Rainy days - can't ride, but you can do these fun things...

Riding in the rain is for the true, diehard motorcycle rider. I only ride in the rain when I must, and some sportbike riders refuse to ride in the rain so that they can say in their craigslist post "never ridden in the rain."

Rain often brings up the following problems:

• Slick roads
  
• Bike gets filthy
• No way in hell you're getting your knee down (unless of course you crash, which is more likely, and really not fun)
• You're even more invisible than normal
• And you are getting soaked in what is typically cold weather

For these reasons, motorcycle riders are likely to avoid suiting up and hitting the twisties.

However, rainy days are often great for the following:

• Routine maintenance
• Trick mods (fender eliminator, new exhaust, etc)
• Watching MotoGP re-runs
• Reading this blog ;)
• Finding good deals on used motorcycles

Finding good deals on motorcycles during bad weather is easier because many weak-hearted riders start to question why they have the bike because they're not riding it. Then, because rainy days are best spent inside, they hop online and start posting "for-sale" ads on sites like craigslist.org or bayarearidersforum.com at high blue book value. After a week of ZERO responses, they realize they have to lower their price because no one is buying. This is when the opportunity to buy surfaces.

If you can see beyond the bad weather and into the future (i.e. the summer time when riding days are in the plenty), you can get a good deal during the wet season. This gives you time to save more money and buy good safety gear (because you probably spent all your money on the bike, and are using your bicycle helmet and gardening gloves for gear).

The opposite is also true, if you want to sell your bike, the summer time is then the best time to sell.

I'm looking forward to the following rainy-day projects for my 99 CBR F4:

• Replace front and rear shock fluids
• Fix the tail piece that was broken when someone tried to steal the bike (see photos below of the damage). F4i tail section swap on F4 - could be cool...but less comfortable for sure!
• Fix the ignition which was also damaged during the attempted theft
• Valve check

Now I just need to scrounge up the cash. With this economy it's tougher. Here's evidence that even criminals are feeling the economic pressures and their remedy is bike theft (thankfully, they were unsuccessful in my case):

Why they tried to get into the trunk of the bike, I don't know. However, now I have to buy a new tail section:

So, with that, be optimistic about rainy days as you can make your bike more fun to ride on sunny ones.