Had a really bad ride home from Yeadon(Leeds)

[TheGazWaz]

Good afternoon all

Had a really bad ride home from Yeadon(Leeds).

I spent the night with friends and got up nice and early 7:00am to ride home from Yeadon to Skipton over the tops. What should have been a beautiful ride home turned out to be a nightmare.

It was raining that really fine stuff that gets you wet and I was having to wipe my visor every few seconds to be able to see where I was going. I purposely took the long route through Harrogate and across the blubber houses for some twisty fun in the hope that the weather would clear up but it didn’t.

In fact visibility was so bad I had to pull into a lay-by to try and clear my visor. It didn’t matter how much I wiped it, it wouldn’t clear. My visor doesn’t leek but with the dampness the inside was misting up as well.

I set back off but it soon became too bad to ride again. I tried riding with the visor open but the air was so damp I had water running into my eyes.

Pulled up into the next lay-by. Tried to clear my visor again and then waited for a slow car to go past so I could follow it’s lights.

I got home safely in twice the time it should have taken me feeling exhausted instead of exhilarated. All in all it was a pretty s**t ride.

Just looking back at what went wrong here... My helmet isn’t anything special just a Caburg but it’s not a particular cheap helmet either. My other, Cheaper, Spader helmet has a pinlock in it but I seriously doubt this would have made much difference either.

I had plenty of rags in my back box to give my visor a really good wipe when I stopped but as soon as I hit anything over 25mph I couldn’t see anything in front of me and quite frankly I was more concerned about someone hitting me from behind because I was going so slow in a 60 zone.

The only other time I’ve experienced anything as bad as this is in winter time when it’s dark and raining and oncoming headlights are reflecting in the water on your visor.

Others here must have had similar experiences. I’d be interested to hear them and maybe if anyone has found a decent solution to keeping youir visor clear.

[Fisty]

Pinlock and nothing else.

Never had that sort of problem, just wipe with the back of a glove to clear it now and again.
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Quietly and consistently taking the piss.
TL1000R | Hayabusa | ZXR400 | TL1000S | Bandit 400 V
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[hellkat]

I tend to leave my visor open in all weathers anyway.

Being a bit of a fairweather biker these days ( ) - if I do get caught out in rain or sleet (should I be so unlucky as to encounter it), I tend to just leave the visor up halfway, like maybe two clicks, and peer out from underneath.

Still bloody frustrating in that kind of weather condition, especially if you wear glasses as I do, but I prefer that, than the claustrophobic feeling of a fully closed visor.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[TheGazWaz]

That's what I was doing. I've got one of those blades on my glove which normally does a fantastic job but it just wouldn't clear.
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Went like this.. 43 years old(2013) decided to do CBT to get a 125 for new job. Bought 2011 YBR, loved it for three months then hated it because it was too god damn slow. Did DAS 4 months later then bought RF600 Loved it, sold it bought Bandit 1200(K3). EFFIN lOVED IT. Wanted something a bit more sporty so got Triumph Sprint ST 955i (53). Not sporty enough so now on my GSXR 1000 K3 and absolutely love it. 1 year down the line, nearly died way too many times on this bike. Sold it. Had a 6 month break. Missed biking so now, Aug 2019 have a 1999 ZX9r. What a beauty she is too.

[Wonko The Sane]

I spray my visor from time to time with 'clearview rain away' which helps the water beed into larger drops and run off

wiping your visor slowly scratches it which helps water cling to it, how old is the visor?
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[Doovy]

[iooi]

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[hellkat]

[Andy S]

Rain-X on the outside, Pinlock on the inside!
Armadillos!

[hellkat]

Ages ago when I was still a lot nooby (but also a lot more intrepid than I am now) ... I once went from my house (East London) over the Dartford crossing into Kent, on my way to somewhere like Rochester for a party. It was alright in Essex, but was so foggy over Kent-side that I only got to the first junction before I was scared shitless that I was going to be rammed up the arse, I just went round the A2 roundabout and went home again.

Then again, another time I went all the way to Eastleigh on a 125, it ended up snowing overnight and I had to come back to London, with unbelievably inappropriate clothing: took me a long LONG time (8 hours) to get back up the M3, A31, A3 etc. (lived in Fulham back then), and had no lights for half the journey, OMG I was shivering from cold for about 3 hours, even in bed with the electric blanket on)

So yeah, epic journeys when a noob: has to be done. Dunno about guys, but its part of the requirements for the girlguides motorcycling badge, innit?
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[Dave70]

Another vote for pinlock here.

Also, ride faster and turn your head sideways, makes the rain run off your visor. Anything around 50mph and above should do it.
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There ain't no devil, there's just god when he's drunk.

2012: R125 killed by white van. 2016 R125 killed by 30,000 miles of redline. Current: 2016 Kawasaki ER6f.

[TheGazWaz]

Used a towel to wipe the visor inside and out. I found that opening the visor a tad to let air flow made droplets run in through the gap at the top thus wetting up the inside as well.

I often turtle wax my visor which helps the rain run off but this time it was just weired. No mater how hard I wiped it just wouldn't clear.

A few have mentioned this Rain X stuff for the outside. Might have to try that.
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Went like this.. 43 years old(2013) decided to do CBT to get a 125 for new job. Bought 2011 YBR, loved it for three months then hated it because it was too god damn slow. Did DAS 4 months later then bought RF600 Loved it, sold it bought Bandit 1200(K3). EFFIN lOVED IT. Wanted something a bit more sporty so got Triumph Sprint ST 955i (53). Not sporty enough so now on my GSXR 1000 K3 and absolutely love it. 1 year down the line, nearly died way too many times on this bike. Sold it. Had a 6 month break. Missed biking so now, Aug 2019 have a 1999 ZX9r. What a beauty she is too.

[Celera]

I have a pinlock helmet, and only ever have done, so maybe it's a truism for me, but once I get up to speed rain isn't a problem at all. Visor gets wet, I turn my head left, then right, and the wind blows the rain off the side of the visor. Rain is only ever a problem at low speeds, and even then nothing major.

Like I say though, maybe I fixed that problem before I started by buying pinlock.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

[MarJay]

https://starecat.com/content/wp-content/uploads/cool-story-bro-sylvester-stallone.jpg
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Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[MCN.]

Buy a car.

[monkeybiker]

Is the visor scratched? A scratched visor is a nightmare in the rain.

[talkToTheHat]

cool story bro. Been touring with the girlfriend since friday. The weather has not been kind. She only got cold and grumpy when she had to take the kit off. No visibility problems for either of us. Something about even her 'only use it for the occasional weekend trip' helmet having a pinlock.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[Chuffin Nora]

[cheeseman]

I used to have problems like you mentioned, years ago with a crappy helmet. I certainly don't now with my Schuberth with pinlock - it works really well.

Only time I had problems with it was when I was out in heavy rain shortly after treating my gloves with leather nourishing was - I ended up with the wax smeared all over my visor - was a bugger to get clean again and visibility was so bad that I had to ride in the rain with my visor open.
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XJ600S->Sprint ST 955i * ; Now ST1100 + W650

[stinkwheel]

I had a similar ride home from Scarborugh to Cumbria on Sunday night, except it was dark too. A fine persistant drizzle all the way except over the top of the Pennines where it was foggy.

There comes a point where a pinlock just adds another layer of fuzz to an already fuzzy picture.

I find in situations like that, a pair of safety specs are the way to go. They are much closer to your face so the misting doesn't affect your vision so badly.

There is a degree of learning a combination of breath control and looking through the murk to see where the road is going.

The Mrs did the same journey in her car and had a worse time, mainly because at one point a car came past her in the fog right on top of the A66 heading in the opposite direction. Trouble is, it was a dual carriageway. When she called the police to report it, all they were interested in was taking her details. "There's a car driving the wrong way on the dual carriageway on the A66 over Brough Moor.". "Yes madam, and can I take your name?".
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[qarka]

Had a similar experience riding home from work one evening through the Lakes. Horrifically foggy, after 5 minutes my visor fogged up. Opened it and carried on, only for my glasses to fog up 2 minutes later. Cue me stopping at the side of the road every 5 mins to unfog both and carry on.

Took 2.5 hours to do a 40 min journey.
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