On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 08:00:25 -0500, Keyser Soze wrote:

On 11/23/16 7:42 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 11/23/2016 7:32 AM, Poquito Loco wrote:
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016 18:15:46 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 11/22/2016 12:19 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 22 Nov 2016 10:55:10 -0500, Poquito Loco
wrote:

On Tue, 22 Nov 2016 10:20:56 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 22 Nov 2016 08:30:44 -0500, Keyser Soze
wrote:

I got rid of my first motorcycle after a bizarre accident in
Kansas that
left both me and the bike uninjured, thanks to a quickly falling
snowstorm. Traded the Honda for a nice, safe, used Chevy.

One of my best sources for rice burning motor cycles was from people
who bought them thinking they were the perfect commuter vehicle. All
it took was the first wisp of snow or a little black ice on the road
and they were real cheap but they usually needed a little work. ;-)
I put them back together, shined them up and sold them in the spring.
One year I threw a Honda 350 in my van, took it to Florida and paid
for my trip. It sold in a day.

Going down on ice usually doesn't do any severe damage...few
scratches, turn signals, maybe brake or
clutch lever.

Experience talking...luckily with a small Honda 125. I was in
uniform going to work at Ft. Belvoir.
MPs stopped and told me I wasn't allowed to ride a motorcycle when
there was snow on the roads. I
didn't challenge him, but I still wonder if that 'law' really existed!

That sounds more like a base restriction.

As for damage, you do OK unless you hit something. The RD350 Yammy I
got cheap had 2 bent fork tubes. I thought I would be truing the front
wheel but it survived OK.
I had to paint the tank on a 125 I picked up and replace some stuff
missing from the right handlebar.
I learned how to paint with rattle cans in those days. The Yamaha
paint job was a 3 step process. The trick, as with any spray painting
is never stop moving and pulse the valve.


While attending ET school in GLakes I rode a Honda 350 back and forth
from our apartment because my wife needed the car. During the winter
the base would not allow the bike "on base", so I had to park it outside
the main gate. Wasn't fun riding it in snow and I would never
recommend it.


We disagree. My little Honda 125 was an on/off road bike, didn't have
knobby tires, but they were
almost knobby. I'd take it into the woods at Ft. Belvoir and have a
blast riding in the snow. Wore a
snowmobile suit. Went down a few times, but never anything serious.
Probably put half a dozen new
turn signals on that thing.

But, commuting in the winter with ice and snow is something I sure as
hell wouldn't do now. I
learned that one the hard way.


Actually, I was mistaken about the Honda 350. I had one of them later.
The bike I rode back and forth to the base was a Honda 305 "Super Hawk".
It's not an off-road type bike. It's a street bike and in the snow the
tires were basically slicks. I remember riding it with about 6 inches
of snow on the road with both feet out on the road, sorta "skiing" to
keep the bike from sliding out from under me.


I learned my lesson riding a Honda in the snow. I am wondering, though,
how my 4WD Toyota Tacoma will do in the snow. It has
all-terrain/all-season tires, I think, plus a manual transmission, but,
of course, it suffers from the typical pickup truck ailment of not a lot
of weight on the rear tires. I only got the 4WD model because a number
of on-line reports indicated it did well in the snow. We'll see.

With a manual tranny and four-wheel drive you should have no problem whatsoever, assuming you know
how to ride a clutch a bit and start in second gear when on slick stuff.