Looks like rain on my way home...eek

[niteman]

I have been wanting to start commuting on the bike more regularly, just so happens that it is rainy season here and I'm not experienced with wet riding yet. Well, I got sick of the weather stating a 40-60% chance of rain everyday and not seeing a drop fall between my office and my house. I chanced it today.

I made it to work all fine and dry...well soaked with sweat actually, but no rain. Wouldn't you know it, it started raining around 1pm and just stopped a few minutes ago. Looks like it might rain again soon. I am a little nervous about riding home, don't so much care about getting wet, just don't want to bite the pavement.

[Bumblebee]

Ride sensibly. Don't get brake or throttle happy. Stay off painted traffic marks such as crosswalk markers or centerstripes. Use caution on oil marks that are at intersections or down the center of the lane. Avoid steep angle turns.
As long as the tires are good rubber and has good tread, the bike won't throw you on the ground unless you do something aggressive or stupid.

[niteman]

Thanks for the insight!

Tires are practically new Michellins, about 100-200 miles on them since mounting, hopefully that's enough to have broken them in well.

[Laminar]

Stay off painted traffic marks such as crosswalk markers or centerstripes.

Ditto. I was riding home in the rain last week and my rear tire got up on the centerline in the middle of a turn doing about 65 or 70. It slid the tiniest bit, but it was enough to scare the crap out of me. 

[Bumblebee]

Tires are practically new Michellins, about 100-200 miles on them since mounting, hopefully that's enough to have broken them in well.

How much of the new tires have you scuffed properly? All the way to the edges of the tread? Straight riding with minimal turns won't scuff the entire tread area enough to do any good. You have to progressively lean further on dry pavement to get rid of the new rubber frictionless chicken stripes.

[niteman]

How much of the new tires have you scuffed properly?

Well, probably not the perfect amount of scrub in. Like I said, been raining a lot lately. I've done a couple good runs to neighboring cities on one of the only twisty roads around here and the rest of the break in was parking lot practice, i.e. figure eights, decreasing/increasing circles, quick stops, etc...

Made it home okay by reminding myself to take it easy and smooth like you suggested. Still working out some carb/throttle response bugs, so the smoothness was not as smooth as I would have liked though.

I was riding home in the rain last week and my rear tire got up on the centerline in the middle of a turn doing about 65 or 70. It slid the tiniest bit, but it was enough to scare the crap out of me.

Yep, I was looking out for that the whole time. That would have scared me too.

[happycommuter]

I had no doubt that you'd make it home safely.  People vastly overestimate the effect water has on friction between rubber and road.  Same with low temperatures.  Tires are capable of way more than we ask of them (hint: don't ask to ride ham-fistedly on cheap bald tires in the rain).

BTW, the split-second squirms are unnerving, but they really upset the rider more than the bike. 

[Laminar]

I had no doubt that you'd make it home safely.  People vastly overestimate the effect water has on friction between rubber and road.  Same with low temperatures.  Tires are capable of way more than we ask of them (hint: don't ask to ride ham-fistedly on cheap bald tires in the rain).

BTW, the split-second squirms are unnerving, but they really upset the rider more than the bike. 

Back when I first got the Nighthawk it had pretty bald tires, so I had a blast slamming it into second and kicking the rear end sideways as the tire spun like crazy.

[LuminousPube]

I started riding in november and I have never had a second thought to riding in the wet, I cycled for many moons when I was younger and only came off when cars were involved.

I had the back end slip a tiny bit on me last night on my way home form work, it was wet but not raining and there is a large twisty section of my route home, as I leant it over a little and accelerated a little harder than I should the rear wheel had that moment of going sideways as well as forward and although it took me by surprise i held the power and didnt panic and it felt amazing after, tiny be scared but it didint slip out more than a few inches

[mwallette]

don't ask to ride ham-fistedly on cheap bald tires in the rain

But...but...but...that's just no fun at all!   

BTW, the split-second squirms are unnerving, but they really upset the rider more than the bike. 

Had a couple of those recently 

Niteman, I'm new to riding in the rain myself, but I decided to commute on the bike rain or shine, since 1) I can't get enough riding 2) the riding season is short where I live and 3) it's been raining quite a bit recently.  I've found that riding in the rain is really not that bad unless it's really pouring and you aren't dressed for it (yep, been caught by surprise a few times, but only one time wasn't much fun).

[niteman]

mwallette - yeah, it rains here like crazy, but the winter is awesome for riding here too, so that makes up for it a but

Since my post on this, I rode the bike to work 3 out of 5 days this week and hit a light rain once...HappyC was entirely correct in that the rain upset me more than the bike. I did wait out a horrendous downpour with lightning on Thursday evening though. Waited til about 5:45pm when it let up...it was a great ride home.

The reprieve from the heat was awesome, and I found something kind of serene about the light rain the I ended up riding in. Oddly enough I experienced a more "in the moment" zen like focused ride while it was raining than I have in "ideal" riding conditions...strange. 

[mwallette]

mwallette - yeah, it rains here like crazy, but the winter is awesome for riding here too, so that makes up for it a but

Yeah, I didn't look at your location before I posted.    I've been down to the Tampa area twice, and really liked it there, but you do get some pretty heavy downpours!

[JordanA]

mwallette, I am thinking of moving up your way in the next year or two!  I can imagine that when winter hits riding seasons means snow mobile more so than motorcycles. 

I can imagine the scenery up there during the summer months being absolutely worth it, though.

[mwallette]

I've seen guys on trikes year 'round, but the riding season here is late April/early May through early September.  And yep, the scenery in the summer is absolutely beautiful.  It's pretty in the winter, too, but by February or March, I'm ready for the sunshine :)

[LOKi]

mwallette, You should get some spiked tires for the snow this winter. Do they still groom and pack the roads or do they try and clear them in the winter now. My parents said in the early 70's they didn't waste their time trying to clear the roads. Rather they just packed the snow down and keep it groomed like a ski run. This actually provides pretty good traction. Better than ice on tarmac. So the question is are you going to ride? I would think riding on that kind of surface with nasty spiked tires would give you the same traction of riding on wet pavement or loose dirt roads. Probably handle like it was on dirt.

[Vermontster]

Glad to read your question and read the responses. I've not gone out in rain yet either. Though have taken the NH when the forecast calls for less than 50% chance of precip. Does the rain impact seeing through the face shield much? How do people deal with that? I know there are products to help shed rain, but I read somewhere on a thread here that Rain-X can damage face shields.

[mwallette]

mwallette, You should get some spiked tires for the snow this winter. Do they still groom and pack the roads or do they try and clear them in the winter now. My parents said in the early 70's they didn't waste their time trying to clear the roads. Rather they just packed the snow down and keep it groomed like a ski run. This actually provides pretty good traction. Better than ice on tarmac. So the question is are you going to ride? I would think riding on that kind of surface with nasty spiked tires would give you the same traction of riding on wet pavement or loose dirt roads. Probably handle like it was on dirt.

They plow most of the stuff off, but don't bother trying to get the roads clear, so most of the winter it's packed snow and gravel over the pavement.  I don't think I'm up for riding on it in the winter, though.  If it was packed thick enough, that might be one thing, but the traffic tends to wear ruts in the snow so you get a mix of snow and tarmac.  I imagine it would get pretty squirrely in places.

Glad to read your question and read the responses. I've not gone out in rain yet either. Though have taken the NH when the forecast calls for less than 50% chance of precip. Does the rain impact seeing through the face shield much? How do people deal with that? I know there are products to help shed rain, but I read somewhere on a thread here that Rain-X can damage face shields.

I haven't noticed the rain causing much problem most of the time.  The rains in Anchorage tend to pretty gentle, and the slipstream blows the water droplets off my face shield, making for reasonable visibility.  I've only been out once when it was raining hard enough to make it difficult to see.  However, it was also late in the evening so it was getting a little dark out and I had my dark visor on rather than the clear one (it was a beautiful day when I left for work 13 hours earlier...).

Don't know about Rain-X, but I wonder if Pledge might have the same effect?  I'm not certain, but the face shields on my helmet look like plexiglas, and a lot of pilots use Pledge on their airplane windshields, which are also made of plexiglas.  Anyone else know how that works on face shields?

[LOKi]

Glad to read your question and read the responses. I've not gone out in rain yet either. Though have taken the NH when the forecast calls for less than 50% chance of precip. Does the rain impact seeing through the face shield much? How do people deal with that? I know there are products to help shed rain, but I read somewhere on a thread here that Rain-X can damage face shields.

Slight pissing rain is worse than just rain. At least when it rains the big drops catch the wind and remove all the little drops as they race to the edge of the face shield. If droplets start to accumulate without being blown away I'll turn my head to the left then right and the change in wind direction gets the drops moving.

I was thinking of adding something to the face shield to help aid the water migration. Maybe a coat of car wax? Pledge sound's like it would work too. Anyone see anything wrong with waxing the face shield? I have been doing this to cars for years. Any time I wax a car I wax the windshield at the same time. Water beads up and runs off like rain-x but without the oily residue. Seams to last longer as well.

[Bumblebee]

I put a thin layer of turtlewax on my cage windows and motorcycle windscreen. The same gets done to my visor and airplane windows. Water hits it and it rolls right off. Turbulent air off the top of a windscreen causes hassles however a good clean airflow on the helmet helps keep the water moving...well, at least up to the point that the rain starts resembling the atlantic ocean being poured through a sieve.

Make sure your visor seals properly when closed. A chin curtain and breath guard does wonders on keeping water from misting up through the bottom of a helmet onto the inside of the visor.

[skramer360]

Talking about riding in the rain reminds me. The other morning it wasn't raining but there was heavy fog. So, I leave for work and the fog is so thick it starts to accumulate on my visor and clothes. I had to wipe my shield off five or six times in the six miles to work. When I got to work my clothes were wet like I had ridden in the rain. Anyway I had to chuckle every time I wiped my visor on my sleeve.