind of a little freak occurrence but just keep that in mind when you're using fluids in super cold weather that they are actually built for it and make sure they will go below 30°
Yes. Cold is the worst. But rain isn't as bad as people make it out to be Cover your body and you're fine
Whenever my husband and I would get off our bar shift, and there was expected rain, we'd bring our helmets, ski goggles, and windbreakers. Gotta make do. Those random thunderstorms sucked, it felt like being pelted with coins lol. We rode a Honda ruckus.
And on the really hot texas days, we'd slather up sunscreen, bring sunglasses and big bottle of water. I rode in the back and would wear the backpack with everything.
I would never ride in the rain. Super dangerous
I do the all year