Ok guys, for those who know the area, looking for you to give it to me straight!


Wife and me are planning on leaving Daytona on Sunday, Oct. 18 riding to Fl. City. On Monday the 19th riding on down to KW, then on Tuesday the 20th headed back out of KW all the way up to Spring Hill.


My question here is about weather. 10 day forecast shows rain + 20-30 MPH ENE winds for Monday and Tuesday. (Yea, I know, south FL, subject to change every 5 minutes!)


Now as someone who has been riding for 50 years I have no problem with rain. But, as someone who has gotten caught in the edge of a tornado, hail storm and more than 1 thunderstorm with high winds and beating rain, I always err on the side of caution. Especially when I have options. (old age does that to you)


So the question is, with rain and 20-30 MPH winds, just how bad can it get riding across all those bridges to and from KW?


I'll keep a watch on the forecast as we get to Daytona tomorrow and the weekend approaches.. Just wanted an honest feel from those who deal with that area on a regular basis.




Thanks!


Lilman

 

Wow that's quite a ride to do in one day because KW to the end of the Keys is about 3 hours then you still have 300 miles. Of course you can ride it but it's a long ride for just one night there, having ridden 8 hours the day before.

The bridges are not much fun in squally rain and gusts. But as you know our weather changes by the minute, and the forecasters don't know squat. The weather app I looked at says 10-15mph gusts for that week. I'd reassess it next weekend.

 

Thanks, yes I know KW to Spring Hill is quite a hike! Since the wife and me had to go from an Ultra to a Tri-Glide last year we can actually ride 500-600 miles or about 12 hours a day without issue. Tired, yes but not so much as on 2 wheels.


One reason I'm asking about the weather and ride to KW is the TG will hydroplane bad, even at lower speeds. It's worse than my F-250 on really wet roads. Guess because it's so light....

 

Its amazing to me the weather folks can even forecast days in advance in SW Fl.....usually day of or a couple of hours in advance is good as it gets. The storms are so localized that it may be raining in one area and two miles down the road its dry. You can do just as well watching Doppler radar with a weather app on your phone. Having done that ride to KW...7 mile bridge is the longest bridge, wouldn't want to cross that in a storm, the rest are not so long. If you want to do it don't let the long range forecast keep you from it. In the Keys if it should rain lots of places to pull over not to much distance between anything. Oct. starts the end of the rainy season down here its getting dryer and the humidity is dropping......come on winter!!!! Perfect riding weather.

 

20-30 mph winds aren't going to bother you if you are an experienced rider.
20-30 mph winds are the same crossing the bridges as they are crossing the plains.

Any time you ride to the keys, count on getting wet. Just live with it and ride on.

Shouldn't be an issue.

You don't say what days you are riding the keys. If it is a weekend, on your way back out, get an early start to get ahead of the traffic.

 

^^^ This is good advice.... the weather report this far out is not very useful unless there's a hurricane brewing.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty blessed with weather, and with some luck it'll hold until winter officially starts. If we get a tropical wave coming through when you want to ride just don't do it, it's not worth it. Hopefully we are done with those.

If it's normal, afternoon popup rains, if you ride to and from the keys in the mornings you stand a good chance of seeing no rain as the rains start in the afternoon, usually.

I enjoy the ride there very much from Fort Lauderdale and have typed up a couple of good spots to stop which I could dig up if you're interested.

I personally wouldn't want to double the ride to go up to Spring Hill, that's 8 hours straight though and stopping every 150 for fuel on a bike, that's an easy 10 hour day which is a long time out in the sun.

 

Thanks guys! Great information!