So I'm over 27,000 miles on my 2002 GS.
Not using it much the last year.
Winter mileage was zilch.
V-Strom and KLR250 are up in the Adirondacks.
So I need to go on the GS Friday evening.
Should be there by 11:30 pm.
Been there done that plenty of times on the V-Strom and the GS.
Was a little worried about the GS since I did not ride it more than a few times this year for
a few short trips.
Get on the GS Friday late in the day and the bike running like a top.
Stop at a rest stop and call the family.
When I get back on I notice low beam is out.
Might have been out for a while since it just started turning dark
and I might not have noticed it.
No biggie, put on the high beam and off I go.
Thirty minutes later the high beam starts pulsing every two seconds.
Brighter, dimmer, brighter, dimmer ....
Ten minutes later and poof, the high beam goes.
Pitch dark. No lights on the North Way past Lake George.
Wife is in our house in the Adirondacks so I figure I'll call her when I'm closer.
I find a car to follow. Looking good, but I'm making the guy uncomfortable.
So I find a truck to follow.
Go about 30 miles to the turnoff to Lake Placid.
Got lucky and found a guy towing a trailer full of kayaks.
So it's off after him. That is one twisty dark road. I'm looking at his
back lights and going straight and the road is twisty so that is not working out.
So I turn on my directionals. That seems to work I can see the lines and follow
them a little better. Get to a gas station in Keene and call it quits.
It's about 75 minutes from my house in the Adirondacks.
Wife picks me up and I go back the next day and pickup the bike with a trailer.
Two days later I buy a new bulb.
I check the voltage with a volt meter.
Pretty steady so it looks like it's just the bulb.
That's a lot of work for a dead bulb. That's an awful place to get stuck with no headlights. That's like getting stuck in a downpour on the highway so bad that your only choice is to pull up close enough to see a cars tail lights and just follow it.
From 2004 to 2007 I rode with a friend of mine.
We put in tons of miles in the rain.
I am talking heavy stuff like you described.
We had to do at least 10,000 miles in the rain.
We bought new boots because the old ones were shot in 2007.
Neither one of us has been in a real heavy rain for more than an hour.
So we never really tested the boots.
By now they are probaby shot also.
The waterproof lining wears and they all leak after a period of time.
It rained yesterday and the cat next door got wet. But it can see in the dark.