How to Lose a Motorcycle in a Flash Flood

During our Broventure, one of the things Tim and I worried while we were off-roading in Moab, Utah was the prospect of a flash flood. With heavy rain storms looming in the distance, and a forecast for afternoon showers in our location, the dry and rocky canyons and river beds that we were riding through were highly susceptible to flash flood conditions. This idea was only reinforced further by the weather alerts from NOAA, and reports of earlier flash floods from local officials

In a trip where we joked about “what could go wrong” on a regular basis, the real prospect of being caught off-guard by a flash flood in a remote location was something very real that could go wrong very quickly. Lucky for us, we were out of the canyons before the rain really started coming down, and the Moab area in general was relatively unaffected by the storms.

Meanwhile in Colorado though, things of course were very different, and it wasn’t until we got home that we could appreciate the full extent of the flooding that was occurring in The Centennial State.

That brings us to this video on YouTube, which shows a man attempting to cross the wash of a flash flood in Boulder, Colorado on his Suzuki DRZ. Things of course start out as well as one can hope, but like any situation with large volumes of moving water, things can get out of hand quite quickly.

Note the speed and intensity shown when the rider first starts fording the water, and how quickly that translates into a lost motorcycle (and phone). This video easily could have become a snuff film, but luckily our protagonist will live to ride another day. Thanks for the tip Gigi!