First ride in the rain

I had a bit of a ride in the rain yesterday. As I was heading South through Puyallup and it started sprinkling. But the further South I got the harder it rained. There were a few things I found that got difficult while I was on the road. As long as I was on the interstate the rain just slid past across my face shield, around my waterproof jacket and down my goretex pants. My boots on the other hand, I find out more each ride how waterproof they are not. I got them pretty used though. Obviously one of my first gear upgrades will be boots. When I slowed down my visor started fogging big time. I need to get some anti-fog spray on it. And some rain-X on the front of it would probably help too.

It was pretty nerve racking riding in, what turned out to be, a heavy rain like that. I always think of what keeps me on top of my bike and my bike upright is traction. I think of traction as a finite resource. There are certain things that will use up some of that resource like turning, braking, accelerating, tire wear and type. But the base of how much traction you start with comes from your riding surface. When it's less than optimal (ex. wet, gravel, dirt, or wet gravel dirt) you have less traction to work with. Less cornering before you've spent all your traction. Less braking before it's all used up.

So when you've never pushed your traction to that limit it can be nerve racking to experiment at 60 mph. Just know that many riders have done this before you and if you just keep going and keep your movements nice and slow, allow lots of room to change lanes and follow, you should do just fine.

Let me know in the comments what types of riding you're worried about, water, dirt, loose debris in the road, snow?

Please leave a comment down below or send me an email about where else you would like me to ride. Whether they're scenic roads or particular trails I'm willing to go take a look and post it up. Remember to like my facebook page to get notifications of when I post up here. Thanks for stopping by and be safe out there.