Photograph by MadAboutCows, Flickr.

With the weather miserable again today, it seems timely to talk about riding in the rain. Adequate rain gear aside (which will help you keep your mind on the road, not on your slowly freezing legs) there are a number of critical things to take into consideration even after many years of riding experience:

Riding speed and braking
The car drivers among you should remember this from Driver’s Ed. and it applies equally here. If it’s raining out, keep your speed lower than typical for a dry day. This will help you immensely when it comes to braking, giving you more reaction time to anticipate and brake slowly rather than biting down on the calipers.

Keeping your visor clear
To help eliminate rain from building up on your visor and impairing your vision, there are a few products on the market you can apply prior to riding such as Rain-X. This product and products like it encourage the water to roll and bounce right off of the visor. Your visor may also indeed become foggy while riding in the rain and although there are products on the market to help prevent that too, just cracking your visor open a smidge every now and again will help quickly eliminate this problem.

Visibility
Remember, if you’re struggling to see in the rain, drivers are likely having similar issues. We all know that drivers don’t see us at the best of times. Double that assumption in the rain. Keep your lights on (and high-beam if you have it) and wear something colorful and highly visible to other drivers.

Road markings
Any white (or similar) painted road marking that’s there for safety and direction in the dry is a potential hazard in the wet. The surface of the paint is considerably slicker than the surrounding road surface. Crosswalks in particular can be unsafe in the rain because they usually come immediately after a turn. Slow down more than you usually would for the turn. Avoid turning in the tightest lane if possible and make the turn as straight up as possible rather than leaning.

Steel road hardware
Similarly steel hardware in the road needs to be treated with care – particularly man-hole covers and temporary construction plates used to cover holes and trenches. Avoid them if you can, but remember that your ability to swerve and weave is much diminished in the rain. Therefore, if you have to cross them, cross them slowly and as straight on and upright as possible. Do everything you can to avoid them entering or coming out of a turn.

Puddles
There’s nothing inherently wrong in crusing through a puddle. It’s what’s under the puddle that’s the problem. That innocent looking pool just might be the home to a pothole, and you my friend don’t know how deep that puppy goes. Unless the puddle is on a daily route you have intinimate familiarity with avoid that bad boy.

Oil
It’s a problem at the best of times, it’s particularly a problem in the first half-hour to an hour after a rainfall. If it begins to rain heavily, take a break before getting on your scoot to give the oil some time to wash in and away. If you do encounter it, ride over it straight-up and straight on as much as possible ride in the left or right thirds of your lane because the middle of the lane tends to be where the oil leaking from vehicles finds its home.

In short, riding in the rain is certainly reasonable as long as your ride cautiously but when all is said and done, if the rain is coming down hard and the thought of getting on the bike makes you more than uncomfortable, don’t ride. Lock the bike up. Cover it if you can and take the subway or bus, even if this means leaving your bike over night. You’ll get home safe, and ride another day.

Have fun and ride safe.

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