[GP_Pirate]

Steve you are no wuss. I live in Florida and during rainy season there can be a thunder storm nearly every day. Usually brief but can be heavy, even torrential. It's the loss of visibility that bothers me most. I do everything possible to avoid riding in the rain. But at least it is warm rain down here.

 

[Alemerchan]

I'm not a fan of riding in the rain either. I have done it, I just don't like it. It's not exclusive to motorcycles. I don't even like driving or being outside in the rain 😂 🤷‍♂️

 

[New York Mike]

I rode down your way and will be living down your way this year. 3 of us rolled out of Chicago 2 yrs back for Az. Problem that way now is it’s Monsoon season. And I will say as a well seasoned rider getting hit by a Monsoon is insane shit ! It knocked 3 of us to the ground while trying to grab the shoulder. Just trying to get off the road for a lack of vision. It’s walls of water ! Nothing to play with if you get hit by one I’ll say that. But rain in general I just put my rain gear and helmet on and roll with it. When you run cross country and cover thousands of miles it’s not if it’s when.

 

[virginiaJim]

Considering that you live in a fairly rain-free zone, and that you have cultivated relationships with diverse people, you may have your bad ass biker card back after you complete one or more of the following tasks of penance -
- forget to close a saddle bag until you realize you've strewn your gear over 20 miles of highway
-ride when it's so cold you can't feel your hands and you have to pull over and try to warm them by the engine heat
-walk your bike back into a parking space too far and scrape the pipes on a curb

I've done all three of those multiple times over the years. I never learn. As far as riding in the rain, I have a full face with the pinlock system so I don't fog up in the rain. I've found pinlock to be the best of any antifog product I've used in 25 years or so of riding. Some helmet visors (such as Scorpion use a coating which does wear off over time which prevents fogging.) I prefer pinlock over that. If it's voluntary riding around home then I won't ride if it's going to rain. If I'm on a long trip and have no choice, I ride through it, albeit carefully. If lightening is involved I pull over somewhere. I've been shocked by a lightening strike close to me while on the bike sitting at a traffic light.

 

[Kaz]

I've ridden in the rain many times; depending on how severe it is I usually don't mind it; Biggest thing I hate is how dirty the bike gets after.
Just did a rain ride the other day when taking my Chieftain in for that shift recall. Its was pouring out pretty good and I didn't want to have to re-book my appointment so I threw on the closeouts on the crash bars; put on my rain suit and off I went.
However, when its a torrential down pour where you can barely see in front of you and you need to follow a vehicle so its tires push water to clear a track for ya; probably best to pull off where you can safely and wait it out. If you can barely see in front of you; chances are cagers are having limited visibility as well.
I personally do not like riding in lighting storms and try to avoid that if all possible.

 

[DWS22HOF]

Glad to see/read this post. I despise riding in the rain. And the older I get, the more I despise it. In 2015, I rode from my home in Ohio to Utah. Almost 5,000 miles in 14 days and not a drop of rain. Talk about an awesome trip! Told my wife that I would pay for it down the road. Summer of 2017, I headed to Glacier National Park. Sure enough, after spending the first night with friends northwest of Chicago, I hit rain 15 minutes from their house. It poured all day. With having hotel reservations booked for every night of the trip, I hated to get behind a day. So I rode on - slowly but surely. It sucked. Looooooong day. When I finally arrived at my hotel, I felt badly for the young man at the front desk. While registering, I had left a huge amount of water on the floor. It was running out of my boots and my rain gear. He had to get a bucket and a mop and clean up the man-made lake. He also had to follow me down the hallway as I found my room. As I sat in the laundry room of the hotel that evening drying everything, I thought of my prediction to my wife. Hit some more during the rest of the trip but nothing like that day. Everyone has a rain story, that’s mine. ⛈

 

[Kstone]

I Live in Florida and I ride in rain a lot, I ride a chieftain with recently added Harley lowers. Not so much cold rain, so biggest issue is visibility. The best thing I have found was mentioned, a full face with pin lock system. Lightning is another thing but with this helmet I don’t worry, everything else is just adjusting speed and riding for the conditions.

 

[HINK]

Now, this is some real riding!

 

[HINK]

 

[HINK]

Last year Julie and I had ridden 800mi from Columbia TN to Council Bluffs IA. We got up the next morning at 0530 for another 800mi day. As we walked down the hallway we heard the unmistakeable boom of thunder and I knew we were in for some, ahhh, “challenges.” There was a small group gathered in the lobby watching the deluge and commiserating about those “poor devils on the bikes” (ours being parked under the lobby entrance). We quietly moved through as a silence fell over the crowd. I think everybody was shocked to see Julie in her high heels and pink helmet as she strode towards her bike. One of the locals awkwardly turned to me and said, “You’ve got a ton of bugs on your headlight.”

I looked at him and said, “Only for a minute.”

Good news/ bad news....

 

[HINK]

We had flooded fields as far as the eye could see until we got to I-90 and turned left.

One time I was bitching about riding into obvious rain and Julie just looked at me and said, “You ain’t gonna melt. Quit bitching and saddle up!”

- Did I ever mention how much I love that woman??? Or how lucky I am to have her??

 

[Captain steve]

For anyone out there that thinks we don't get much rain out here in southern Arizona permit me to share a little local knowledge...

Most of the year we don't get much rain but during the Monsoon we get more than you would imagine. As the Monsoon thunderstorms come in they keep moving so it is often difficult to dodge them by watching the forecast or radar. Doppler Radar has measured these thunderstorms as producing up to 13 inches per hour but as I said they rarely sit still and dump in just one location.

It is not unusual for me to see 3 to 4 inches of rain fall in my backyard in 15 minutes and the lightning that accompanies these storms has to be seen and heard to be believed. Oh, did I mention the gusty winds that also part of the package? It's always a cheap thrill to be riding in a downpour and suddenly find yourself in totally different lane than you were a second before.

Riding in Arizona = Never a dull moment!

 

[HINK]

 

[ndncowboy]

The last frog choker I was in it wasn’t the rain where I couldn’t even see the speedometer, it was the lightning. Now that gets your attention. But being on the interstate I had no option but to continue and just hope this wouldn’t be the day the Lord wanted me. I made it home but not sure how. Some of those strikes were very close. Where the flash and boom hit at the very same time.

 

[Davetac1]

Anyone ever get caught in an electrical storm with a lot of thunder and lightning?? I have,and on a number of occassions! On my way home from work one summers' night [I worked nights for 30 years and drove my bike to and from wrok every single day of those 30 years] and while traveling home on the highway,I encountered a real bad thunder storm and got struck by lightning which hit my antenna and actually blew the radio right out of the fairing.And I know of a couple other guys who also experienced similar strikes while on their bikes,but they were traveling across the plains in the south western part of this country.In all cases,the lightning hit the antennas.The fix for this [if anyone is interested] is to add a ground strap attached someplace on the frame so the lightning will go thru that and to the ground or road, instead of your electrical system.I even got hit one night coming home in my truck which actually melted the base of the antenna where it mounted on the fender,also taking out my radio.Duh!! So I added ground straps [cheap money] to that too which was suppose to cure the problem.After I added those straps,I never got caught in another electrical storm again.Double DUH!!! Go figure!!

 

[Lost Hillbilly]

I've done all three of those multiple times over the years.

Yeah, don't ask me why those came to mind so easily. I guess we all forfeit our bad ass biker card at some point.
I'm glad to hear the pinlock review. I think my next helmet is definitely going to have that feature.

 

[Joegopher]

I have ridden in thousands of miles of rain. Everything from drizzle to torrential downpours with thunder and lightening. It's going to happen when you decide to leave the comfort of your home state and take a distance trip. Here are the things I have learned that make riding in those conditions palatable:

1. Wear a good quality full face helmet (that has a pinlock shield), preferably in a visible color (black aint it)
2. If you have a motorized windshield, lower it all the way down - it's better to deal with one shield that's wet than two
3. Spend some money on good quality rain gear. Frogg Toggs are good, but there are better suits out there - if you can find it in high-vis yellow, GET IT!
4. Have extra pairs of dry gloves to change at every stop. (I carry 4 pairs of "waterproof" gloves on every trip)
5. Don't outride your vision.
6. Make sure your bike is well maintained and you have good tires on your bike. I have replaced tires countless times before a trip with 2-3 thousand miles left to make sure I didn't have to replace somewhere on the road, or get caught in a bad storm with little meat on the wheels
7. Always turn every light on you have - high beam, driving lights, even hazards if the rain is heavy enough

The key is being visible and staying safe.

 

[JuanPoopalot]

I enjoyed that video - thanks for sharing!

Those racers have some amazing skills . . .

 

[JuanPoopalot]

. . . When I got home I talked to two of my Oriental friends about this. Wut Da Chit told me I was absolutely crazy for not checking the weather first. Ho Lee Phuc told me I was nuts . . .

I couldn't help but notice that no-one made any mention of your Oriental friends' names...

I have several Oriental friends as well:
Dum Gai
Hu Flung Dung
No Bai Dam Ting
Chin Tu Phat
Sze Yu Sum Dei
Wun Hung Lo
Sum Ting Wong

. . . likely not to be PC anymore, but I still get a chuckle!

 

[greywolf157]

Try riding the BRP this time of year, Pop ups every evening from 15 min to several hrs. Thunder lightning, 2 to 4" of water running down the road with patchy fog and a temp drop from the low 90's to the mid sixties in just a few minutes.
Then having to ride the twisties down off the mountain..LOL good times...