Well, lasy night did 150 miles from Bristol to home in the worst rain I've ever ridden in. Horrific. I actually thought I wasn't going to be able to make it home, misery and fatigue kicked in after only 40 miles out. Rain was absolutely chucking it down, wind was bad, road spray from lorries made visibility down to maybe 20 feet at times. I could only do 35mph in the slow lane at times and of course all the heavy lorries came past doing 70 plus. It was scary. I had on my heated jacket and gloves but they leaked (even my top range Rukka jacket managed to let a bit in) and I was soaking wet down to underwear pretty quickly. There's nothing worse than icy wet making it's way down your back, legs, into boots and glove fingers. New Kies gloves are pretty amazing but something went a bit wrong with one and I got burned, big blister on the back of my knuckles - this should't happen! Pain was bad but it was my throttle hand and I couldn't even take my hand off the bar. Rode in pain for 10 miles until services just feeling ironic that I was shivering with cold throughout my body but my hand was being grilled alive. Cars were driving like dick-heads, changing lanes, driving too close to each other and not looking out of their warm, toasty bubbles. Worst is that my brake, pad, disc set up is shit in the driving wet. There's about a second delay until the heat builds up or the water clears, not sure which but it makes for very, very scarey riding on motorways. You have to constantly test the brakes and keep it hot of you run the risk cruising into the back of traffic if there's a problem ahead suddenly.

A journey that should have been a couple of hours took me four and a half. I just had to keep stopping to try and warm up and uncramp up.

This morning I feel like I've been beaten up. Bike looks knackered, iron discs are orange, callipers locked on. And worse, battery is absolutely dead. Not sure if there's a short or what. It won't even crank or put the lights on a glimmer, just a feeble electrical buzzing from one of the relays behind the fuse box under the seat. I've got it on charge now but if this is the end it's my second Shorai in the same amount of years and I will be going back to a big old lead/acid bastard.

Altogether a sorry tale. Feel like selling up on bikes and getting a XJS Jag with cream leather seats and a mini-bar in the back.

I love riding my SD and although it pains me so, not to ride in winter, I also won't be in pain because I don't. And my bike won't be shitted up with salty muddy shite. Should be back in the saddle in under a month

My shorai died last week. The stator failed and the battery drained : irrecoverable.
Dead as a door nail.

Having said that I do tool around in my Audi S6 which is warm and dry and I can thoroughly recommend it!

Damn bic that sounds pretty shitty man. Don't give up on the bike just yet though!

Get a Honda for commuting Bic and leave the SD for sunny weather
Plus its another story to tell the kids and grand kids..

Last time I rode in conditions like that I ended up catching pluerisy...... I will never make that mistake again. It was so bad I could hardly breath and even the doc thought it was heart related initially. Never again if I can avoid it......

No gear is going to keep that kind of weather out. I just won't ride in it. Best get the wire wool on those disks before they disappear.

You're in one piece and the M4 is a shit hole of a place any time let alone when it's chucking it down..

When the spring sunshine is here and you've cleaned your bike up you'll remember what it's all about.

Wise words about cleaning those discs too.

What's the advantage to iron disks vs (I guess steel?) Stock ones?

That's a brutal tale. My last ride like that was a day trip, everyone had committed to an 11hr round-trip, we left home in the rain and it just got worse and worse as the morning progressed. By mid-day we were all soaked and cold but still continuing on the journey, the slow progress forced us to ring the pub we were heading towards and place an order for meals over the phone so that they could cook up some hot food for us before the chefs went home mid-afternoon, when we arrived they gave us 15mins to eat before they closed up the pub and kicked us out, the open fire was already extinguished too, in no time we were back out in our soaking wet gear and pushing through the final four hours. The rain stopped during the last two hours. All of our bikes looked like yours bic.

Not to derail this any more, but I warped the hell outta my OE rotors and figured I'd ask about the iron ones, plus I'd never heard of the difference before.

Any chance Bic that the extra load of the jacket and so on killed the battery as the generator can't keep up?
Unlike cars, bike electrics are not really designed to support much extra load.
I'm always weary putting extra stuff on that eats lecky, fortunately here we don't need the hand warmers and the like.

For similar reasons I always advise people who change to led indicators to swap the relay instead of fitting resistors as it basically defies the purpose.
I know it's a little thing but it all helps.

I never had any issues with my antigravity lipo batteries. I do tend to go for the biggest model instead of the lightest race only application. The big un is still way lighter than the lead variety anyway.

I have a Shorai in my VFR and when the stator fried 3k miles from home in the middle of nowhere, I recharged it on the road side with a Battery Tender Jr connected to my wife's bike no less than 5 times. 20 min charge, 15 min ride til bike died, repeat. That was almost 2 years ago, battery still going strong.

Well today I fitted the new Shorai that arrived earlier this week. Bike started first time, no probs. So it wasn't any electrical problem with the bike, just that the Shorai couldn't take four hours of soaking in the rain. I'm going to send the failed one back to Carrot cycles with the receipt and ask for my money back. Three months old and not waterproof is a joke for something that cost £160.

Are you sure all that heated gear isn't putting too much strain on the SD electrics Bic? Still 3 months isn't really good enough.

I remember when I was researching which battery to get, I ended up on the adventure forum and a few of them who had the Shorai had similar problems when they got wet. They ended up putting silicone sealant around the joining lip which seemed to work.

Think i might do that before i install mine, but surely thats something that should have been done at factory level....