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Re: bike covers
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.
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