Wet Tuesday
Another Rainy Day
Pam and I managed to get our run in this morning without getting wet, but getting to work on the bike was an entirely different matter!
Because there was rain in the forecast for this morning, I looked at the radar before we went out to run. There was nothing in range at that point, so we went to run and I didn’t give it another thought….until the first sprinkles hit me before I got to the end of the block on my bike. “Maybe it’s just a fluke. I’ll just keep going”.
As I turn out of the subdivision….”Crud, it’s really raining. Do you want to be a weanie and go home? Of course not! Go for it!”.
At the top of the hill on Sunset (less than a mile from home)…..”Well, I guess I better stop and put on my rain pants.”
In reality, riding this morning in the light rain wasn’t unpleasant at all. It was coming down hard enough to count as a serious rain, but still light enough that I stayed relatively dry in my water repellant jacket, rain pants and booties. Luckily, at 52 degrees it was warm enough that even when my socks and gloves did soak through, I was still comfortable.
The nature of my ride changes quite a bit when it’s wet out there. The big thing that I don’t like about riding in the rain on my road bike is that the brakes turn to nothing after a good soaking. When that happens, I tend to ride very cautiously…especially in town. A car pulling out in front of you when your brakes are wet is a lot scarier than the same situation with normal brakes. You have to start braking a lot earlier for turns…and you don’t want to take those turns as fast as normal because of the wet streets.
Another factor I keep in mind during wet weather is the road surface itself. Innocuous things like man-hole covers, painted markings on the street, leaf litter, and railroad tracks all become ice-slick when they get wet. A freshly laid street surface can be just as bad the first time it get’s rained on.
In addition, I think drivers are even more focused on not seeing a cyclist when it’s raining. Notice the way I phrased that sentence? It seems to me like wet weather gives drivers tunnel vision. They’re all tense and concentrating straight ahead because visibility isn’t that great. Unfortunately, I’m not usually straight in front of them when I want them to see me. I’m usually coming from a side and their peripheral vision is taking a back seat to their tunnel vision. To help get their attention, I always put my two front lights on blinking mode when riding in the rain. The double strobe effect seems to be more of an attention-getter than the steady lights. On the way home tonite, that didn’t help. A lady tried to pull out in front of me at OTC. I yelled to get her attention and she stopped in time, but then got honked at by the car behind me.
Rain also takes a toll on my bike. In addition to the drive train getting nasty dirty and gummed up, I also have to pay attention to my electronics. There are four separate lights and a computer on my bike, and I wouldn’t really call any of them “high end”. Some are sealed better than others, so when they get wet I usually have to dry them out to keep the rust and corrosion at bay. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as having to ride home in the dark when one or more of your lights doesn’t want to come on, or having your computer decide to go to sleep because of wet connections. It’s happened to me a couple of times!
One last thing to think about when it’s raining out is that bicycles are more prone to flat tires when riding on wet pavement. Doesn’t make sense, does it? I think what actually happens is that the little rocks and other pieces of debris stick to the tires a lot more. Then, the repeated turning of the wheel actually drives that piece of debris into and through the rubber.
In spite of the weather, life goes on.
God bless….
TW
Tags: bicycle, Bike Commute, Cycling, Fitness, rain, Running
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October 15, 2009 at 6:31 pm
I’ll second that line about flatting more in wet weather. Just went through it last weekend. A friend of mine flatted three times on the same ride in the rain.