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Motorcycling through poor weather was pretty common in the early days of motorcycling.
Throughout my life, bouts of poverty and hard-headedness attacking in series and in parallel have kept me sticking to the traditions practiced by the greybeards who preceded me (just keep riding because you don't have a car), so I've come to learn a few things about riding in the winter. I also learned what to ride.
If you live and ride in a snowy area, you're going to get salt residue on your motorcycle. It's hard on finishes such as chrome and aluminum bits, and steel takes a beating, too. If it's cold, your local car wash won't have water with which to clean it, and you sure don't want to turn your driveway or road into a sheet of ice by washing your bike there. You can ride your nice shiny new bike that has a payment and glossy paint through a rough winter if you like, but it will look like hell at the end of things.
What you want is a beater bike. Sacrifice a motorcycle that's already cosmetically roached. Set aside a few hundred bucks (or maybe a couple grand in the current market), and buy a beater.
What makes a good foul-weather beater bike? Here are some things to look for.
Plastic: Fairings and windscreens
The more frontal area the bike has, the better your life will be at speed. Windshield? Good. Windshield and fairing? Better. Windshield, fairing, and lowers? Now we're talking. Bonus points for handguards. Cheap contenders in 2022 include first-gen Kawasaki Concours, 1100 and 1200 Honda Gold Wings, and nearly any maxi-scooter.
Transverse engine, aka knee warmer
If the crank runs in the direction of travel, odds are good you're going to have a BMW boxer or a Moto Guzzi, both of which are excellent for warmin' the shins and blockin' the winds. Cheap contenders include the Honda CX and GL500/650, as well as Gold and Silver Wings out of the 1970s and '80s. Almost any engine in this layout is also likely to have another winter benefit:
Shaft drive
A ton of extra electrical capacity
Heated pants, jacket, socks, dickie, and pocket square suck up a lot of juice. If you choose a bike that doesn’t have oodles of extra generatin' potential, you're going to freeze your cookies off. Get something big with an alternator that could power a cul-de-sac's worth of houses in a blackout so you can use heated gear!
Generally speaking, bikes with tons of electrical capability are either pretty new or former flagships, so none of these come very cheap unless they're old. 1800-engined Gold Wings, BMW K and R bikes, and early Harley Twin Cam dressers can be had for not too much money, though. The Honda ST1300 is another good producer, albeit thin on the ground these days.
These bikes also allow for auxiliary lights and a big honkin' horn — helpful for when Mr. Bucky is out there scamming for deer chicks.
Accessories galore
My buddy, CVO, another foul-weather rider, suggested this tip. His Harley-Davidson Road King is outfitted with a set of bespoke lowers, just like the leg shields from the war era. He also has model-specific handguards on his winter hauler. Looking to the aftermarket to see what exists to stay comfortable might help focus your bike shopping. Happily, you can get universal hand protectors that fit nearly everything.
An extra wheel adds stability
I'm not sure a beater Harley-Davidson Servi-Car, Tri-Glide, or Dispatch Tow exists in 2022, but a three-wheeler makes braking and breaking traction a lot less scary. Don't pooh-pooh a sidecar. A cheap Ural or metric bike with a hack grafted on makes a fine winter companion.
Maybe none of the above — go smaller
If you're cheap and don't want to pay for a big bike that can make enough juice for a family of four, a dual-sport isn't a bad idea. They don't have any of the cold-busting features I just ran through, but they do have a few things going for 'em.
They're built to spill, which is good when conditions are slick. Most have plastic bodywork that doesn't do diddly to keep you warm but also doesn’t mind salt. Almost all are simple and economical to work on. Knobby on-and-off-road tires work great in rain and maybe even a little snow, if you get caught out. If you go the dual-sport route, mind your chain! Road salt does a number on them very quickly. Look for cosmetically whupped Suzuki DRs, Kawasaki KLRs, and Honda XRs if you’re trying to keep the purchase price down.
The low-power option
If you aren’t going particularly far, a small, small-displacement motorcycle or a scooter could be just the ticket. A sub-100 cc squirt won't go fast enough to generate appreciable wind chill, so you'll save on gear and the lack of wind protection won't be awful. Keep your eyes peeled for Honda Metropolitans and Elites, Genuine Buddies and Stellas, and Yamaha's Razz.
Look for electric start, electronic ignition, electronic fuel injection
The colder the weather in which you are riding, the more important these become. Most older bikes without these features are getting kind of expensive to use as winter mules, but even the most docile kick-start-only Yamaha SR500, or plated two-stroke dirt bike that seems like a good deal in 65-degree weather can turn out to be an impossible-to-start bucket of bolts at five degrees.
Get on your beater bike and keep riding
Add a beater bike to your garage and you don't have to stop riding in the winter to protect your prized motorcycle and you'll also keep your riding skills sharper.
I've seen many a grizzled rider bombing away on all sorts of equipment (though anec-datally, a Harley full-dress machine or Gold Wing seems be the all-weather mount of choice I see getting the most ride time, despite the fact that they're not the cheapest). In my estimation, many motorcycles can be pressed into winter service, but a few characteristics from this list make a bike extra good, I think. Shaft drive, full fairings, and the ability to drive many pieces of heated gear for me are the magic ingredients, but I've certainly ridden on less-than-ideal machines if the mileage required was not great. (800 miles to Thanksgiving on a Kawasaki Z900 was memorable, but not in a good way.)
Even though I still say February is the best time to buy a bike, you can scoop some nice stuff up now that most bikes are being put in the garage and wreaths and stockings are about to come out.
Let's see a few pics of your ugly winter machines in that comments section. I expect it will look like a slightly rustier version of the Reliability Rally: cheap and durable. Which, if you think about it, is really what winter riding in the northern half of the United States is all about.
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