Do you guys ride in the rain?

[RussellH]

So far I've only been riding my bike up and down my street because I was waiting to get my Motorcycle license. So today I was planning to take the bike out for my first real ride but it's raining here  - I realized some of you guys probably in WA state, OR etc where it's raining all the time probably don't think twice about riding in the rain?

Here in SoCal it doesn't rain often and when it does the cagers become unpredictable and frightening even when you're in a car yourself. Some go extremely slow and some are at the other extreme that feel they have to drive 30mph over the posted speed limit. On the city streets they invite themselves into your lanes suddenly to avoid puddles and other silly things. Needless to say I won't even bother taking the bike out today.

[niteman]

I'm nervous about riding in rain myself. It rains alot more here in central FL than in SoCal, so I'll have to at some point. People here drive like idiots in the rain too, it's like they forget how to drive all together.

[happycommuter]

Yes, I do.
Comfortwise, it helps to have decent gear.  My Aerostich Roadcrafter is near the end of its life, so it leaks at the crotch making me less apt to voluntarily ride in the rain.  Regardless, we all eventually find themselves involuntarily riding in the rain, might as well be ready for it. 

Light rain and wet roads aren't a big deal if you ride conservatively.  Leave extra distance for braking.  You have no choice but to do everything smoothly and you get a slight feel that traction is a little less.  I've heard the 'loose' feel of wet riding compared to riding on dirt.  I find the unhurried pace and gradual motions along with the fuzzy scenery and pitter-patter soundtrack to be very relaxing.  In reality, the tires can take a lot more acceleration, corning and braking than you'd imagine, but take your time discovering that.
Maintaining vision through the visor in traffic can be a problem (road grime, fogging, glare, drips on the inside...).  In heavy rain though, the convex visor sheds rain better than wipers. 

[nh700]

dido bout the unhurried pace....its very butt puckering when u feel that front tire start to lose traction on you for the 1st time..or anytime...i dont wana feel that again but riding in rain, it is kinda like riding on dirt...just be smooth and take it slow and steady and have a nice big safety cushion around u if u can...dont jerk the brakes remember cuz they will lock when u dont want them to...at least the rear will...if u have dirtbike experience it helps alot when u lose traction but its still not to nice considering other people in 2 ton cars thatll hit u if u do happen to drop in front of them

[FAITHBIKER]

I don't voluntarily ride in the rain either.  The first time I ever rode a bike over a 250cc was in the rain and it was my 750.  It was a little unnerving, but just gotta take it slow and give yourself plenty of room.  It was actually not bad at all, just scary cause I didn't know the bike at all.  Not something I would suggest, but it wasn't too bad really.  If you do ride, it certainly helps having a windshield and the right gear.  Just be careful!

[Bumblebee]

I'll ride in anything though nice weather is more pleasant than the entire atlantic ocean being poured through a sieve on my head. (I do need to get some serious weather crash gear instead of soaking what I currently have)

New rider? I'd stick with relatively dry roads until you get the hang of things.

After very little rain in a long while, there's often an invisible layer of oil, grease, transmission sludge, etc that builds up on the road particularly in suburbs. Get that stuff wet and traction goes to scary. Once that stuff is washed off, you'll be amazed how much traction you really have that you don't think would be there. Learn carefully and feel it out before trying anything aggressive. Good condition tires (good tread and good pliable rubber) is essential.

Deep standing water isn't a lot of fun to hit at 50mph - stay off the front brake if you do. Watch out for water puddles. I make a point to avoid going through semi-isolated puddles in the road. Those can sometimes be significant potholes that are either already established or are rain induced. If you get caught out in the proverbial ocean through a sieve downpour, touch your front brake occasionally to dry it off. If you don't, when you grab the brake, you just might be in for a very rude surprise.

If I know I'm riding in rain soon, I'll thoroughly clean my visor then get a teeny amount of generic turtle wax on a rag and polish the outside of the visor. The water hits and runs off instantly. I also do the same to the front and inside of my windscreen. Works great. If you have a windscreen, adjust it so your helmet is in clean air so the wind will push the drops off your visor.

Never ride faster than you can see.

Cages, ugh. They even get more aggressive, hateful and STUPIDER when the road conditions get bad. Make a doubly big hole around you. Enough said.

[skramer360]

   I try not to ride in the rain, mainly because I don't have any rain gear. Sucks to be soaked from neck to toe.

[detdrbuzzard]

i haven't left home on the bike in the rain but i have gotten caught riding when it started raining

[Bumblebee]

i have gotten caught riding when it started raining

Those can be, shall we say, memorable.

I think I finally quit dripping from the one last summer. It rained and hailed so hard that hiding under a tree did nothing useful. Visibility was under 200ft at times. The engine kept shutting down due to water in the spark plug holes shorting everything out. I had to keep touching the front brake to keep it operating. THEN the lightning started..you know the stuff that goes KABOOMBLOOEY then the flash occurs..yea, that kind of lightning. 

[RussellH]

I read that unlike in cars lightning is extremely dangerous for motorcycle riders. Also, taking shelter under a tree is a bad idea when it's lightning.

[Bumblebee]

Lightning is extremely dangerous no matter what. Just because you're not under the storm, does not mean you're safe either. Lightning often discharges sideways out of clouds. In the mountains, side strikes through clear air is very common because that's often the shortest high potential energy path to ground or through a charged air mass. I've seen lightning strike things 15 miles away from a storm. I know because I got hit by one doing exactly that. I've been outdoors all my life, on the ground and on the water and in the sky, and have a pretty good idea how to avoid trouble and I still got zapped so that should tell you something.

On a motorcycle the rider does not have a crude faraday cage surrounding him for protection. The rider is totally exposed to take the hit. (The whole concept of rubber tires being protection is complete total bunk. The leader stroke just stepped through several miles of air which is a far superior insulator than rubber can ever hope to be. It's not going to let 1/2" of rubber even slow it down when it goes into full discharge)

Hiding under a single exposed tree is IMHO asking for it. Being realtively near, yet not too close, to a single tree is a reasonable idea in totally exposed country. Hiding in a mass of trees is a much better idea than being in a field. Find the high/direct path points toward the storm and avoid that area. The idea is to not be a primary target and to let other stuff take the hit. Putting a hill between you and the storm is a good plan too.

If you're riding and there's a high lightning potential or a strike happens, find shelter of some kind and get off the bike immediately. The other option is to stay at least 20 miles away and circumnavigate the storm cautiously.

[Racinjasan]

Riden in the rain many times. Commuting and road trips alike. Just one of the many elements that influense riding conditions.

I usually take rain gear with me anytime the weather looks iffy. Just need to slow down and adjust for deteriorating road conditions as well as cages may not expect to see a bike in the rain.

[DesignFlaw06]

Nope. Almost never.

Granted there have been a couple of instances where I was taken by surprise It's not a pleasant experience, since I definitely don't have the right gear for it. When I ride, I want it to be enjoyable and nothing else. Riding in the rain is not fun, it's work. Limited visibility, paranoia about critters, cagers, etc. Not worth it.

[detdrbuzzard]

I read that unlike in cars lightning is extremely dangerous for motorcycle riders. Also, taking shelter under a tree is a bad idea when it's lightning.

if lightning strikes your car you would have all the problems someone on a bike would have. when i was around 14yrs old we (myself and some friends ) were camping in the woods near my grand fathers farm. just about 10p it started raining, then it started comming down by the bucket fulls and lightning. my friend don and i were sitting in my tent talking about the rain when lightning struck a tree about 25ft away, hell i couldn't even see him and it was a two man tent, lucky the lightning didn't travel aling the ground and come our way. when i got my vision back i jumped on my hodaka and flew home. slept in the barn, it was late and i didn't want to wake up the grand folks

[Bumblebee]

if lightning strikes your car you would have all the problems someone on a bike would have.

Huh? Not even close. On a bike, YOU are the conductor to ground. In a cage, you're fairly well protected by a cheaply built faraday cage conducting the power past you. I've taken a few hits in vehicles before while deliberately lurking around spectacularly bad weather in tornado country. None of those would have been even remotely survivable on two wheels.
FWIW: A direct hit while in a cage is frigging loud even with earplugs in. I think my ears are still ringing from the last one and it's been a while.

[bbrovold]

Sure, I've ridden in the rain and when I had my BMW R1100RT I had scheduled a day off to take a ride and when that day came I just put on my Aerostich gear and rode anyway up to 100 mph in a curve. I maybe will ride the NH in the rain but I will be less likely to set out until it stops.

[Snoopy]

I commute daily to work.  Rain or shine.  Luckily around here we get lucky and the cager's arent too bad.  I usually take the interstate to work and its usually early enough that there arnt too many out yet.   But i can say i have been caught in rain hard enough i ended up pulling over under and overpass, put the bike on the centerstand and jumped the guard rail. 


Last year in Iowa we had a tornado touch down in norwalk (about ten min from where i live) well that morning my father and his riding buddy of 30 yrs went for a ride and went west.  Well the storms are hitting and I havent heard anything from them in a few hours (when weather gets bad we automatically check on each other no matter where we are).  So i call and they are on the side of the road about 20 min from anywhere and one of the bikes wont start.  I am hearing on our police scanner at this point that there is a confirmed tornado some 3 miles from where they are, but the rain is coming down so hard they cant see 10ft in any direction around them.  They finally get the triumph going and get to a gas station to safety to find out the tornado crossed the road within 100ft of where they were on the phone with me.... Not a good time for them.. They came to find out that it was raining so hard the water was pooling up around the gas cap so bad it wouldnt vent properly and the bike would die. So the after the worst of the storm was over they rode home.  When the bike would start to sputter he would pop the gas tank lid and close it.  Rode the rest of the 20 miles home doing this.

[detdrbuzzard]

if lightning strikes your car you would have all the problems someone on a bike would have.

Huh? Not even close. On a bike, YOU are the conductor to ground. In a cage, you're fairly well protected by a cheaply built faraday cage conducting the power past you. I've taken a few hits in vehicles before while deliberately lurking around spectacularly bad weather in tornado country. None of those would have been even remotely survivable on two wheels.
FWIW: A direct hit while in a cage is frigging loud even with earplugs in. I think my ears are still ringing from the last one and it's been a while.

yours wasn't a direct hit

[Bumblebee]

yours wasn't a direct hit

Um, yes it most certainly was.

Direct hit to me personally? No. That's unsurvivable. The metal shell and windows faradays the power around the outside of the vehicle. No substantial power enters the vehicle.

Direct hit to the vehicle? Absolutely yes. The first hit blew up the aft section of the roof rack and put a 1/4" hole in the roof. The last one nuked the antenna, knocked the hood ornament off the front of the jeep and melted all the rubber parts of both windshield wipers and damaged the wiper hardware. I know...I was looking out the front window when it happened. Trust me, the vehicle took a direct hit somewhere in the immediate vicinity of the hood or upper windshield.
I no longer drive through low visibility heavy downpours originating under level 3 and higher storms..especially if I can't see through them since tornado's tend to lurk on the other side waiting for you to stupidly drive into them.

[Deadly]

I wont cancel any planned road trip because of rain and man I have ridden in some doozies!   

[jerjohn]

My bike is my primary, I have a beat up truck but honsetly I trust the bike more I could only afford a motorcycle parking permit for school, so if it rains I am out there. Like wearing rolling skates on ice. Down here in S.A. it doesnt get that cold but when it rains in pours! My jacket has a cool zipout rain liner and I bought some cheap corny rubber coated slipon chaps from Jc whitney that work for great for my 15 minute ride. I look pretty stupid but hey I'm dry