Riding Skills ?: Rain

[mika]

I am trolling to start a discussion on rain riding skills. This is not intended to be about riding gear for the rain rather once you are out there and caught in the rain what skills do you use?

Saturday afternoon I went out playing on county roads along the Minnesota River. Like a child playing with something that could hurt him, I kept taking one more twisting county road that took me farther from home. I found myself a little over 100 miles away from home when it started to rain, on unfamiliar roads.

I have ridden little in the rain this year while ridding a few miles almost every day. The nature of my riding this year has led me to cherry pick days, times to ride and thus have missed rain riding. In a good year I know I am no rainmeister when it comes to riding.

What skills should I be learning and practicing to make me a better rain rider?

[ppaintguy]

Coming from a wet land I had plenty of time to practice rain riding. After all in the UK if you don't go out in the rain you won't go out very often...lol.

Now I am in a similar situation as you M1Ka where I can mostly pick the days based upon time I am home rather than weather but they are selected nonetheless. Occasionally I do get caught especially in the winter time. Other than the obvious comfort need for clothing, I tend to focus on a few things.
First the realiziation that I need more distance between myself and the cars, andif the cars keep closing that gap I will let them by if I cannot safely ride faster.

Second visibility, how far can I see? The shorter the distance the slower the speed. Example, I was recently riding out of Laramie, WY heading East over the mountains and it was fog all the way over. The range of sight went from 1/8th mile approx to 1/2 mile approx. I kept adjusting speed all the way along.

Third the importance of traction. There have been several discussions on tar snakes etc recently, and the rain is when they bite you the fastest. Scan the road ahead constantly for obvious manhole covers, tar snakes and anything that is a little shinier or blacker than the rest of the road, or anything that has a bluish haze to it as that is most likely spilt truck diesel or alike.

Fourth cornering to your comfort level, if you don't feel real comnfortable at the start of the ride (easily felt for those of us that don't ride rain very often) adjust speed and angle of cornering to suit your comfort zone. No sense in going faster than you would like because you feel the need to not slow traffic a little, remember if you dump it then you really will slow traffic down...lol.

Fifth coming to a traffic light as you slow to a stop, make sure you are not stopping over a diesel/gas/oil spill, easily spotted by the bluish haze or water seperation around certain spots. If you stop on this either your foot may slide out from under you, very embarassing, or your rear will want to pass your front if you pull away a little too fast.

Bottom line ride to the speed that you feel comfortable and nobody elses. as the ride progresses and your butt-pucker relaxes you will pick up the pace just fine and even through the corners.

[FredRydr]

Practice? I guess the following are rather obvious but bear repeating. Smoother shifts and braking are good so you don't lose traction, and slower entry speeds in turns are good too so you don't lose traction. Be more attentive to steel plates, open grate bridges, tar snakes, polished asphalt from steel rims of Amish buggy wheels (a local specialty), oil at toll booths, leaves, mud, and wind/water blast from 18-wheelers on highways. Motorcycle tire traction is amazing on wet road surfaces, but don't pretend the water isn't there just because you can still have fun. By the way, you are even harder to see through the rain-covered windshield of an oversized SUV.

It may seem silly, but when I worry about riding in the wet, I recall the old MSF pie-graphs to help put traction loss into perspective and slow myself down.

Practice putting on your rain suit alongside the highway, too.

Fred

[MANICMECHANIC]

In times of marginal traction I prefer to not downshift as much, or to downshift very smoothly, when negotiating turns. Unless you've got an engine with an absolutely flat torque curve, the idea is to keep the engine's torque down and possibly minimize spinning the rear wheel.

[USERNAME]

to echo the comments of others, i strive to be super smooth in rain. gentle leans in and out of turns. gentle acceleration. gentle braking. all of these actions meant to fluidly combine to make any changes very smooth.

i also corner wayyy less aggressively. i have no accurate measurement, but in my mind, i think, "i will lean half as much." i'm probably being overly cautious as i ride with dunlop d220s that are pretty dang sticky, even in the wet.

lastly, as a rider with a nekkid bike, i find that road spray from other vehicles is my worst enemy. it's blinding. so i try to keep a good distance between myself and the car in front of me for that purpose.

i'm far from an experienced rain rider, so take all this with a grain of salt.

[Harrington]

I remember watching Rossi dominating a rain soaked GP. I was a year or two ago. I can't remember the exact race but I do remember Rossi's rain style.

Rossi completes all of his body adjustments prior to the turn. His body seems to be statuesque on the bike. The only part of his body that moves is his right wrist. He effects the suspension as little as possible midturn.

We don't ride as fast as Rossi nor do we need to on the street. We can learn from his example and keep unnecessary body movement to a minimum midturn.

.02

[Harrington]

This is not an Irain story is it ? But I ran in rain numerious times. I have to get my bike washed.

Oops .........you're right.........How deep does the rabbit hole go?

[Bob_M]

One bit of gear that is important to safety are the little thumb squeegees. V-Wipes of equivalent are great to help maintain visability, and to clean off the road grime that clouds a face shield. The previous tips are good, I try to employ them here in the great Pacific Northwet.

[mika]

This is not an Irain story is it ? But I ran in rain numerious times. I have to get my bike washed.

[braddog]

I'm no expert either, and normally do not take off from home in rain, but obviously get caught from time to time, since I commute on the 'cycle.

Like others have stated, I ride less agressively, keep acceleration slower and smoother, and try to choose a spot on the road that is less wet. Overall, I ride slower, but not too slow. I don't throw the bike into turns, I slow down further away from turns so I won't be going in hot at all.

I leave a little more room between me and traffic so as to keep the rain spray down.

I don't mind a steady rain, but really try to avoid thunderstorms. Besides lightning, thunderstorms can leave a lot of water on the road, plus they often come with higher winds.

[mika]

Using my Saturday ride only as an example:

How do you deal with green roads in the rain?

To me green roads are ones that have been recently paved. New and black they are fun when you are out in the dry playing squid. In the rain they ooz oilyness.

[PacWestGS]

I always try avoiding riding in the first 30-minutes of a recent rain after things were dry for a day or two. And, avoid riding all together for the first day of rain after a long dry spell.

The first 30-minutes are a critical time for the oils to rise up and wash away. A lite drizzle won't do this so give more time. If caught out on the road stop and get a slow cup of something.

Lite drizzle sucks it just sticks to your face-shield. If you turn your head 90-degrees left and right the increased wind over your visor will help clean the heavier drops away.

Slow down, be smooth, and increase the distance for everything.

great comments from everyone above.

Doc

[DwayneH]

... The nature of my riding this year has led me to cherry pick days, times to ride and thus have missed rain riding. In a good year I know I am no rainmeister when it comes to riding.

What skills should I be learning and practicing to make me a better rain rider?

Your mistake here is missing riding in the rain. When I first got my 'R' the first thing I did as far as relearning to ride on a standard (Naked) bike was how it handled wet roads. I did not ride when it rained going to work until I had the oppertunity to ride in the rain on my terms on a weekend morning, to see how the bike handled without the worry of getting run over if I should misjudge the bike. I would say you need to, or anyone; practice riding in the rain close to home, and on your terms to make is as safe as possible for your first time out. I have discovered that other then not pushing it in the corners, and being smooth with the exceleration and braking, the bike handled as thought the roads were dry. This is also a good time to test that rain gear, or riding gear you thought was water proof...and wasn't

[beemokat]

In the rain, smooth counts! No quick stops, no squidly corners, no hole shots starting from stops. Nothing herky-jerky.

[mika]

Your mistake here is missing riding in the rain. ...

A normal year of riding in the past included daily commuting to an office, weekend micro-tours and a long riding vacation. The combination of health issues and working form home set me up to cherry pick days. A short rain burst on a ride to or fro was all my experience this year until this particular ride I am using as an example.

By September most of the riding skills for rain riding are second nature. On this ride I realized I was working through my mental check list a bit clumsily and I did not feel my normal comfort level as conditions changed.

For many it has been a long dry summer. As we all move into the fall riding season, which will be wetter for many of us no matter how much we cherry pick, it seemed like a good idea to cover wet riding skills.