View Full Version : Riding through Flood water - OMG
Just hacked it back from Norwich to Northampton ~120miles done in a little under 120 minutes. Hit edge of Northampton and realised why the roads the last few miles had been wet, it was chucking it down. I thought "hope I make it home before the front cylinder goes" and kept it at 90. Anyway it goes and I'm a mile from home and just off the dual carrige way. I see the car in front swerve and guess and half see it's a puddle, so I follow suit and even so I have water going up over my screen! I was just looking at a wall of water. It completely covered my boots (instant soaked feet). I couldn't believe how this depth of water had got there. I'm still trying to keep the bike going on 1 cylinder hence my not stopping. Anyway I hit another huge fookin' puddle and again water way up over the screen, legs get soaked this time too. Unreal. I go to 'driving car in flood mode' and got to slip the clutch and build the revs and of course she stalls. Somehow and I'm really supprised she starts again on the button on one cylinder, so I avoid having to put my feet down in several inches of water. Limped home from there. Must see if that hole on side of block is a drainage hole and unblock it, also get the bloody fender extender.
John 675
04-06-07, 08:22 AM
Im in there with you too buddy, on my way home from Matlock yesterday dropped in at the mrs's mothers house in nottingham had some tea and set off for home, really nice sunny weather as we have had all day . . then the big rain drops fall... whoops i think hope i get home soon . . . then i couldnt see the bike stayed on two though and i crawled to my workplace as it was the nearest place to shelter. the drains had flooded almost instantly and aqua plaining sounds fun but the Dunlops kepth their grip, so hts off to stock Rubber! ! !
plowsie
04-06-07, 08:35 AM
I got caught in it at KFC by B&Q at 10 ish last night mate. I walked outside was hammering it down, thought long and hard even had the offer to stay inside KFC n thought nope should be okay only 2 or 3 miles to my house. Got into Far Cotton and couldnt see through my visor and i was constantly wiping the visor. Stopped at Tescos and me n the bike sat under cover for 30 mins. And it still hadn't really died down :( Still got soaked and i was in 3 quarters :( Teach me a lesson i suppose.
*sigh* There's a stretch of road next to one of the parks in Northampton that can get a really impressive bit of flooding...
... approaching it one day in my old 4x4 and seeing an old Landy coming the other way - strange how both of us timed our entry to hit the water at the same time whilst grinning like loons. The smack as both bow-waves hit the opposite car was sooooo cool. ;)
On the bike though - couldn't you have just gone through it with your feet sticking out and in the air to keep em dry?
Ah, hang on though - that's what you do on a pushbike as a kid though isn't it! ;)
*sigh* There's a stretch of road next to one of the parks in Northampton that can get a really impressive bit of flooding...
Where's that K? Sounds like it might have been where I was? On the stretch between the Bedford roundabout and err 'town' (car garages on right - waste ground then Becketts park? on left)
I don't have much cause to go down there so have never seen it flooded before.
Lifting my feet off the pegs would have done nothing at the speed I hit the water. I reckon I must have created a bow wave of my own. I'm not talking about throwing a little bit of water up, I mean a complete sheet over the level of my head that you couldn't see though (I was going too quick). Worried I was going to rear end the car as he'd slowed down a lot more than me (I just wanted to get through it).
MiniMatt
04-06-07, 08:54 AM
Chuckle, used to have a Xantia, with the freaky french uppy downy suspension (ok, so all suspension is uppy downy, but these things you can change the ride height via a little lever in the car). Fond memories of jacking it up to clown-car height and trundling through - towed a vauxhall frontera out of a puddle once :p When she finally died she did so in comedy citroen pose - front wheels jacked to the sky, back wheels scraping along the road :) http://www.mattandem.plus.com/xantia/
I've ridden with waves coming up over the engine before now. Great feeling when I got to the other side & nothing was wrong with the bike.
Never skipped a beat at all. Came out running on 2 cylinders.
HTH ;)
HTH ;)
:smt093: :middlefinger:
Oh yea, I have a fender extender as well. It's waiting patiently to be fitted.
Haven't got around to it yet, don't see the point... :-s
...used to have a Xantia...
My Dad had two as company cars. The suspension was cool :-) We used to play silly buggers with it too to go through occasonal floods. Never got to rescue anyone though. As they were company cars we didn't have them till they died. We did send one back with a permanenly jacked up rear though :-)
glsuk1970
04-06-07, 12:31 PM
Sorry about the rain yesterday guys, it was all my fault. I washed the car and the bike so a downpour was inevitable.
2mths: that sounds bloomin' scary, you did well to keep it pointing the right way!
If it makes you feel any better, Andy, we had a 230 mile day yesterday...................and didn't get rained on once:p
I was on the way back from "breaking" in my new tyres up the A3 and all of a sudden the sky just turned black and it started pelting down .... it was so hard i thought it might have been hail at one point.
Then all of a sudden it stopped, i didn't actually end up getting very wet.
:cool:
Where's that K? Sounds like it might have been where I was? On the stretch between the Bedford roundabout and err 'town' (car garages on right - waste ground then Becketts park? on left)
Nah, it's up by Abingdon Park (the name escaped me when I first posted) just opposite the church. Handily enough there's also a pedestrian crossing as well just where the road dips and collects water! :twisted:
The worst part used to be on the underpass from Weston Favell Tescos (if you head out for the dual carrageway towards Spinny Hill) - the slightest shadow of a rain cloud and that used to have a puddle in it a foot deep.
Any actual rain and it turned into a flooded runway in a tunnel where, if i hit it just right, I could get the bowwave from the 4x4 to hit the ceiling of the underpass!
Ahh, happy days.
Almost a shame they fixed the drainage there. ;)
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