Yesterday was one of those days when it feels like you're wearing the hot air and its actually a steam blanket. Actual temps in the 90s, much hotter on the roads, humidity into the 90s and local weather guys reporting it feels like 115 or worse. Been going on this way for a while with no rain. The assault of the hot humid air makes riding decidedly unpleasant as there is no way to easily stop core temp heat gains for a sustained ride, only to mitigate the damage.
Anyway, while doing a 50 mile ride from my friends place on the coast back to my more inland location I got lucky and ran into one of the very rare and localized rain showers moving the direction I was headed. It started light and then got heavy- the kind of drops that sound like small hail when they bang off your face shield. Not much wind and the nearest scattered lightning about 5 miles away over the site of a forest fire that had burned about 30,000 acres- I guess the smoke encourages the lightning hits in the vicinity. Nice downdrafts dropping 70s and high 60s air from higher altitudes.
The rain was so heavy my first thought was to reach for the rain gear that's always on my RT. But that wet stuff coming out of the sky with cool air sure felt great. So I did something I haven't done in a while- rode 50 miles in a downpour with only my usual summer gear. Wow!- what a great ride. The coolest and most comfortable I've been on my bike in months. Not too chilly- just right!
Got to my place dripping a bit but drier than I expected - the RT's excellent lower protection and my Z Tech screen and Barkbusters block a lot of the direct rain hit.
So I stopped to hose the road spray off my bike and blow it dry with my Master Blaster before putting it away and even got a lazy guys bike wash out of it. No bugs left in the oil cooler after that rain blast and the bike is as clean as its been all summer.
It only stayed cool for a couple hours and today its as hot as any other recent day so it looks like my Veskimo will get a workout on longer runs planned soon.
Don't underestimate the pure pleasure of a rain ride if you've been baking for a while! I may start detouring into storms just to get cool if this hot spell keeps up much longer!
Anyway, while doing a 50 mile ride from my friends place on the coast back to my more inland location I got lucky and ran into one of the very rare and localized rain showers moving the direction I was headed. It started light and then got heavy- the kind of drops that sound like small hail when they bang off your face shield. Not much wind and the nearest scattered lightning about 5 miles away over the site of a forest fire that had burned about 30,000 acres- I guess the smoke encourages the lightning hits in the vicinity. Nice downdrafts dropping 70s and high 60s air from higher altitudes.
The rain was so heavy my first thought was to reach for the rain gear that's always on my RT. But that wet stuff coming out of the sky with cool air sure felt great. So I did something I haven't done in a while- rode 50 miles in a downpour with only my usual summer gear. Wow!- what a great ride. The coolest and most comfortable I've been on my bike in months. Not too chilly- just right!
Got to my place dripping a bit but drier than I expected - the RT's excellent lower protection and my Z Tech screen and Barkbusters block a lot of the direct rain hit.
So I stopped to hose the road spray off my bike and blow it dry with my Master Blaster before putting it away and even got a lazy guys bike wash out of it. No bugs left in the oil cooler after that rain blast and the bike is as clean as its been all summer.
It only stayed cool for a couple hours and today its as hot as any other recent day so it looks like my Veskimo will get a workout on longer runs planned soon.
Don't underestimate the pure pleasure of a rain ride if you've been baking for a while! I may start detouring into storms just to get cool if this hot spell keeps up much longer!