imported post
It has rained in Lexington for two days , we have water standing in puddles on the paved roads, and it is raining hard enough you cannot see properly, when conditions become this way, and some will disagree, so let them. Just pull off the road, check into a motel and wait for a better day. When you get standing water on the roads and visibility is limited, and it becomes an endurance contest, time to quit.
Other than that, rain is certainly to be counted on and normally encountered on just about any road trip, and at some point you will run into it. A mild gentle rain is actually kinda fun to run it sometimes, the day can become cool and actually be quite enjoyable, on cold winter days, it is not a lot of fun.
Your boots, and your gloves, make sure they are waterproof or you have some with you that are, you can use your choice of suit, but forget about those wet feet and that becomes a problem on a long day . Someone is going to speak up and say , hey put plastic bags over your feet, okay.....it will work......but not real comfortable, so just obtain waterproof boots or treat them so that they are. As with gloves.
I wear eye glasses too, and it makes no difference between a full face helmet with a clear visor over a open face helmet with a clear shield , other than the full face will tend to fog up more quickly, and you have to leave it cracked open a bit at the bottom. So either helmet you like is the same, both collect rain on the visor, nothing you can do about it, now contrary to all those who say......no, no, no, no do not use rain x on plastic, well I use it on my helmet visor. All the time, it takes it awhile to turn it yellow, and by that time the visor is scratched somewhere anyway, visors are cheap, and rain x works, so use it on the helmet. (do not use it on the windshield)
As for the windshield, forget it, do not even worry about it, just keep it low and forget you even have one. I keep a rag tucked up between the dash and windshield to wipe the helmet visor with occasionally, that is all, forget the windshield it is hopeless. All that thing is in rain is something to cause loss of visibility, so have it so you can just look over it.
Rain wear. Many like frog togs, I hate them, they are like garbage bags with elastic straps . flimsy, and on a long run, cold, touch an exhaust pipe or something and they melt, let them sit in the saddlebags for storage and get them out and be putting them on and they rip at a seam.......some like them, I do not.
Obtain a good rain suit made for fighting the elements, the one I use is yes expensive, but made for bass fishermen running a boat down the lake at 70 plus miles per hour in cold blowing rain, it works. It keeps you warm, and it breaths too.
A very good rain suit with a gore tex liner and a hood that you put up under your helmet, and good water proof covers over the zippers and a secure way to fasten the neck area, are all worth their weight in gold in a all day rain. They keep you dry and keep you warm. You get wet on a bike even on a summer day, after about three hours of it, you will get cold. You get what you pay for , is a good way to look at it. A cheap rain suit will suffice, but on a 12 hour day, it will make you miserable too.
Riding. Just be more cautious. When it first starts raining the road is very slick, and you only have two wheels, so stop early, slow down, change lanes slower and turn corners slower. Treat it just like you are driving on ice, because it is almost the same.
After an hour or so and the oil on the road washes off, you can relax a bit more , still be cautious, hold your speed down and just use common sense. Watch the road more, see a dark spot, go around it, could be oil, anything, and in the rain, it can dump you.
When and if it does rain hard enough visibility is gone, pull over, wait it out. and on a long outing, always budget for an extra day or two, and use them if you need to. Most of the time it will not rain all day hard, it will take spells of doing that, and you can run between them, some days though it will set in pretty constant and they only sensible thing to do is wait for a better day.
Hope this helps
Kit
Came back one more thing. Group rides. Sometimes we get into group rides across country with two or more other riders, they may be young, or inexperienced and want to push on in heavy rain. Let them. Wave goodbye to them, and ride your own ride. If you do not feel comfortable in those conditions, simply do not do it. There have been more than several times I have just pulled off the road when hard blowing rain is encountered, and visibility is zero. Others will wish to push on with peeking beside the shield and peering though a two inch window of sight, you cannot see the road, nothing.......most of the time they make it, sometimes they do not, I always make it as I just pull over. So you have to be aware of herd mentality, and ride your own ride sometimes.
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