I'm 48. NEVER had allergy issues in my life. Rode from Illinois up into Wisconsin and Iowa, along the Mississippi River last year in late summer. I wake up on day two with what I thought was a low-grade fever. We get on the bikes, ride for 30 minutes and my right eye starts watering, then, the left eye starts to go. I can't see anymore. I pull over and my buddies follow me. I explain what's wrong and my friend asks if I have allergies. I say, "nope". He says he's had allergies his entire life and he thinks that's my problem. Fortunately, he had an entire pharmacy worth of allergy meds with him (he's a dentist and has some pharmacology experience) He reccomends something, I take it and 20 minutes later I'm fine. I never knew this but apparently as you get older, you can aquire allergies. (One more crapy thing about aging) Now, I never ride without allergy meds. You may have to experiment with different brands of meds. ( I'm going to try the local honey, tip.) Also, it helps to keep googles with you when you know you'll be riding in an area with a lot of flora, that could really dial up your allergies.

 

I'll be trying the honey thing. My allergies get a little worse every year.

 

I have found that Allegra works best for me. I can only take the non-drowsy stuff, the regular antihistimines knock me on my azz.

Right now the pine pollen is rockin and rollin here. The wife and I rode the bike Saturday to watch the grandboy play a baseball game, when the game was over and we left my black bike was yellow, I mean YELLOW.

At home you can stomp your feet on the driveway and porches and get a yellow cloud, its terrible right now. This morning I left tire tracks in the driveway when I left for work. LOL. It's bad, real bad.

 

Never really bothered me but gives my wife a hard time hope it is getting toward the end suks having to wash everything every couple of days.

 

I know what you mean!!!!

 

Those cheap paper dustmasks work great for pollen. Since I retired, it hasn't been near as much of a problem (worked at an airport, talk about polluted, chemicals, jet fumes...), but I used to carry one of those masks for extreme conditions, especially on long trips. Road construction dust can be terrible, works for that, too. You can run into allergy trouble on a trip through the southwest, too; those desert plants with nasty thorns also have nasty pollen; just because you can handle it out east or up north doesn't mean you can handle it in Arizona. I found out the hard way...

 

Pollen in the south is always worse in the morning until about lunch time. Take allegra, most drug stores put in on sale this time of year. change clothes and shower as soon as you can after riding to get the pollen off. Also no one will notice if you wear a bandana over your nose and mouth as you ride, just be sure to use a clean one each ride. Only a BMW rider would wear a dust mask from the store!
local honey is good if youre only allergic to clover....but you'll still sneeze, eyes will water, and you'll get a sore throat. unless you just love to eat honey!

 

I had the worst allergy attack ever this past week. Eyes were watering constantly, sneezing my head off etc. Took Zyrtec, and some natural allergy stuff from Earthfair, and still no improvement. Went to the ENT and they are doing the tests on me next week to see what I am allergic to. I was taking shots/drops for over twenty years and then stopped with no problems until last year. Now it has been terrible, headaches, buzzing in the ears, stuffed up nose, the whole PITA allergy thing. Started riding again a couple years ago, I think riding in the open air versus riding in the car can make some of us senior riders more susceptible to allergies.

 

Local Honey is my remedy of choice as well. i put a tsp in a hot cup of green tea every day.

 

I use mask and goggles helps alot.Never had allergies either but the RioGrande Valley is real bad with it.Clariton works but it is 10pills for $12.I go to Mexico and get 100 for $4.

what a country