Riding In the cold rain

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I've ridden in the cold before and I've ridden in the rain before (with and without rain gear). The worst experience I've had in the cold was from the Hodges' house to mine in 30 some degree weather (about a 25 min ride). I found this "motorcycle wind chill factor" website where you put in the temperature and speed and it factors out the wind chill temp. It says that at 35 degrees riding at 65mph the wind chill factor is 17 degrees. From what I remember that sounds about how it felt. When I got home I went immediately went from bike to sitting on the counter with my hands and feet in the kitchen sink filled with luke warm water hoping that I could salvage them… and it burned. I remember my roommate at the time came home and asked me what the hell I was doing.

The worst experience in the rain was from the church to my house. It was about 65 degrees which is very nice to ride in… when it's not raining. In fact it was so nice that I stupidly wore a long sleeve shirt instead of my jacket. Have you ever been shot by one of those airsoft guns at a good distance? Well I haven't either but I can imagine what that if feels similar to riding in the rain. It feels like you're getting shot repeatedly all over your body. Even regular old "sprinkles" (which sound so innocent) hurt at 45mph. Maybe it's more like being poked buy hundreds of needles all over. With rain gear on it's annoying at best. But with just a shirt on it's pretty painful. When I got home I was literally soaked from neck to toe (helmet did a very good job of keeping my head and hair dry, thankfully). It is really difficult getting wet jeans off.

So tonight I had a nice dose of cold f'ing rain. ALL THE WAY from school to home, which is a good solid 45 minutes… speeding. It was only 52 degrees when I headed to school, which is why I decided to ride in the first place. That is uncomfortable but do-able when it's dry out. The ride home was supposed to be 48 degrees with a 15% chance of rain, so I brought some extra layers for the chill. I know well enough to check and re-check the weather before I ride anywhere so minutes before I left I checked the weather. Both where I was leaving from and my destination checked out at a 6% chance there, 15% back. I have a going rule that I will not ride any considerable distance when the chance of rain is over 30%, unless I'm prepared to use with rain gear (which is a major pain the butt) so I assumed I was definitely in the clear. I was wrong.

What a horrifying experience.

The closest thing I can liken it to is being lost in a snow storm. You really have to try very hard to keep moral up. The neighboring cars had no mercy on me. 10:00 at night with 6 or so lanes to choose from and it seemed like they only wanted to drive in the ones next to me, spewing up water on all sides. I had to leave my shield slightly open to prevent complete fogging. Partial fogging at night is pretty bad, but it was better than the alternative of an open shield. I tried it for a second or two…… it hurt really bad. So the first 20 minutes or so were okay… a lot of fogging, but nothing had really soaked through the layers yet. After that I decided I needed to start singing to myself very loud. You have to do it very loud or you can't hear yourself. I sang some crash test dummies (cause I've been listening to them recently) "Running in to you like this without warning, is like catching a sniff of tequila in the morning. But I'll try I'll try to keep my food down. It's quite and aftertaste you've left now that you're not arroound". That worked for a little while then I moved to Mmm mmm mmm. And finally Rehabs' "Sitting at a Bar". Then I moved to singing random verses from each of the three songs as I could remember them while I was silently worrying that my left hand would be unable to squeeze the clutch effectively when I finally pulled up at the light off my exit. For whatever reason I was somewhat less concerned about the right hand which was to operate the break. I decided about 5 or 6 miles from the exit to try and move my left hand and fingers around a bit to try to get the blood flowing. The left hand doesn't do much anyway when you're on the freeway. All summer long it was used to being positioned on the gas tank propping my chin up while riding slowly through boring traffic. So I tucked it under my left knee hoping to warm it up a tad. The right hand is impossible to warm up since it has to be constantly squeezing the throttle. I did try to move it around a bit anyway.

Thankfully both hands pulled though at the critical moment. I think I sang them a little thank you song. After I was off the exit it's only a mile to the house, but since I wasn't moving as fast as on the freeway the shield was completely fogged over. I had to open it all the way. Ouch. I sang my face a little song too. I sang "owe owe owe owe…" to that friskies(?) cat food commercial song tune "meow meow meow meow…"

I made it home safely. I am so thankful that I decided to wear my textile jacket instead of my favorite leather one. Leather doesn't like being wet. My poor leather gloves were soaked to the bone though. I remember the point on 400 when the water had begun to sink in to my frozen little hands. After I got home and thawed out a bit I stuffed them with hand towels to hopefully minimize shrinkage. My jeans were very soaked, but my shirt and sweatshirt were kept pretty dry thanks to my faithful old jacket. My head was also quite dry… maybe not my face so much due to the last mile, but that's not too much to complain about.

Oh yeah… this was also the first time my new boots experienced rain. I was a little concerned about them because of how much they cost and the fact that I didn't spend the extra $40 for the "waterproof" version. But they faired very well. My socks were completely dry and the boots shed the water very well. There was no soakage, like in my gloves. Whew.

Well, that is all. I'm going to bed now.