I ride in pretty much any weather...not to fond of ice though. We lived in the Socal mountains at 6,000 feet and both worked on the mountain, now I'm retired and we live in the high desert. I've ridden in rain, sleet, and snow, it's all a matter of the right gear. I have a pair bright yellow slicker pants and a waterproof, armored, long riding jacket with reflective piping, my wellington John Deere steel toes are waterproof also. On long trips I bring 2 helmets, a FF and a polo beanie, along with my slicker pants. As others have said...slow down...and I ALWAYS ride like I'm as ghost and knowone can see me.
This thread makes me wanna ride wet with black leather and no windshield at night in the rain
My ride home the other night on my new Deluxe wire wheels , whitewalls! just another ride.
OP Vision is a problem = get ha fullface with ...oh screw it. Get a bell helmet as they have one of the best antifogging helmet faceshields around. It's what I'm wearing on this vid. Watch out for painted patches on the road and also metal stuff litke manholes and train tracks. Be smooth! From the 10min mark on the vid is where it really started coming down.
I rode in and out of single cloud rainstorms all afternoon yesterday. Only put the rain gear on once. It was spotty enough to just leave the gear off and keep getting wet and drying off. Made for a fun afternoon.
I've been in 46 ot the 50 states and I'm ( pretty ) sure I've been wet in every one ... Still to this day I hate pushing the scooter out of the garage and leaving in the rain ... Once on the road it's ( rain ) just another part ot the "experience"
I typically don't start a ride in the rain. I commute on my bikes about 8 months a year and like Zerk, I don't leave in the rain, but don't care if I get wet on the ride home. I've been touring a lot in the past couple years and generally on a schedule and find that to keep to the schedule riding in the rain happens. Sometimes the entire day is a rain ride.
The video in my signature of me riding The Dragon, was in rain. That day started about 50 miles from the Dragon in the rain and just continued to rain all day, sometimes driving pouring rain, all the way to the Florida panhandle and then on to Mobile, Alabama. That was after the last "El Nino" in the Pacific pushed a huge rain storm across Mexico into the south east. I had some cheaper Jaffrum rain gear that started to fail about halfway through. I've had better luck with Nelson Rigg rain gear, and now have the Harley gear which is the best I've owned.
Still worse than riding in the rain, were the gusting cross winds I experienced down in the Florida panhandle that day. In fact those crosswinds that day were the only time I've really been nervous riding. I've ridden across Kansas in some pretty bad crosswinds but they didn't move me around like the ones in that particular storm in Florida. The pine trees along the road there were basically growing horizontal as they had so much wind.
Also, like others have pointed out, rain is a good way to get a scoot dirty. This was my Wide Glide after the ride from the Dragon to Mobile. Also, after looking at that pic, with my Big Sucker air intake, riding in heavy downpours without a rain sock over the filter, you can expect a little hesitation when you open up the throttle too much as it sucks in rain water and the engine sputters. On my bike the rain really has to be coming down quickly to do that. I just put a similar filter on my SG, but haven't ridden it in the rain with the new filter yet to see how it does.
I commute on the bike rain or shine. Just have rain gear and waterproof boots to arrive at your destination dry or wear an all season jacket with built in water proof protection. A vented FF helmet is also a requirement. The cheap ones will have a fog problem due to lack of ventilation. A pinlock visor is nice but not a requirement in warmer weather. At highway speeds the wind will keep the rain off the visor. With helmets look for a Snell or ECE approval, the DOT MAX allowable head impact force measurements have long since been proven fatal by medical science. DOT helmet standards are at the stage now that car safety standards were before they made seat belts with additional shoulder straps mandatory.
Traction is not an issue unless you are riding on bald ties as long as you do not grap a mitt full of brakes. Use RAIN X for plastic (never the kind for glass) on your visor. The kind for glass will RUIN a good visor and make it dull and yellow after a few applications. Great cold weather and wet traction is what separates high quality tires from budget models. High silica rubber compounds grip much better in the wet.
All good advice, with one exception: A full face isn't NECESSARY, per se, but it sure makes it more comfortable that getting pelted in the face with raindrops.
As to the OP, if you're ever going to take a road trip, you're likely to hit rain at some point. Ride to your visibility, with greater stopping distances and easier inputs on throttle, brakes, and steering.
Get GOOD rain gear; buy the expensive stuff. Having been thru several rain suits over the years (including a Frog Togg), a decent rain suit is worth the extra cost. It'll keep you dry, it'll last longer, and it'll make you more visible (I have the HD Hi-Vis suit). Wear good, waterproof riding boots. Don't be afraid to pull over and rest, and don't pull over under overpasses and stop - when visibility gets poor, you're a target.
I think the greatest danger to riding in the rain is when you do so terrified. You tend to overreact, and that's what puts riders down.
Final thoughts-carbon (as in tires) is a conductor, NOT an insulator, and a motorcycle is a moving ground rod for lightning, AVOID!
My $0.02.
That's an absolute fact. You are protected from lightning in a car, as the roof and body of the car acts kind of like a Faraday cage to conduct lightning around you. On a motorcycle, your head is the tip of the lightning rod.
05-19-2019, 04:06 PM
