bike covers

[Water Warrior 2]

Originally Posted by VTXorcist

Beware the $20 covers. I bought a 'water-resistant' one cheap and the bike is always wet under the cover after it rains. The $70 I have for my other bike keeps it dry. I'm not saying all cheaper covers stink like mine, but I definitely think there's something to the old 'get what you pay for' adage.

Oh, also, I take my cover in to work when there's a chance of rain. The seat acts like a sponge, and there's nothing worse than squelching your butt into a nice soggy sponge after a day of work.

I have to agree. The $20 cover will keep the dust, dirt and bird droppings off the bike as well as out of sight for the honest people.
Try a plastic bag over the seat when rain is in the forcast. Either that or wear waterproof pants.

[el cheapo]

I bought a good bike cover ($70), and I like it. It has extra thick material where it covers the exhaust, and I have had no problem after about 2 years. I used the bike to commute to work, and most of the time I would leave it uncovered until my first break, then I would cover it. This was a couple of hours later, and by then it was cooled off. I used to work 12 hour shifts, and many times during the summer we would get a passing shower. After the rain, I would just take the cover off and ride home on my dry bike. I had no garage at this time and had to park the bike in the back yard. One time I went somewhere in the car (bad weather), when I came back the trees looked like somebody had taken a big shotgun and blasted the leaves off of them. They were stripped by hail! Some of it was bigger than a quarter. I arrived home and went out to look at my bike. The cover had protected it completely, and there was NO damage! :rawk: The little plastic air vent cover on top of the cover was cracked, but that was it! I think that if I didn't have a small windshield and sissy bar, it would have been a different story. These served to hold the cover several inches above the gas tank, and none of the hail actually contacted the bike. Mine is starting to let the water through (it was only water resistant), so I will get a can of CAMP DRY from Wally World and spray the whole can onto the cover and let it dry. This stuff works great for waterproofing, but only lasts a year or two. It's a whole lot cheaper than a new cover! By the way, even a cheap cover will do a good job of keeping the rain off if you hit it with camp dry. Just watch out for the hot pipes. I definitely got a lot more riding in because of the cover. If the day looked a little iffy for riding, I would just go where I wanted and then cover the bike. Sometimes it rained, sometimes it didn't.

[blaine]

I also bought a cheap cover,40 dollars I think,and waterproof it once a year.I usally let bike cool of about 20 mins before putting cover on.

[alantf]

Originally Posted by blaine

I also bought a cheap cover,40 dollars I think,and waterproof it once a year.

I have to waterproof my riding gear every year. In the rain I wear a two piece hiking waterproof. I bought it in England a few years ago, & it's really tough, yet very comfortable, & MUCH cheaper, buying at the camping store than the bike shop.

[Mercutio57]

Mine melted from the pipe. The hole was too small and too low to be of any real consequence, but I didn't like scrubbing the blackened goo from the exhaust!