Should I rant about this?

[SVonhof]

Where I work (large campus) there are lots of buildings with designated motorcycle parking areas. Just outside of my current building, we have such a spot which I am parked in today with the C14. I just happened to look over just now and saw something that I didn't expect. Water all around the bike. I went out there and found out that the sprinklers came on and now I have water on the whole right side if the bike including the top of the seat, tank and part of the windscreen. Obviously the sprinklers are not set up properly.

The good thing is that they have a strip of concrete for kickstands to go, so no bikes will fall over. Another good thing, there are almost always bikes out there, so people are riding.

The simple answer is to not use that space, but to park a few spaces over away from the spray, but that just means somebody else may park there.

Should I send a note to the facilities manager for our building? Would you? I really don't want water spots on my bike and know others with lots of chrome would not want that either.

[VirginiaJim]

Watering asphalt or concrete accomplishes nothing and wastes water.  Tell the facilities people and they may be able to adjust the nozzles so it doesn't hit your bike and waste water in the process.

[George R. Young]

Hmm, what do you do if it rains?

[stevewfl]

Call Al Gore and the tree huggers!

[SVonhof]

If it rains, the bike is normally home in the garage.

[Conrad]

Or you could do the adjustment yourself when no one is watching...

I also work on a large campus, with designated MC parking, and I had something like this happen only far worse. They had some flunkies pressure washing the sidewalks and my bike was parked near an area where they had blasted the sidewalks clean and one of these rocket scientists directed all the crap coming off the sidewalk onto poor Connie! I walked out to my bike after work and found Connie covered in dried on crap and grit from the sidewalk. I was LIVID! These morons were still washing in the area and I tracked them down and told them what I thought about what they had done, I'm sure that everyone in the area heard me yelling at them. They were very apologetic, specially after I told them that I knew their boss (I've been here nearly 30 years) and that I'd be letting him know what they had done.

I rode home and gave Connie a good bath, fortunately there wasn't any damage done.

[SVonhof]

Or you could do the adjustment yourself when no one is watching...

I also work on a large campus, with designated MC parking, and I had something like this happen only far worse. They had some flunkies pressure washing the sidewalks and my bike was parked near an area where they had blasted the sidewalks clean and one of these rocket scientists directed all the crap coming off the sidewalk onto poor Connie! I walked out to my bike after work and found Connie covered in dried on crap and grit from the sidewalk. I was LIVID! These morons were still washing in the area and I tracked them down and told them what I thought about what they had done, I'm sure that everyone in the area heard me yelling at them. They were very apologetic, specially after I told them that I knew their boss (I've been here nearly 30 years) and that I'd be letting him know what they had done.

I rode home and gave Connie a good bath, fortunately there wasn't any damage done.

Lucky there wasn't any damage. With the high pressure spray powerwashers put out bouncing crap onto the bike, it could have been sandblasted.

[Pokey]

If it rains, the bike is normally home in the garage.

Do you/would you/will you ride in the rain at all?

[Conrad]

Lucky there wasn't any damage. With the high pressure spray powerwashers put out bouncing crap onto the bike, it could have been sandblasted.

That's what I thought had happened, sandblasted. There was so much crap on the front of the bike that I couldn't tell if there was any damage till I got her washed up.

As I was yelling at these guys one of them grabbed an old dirty rag that they had on hand and said that he'd wipe all the junk off for me, he was serious. 

I asked him what he thought was going to happen to my paint when he tried to wipe all that grit off. He looked confused for a second and then the lightbulb went off and he nodded, 'prolly scratch it up a bit?' Yeah...

Sorry for the hijack.

[SVonhof]

Do you/would you/will you ride in the rain at all?

Normally only when I get caught in it.

If there is rain in the forecast, I drive the car. Simple as that. For me, it's easier that way and it's less stress on my wife at the same time since she worries.

I have been caught in some pretty good rain in the past, but not on the C14.

[VirginiaJim]

Rain usually isn't of the hard variety.  It's soft for the most part and usually acidic depending on your area of the country.  Water from irrigation systems, however, is from city or underground sources and can be very hard (minerals).  Doesn't look very good when it drys.  I've seen vehicles look like sh** after an irrigation system cut on and covered them with cra* water.

[ZG]

Call Al Gore and the tree huggers!

 
 

[Strawboss]

Rain leaves no spots or as stated above hardened minerals that are sometimes near impossible to remove. I myself wouldn't touch the sprinklers, even if you think nobody's watching, 5 pairs of eyes are on you. Try talking to the management first, to provide bike only parking suggests they recognize you and want to accomodate you, I'm sure they don't even know about the problem.  Motorcycles here in Ohio, or at least around where I'm at are still looked at as annoying things trouble makers ride and motorcycle only parking is VERY rare anywhere, traffic isn't all that bad to the point where they start rewarding folks who ride with special parking, I don't see it changing anytime soon sadly. Now bicycles, bicycles are the new BIG thing, big, big, big.

[SVonhof]

FYI, I did send her an e-mail and this was her reply:

Sorry about this! The landscape crew was actually just testing the sprinklers to make sure they are all functioning correctly for the summer months. All watering is done either late at night, or very early in the morning, except when the sprinklers are being tested.

I will forward your email to the landscape supervisor. I’m sure we can do something to avoid this in the future, maybe send out a notice to the building occupants. Thanks for letting me know.

She came by and talked to me yesterday and was saying that she had other e-mails about it as well (not motorcyclists) who apparently were not as nice as I was.
She also said the biggest reason for it was that there is an area of grass they killed so they could remove it and put in lots of native plants and low water usage stuff and they couldn't dig because the ground was so hard so they had to soak the ground before they could start the work...

[Cold Streak]

Rain leaves no spots or as stated above hardened minerals that are sometimes near impossible to remove

So here is my sob story.  We not only have no motorcycle parking, so you have to remember to put down a kickstand thingie, but we also have a trucking firm next door with a dirt lot.  Anytime the wind is out of the north all our vehicles get a coating of dust.  Then when it rains, like yesterday, well you know what that looks like.

[Outback_Jon]

Anytime the wind is out of the north all our vehicles get a coating of dust.  Then when it rains, like yesterday, well you know what that looks like.

Yep.  Looks kind of like my bike on a good day.