Friday, April 4, 2008

Yes, I rode when there was a tornado watch in effect...

Although, when you get down to it, cars aren't much safer in a tornado than a motorcycle. Your best defense against those if you're faced with one while out on the road is to jump into the nearest ditch if there isn't a solid building to take shelter in.

Normally I would have stayed home with a very high chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, but for this month I'm pressing on anyway. They didn't declare the tornado watch until I was at work. However, I didn't actually encounter any high winds on the road. The storm hit before I left work. Four hours later, it still hasn't completely blown over.

The morning started out cold and foggy. Misty mornings can be good for folk song and blues lyrics, but they're not so great for riding a motorcycle. The roads are as slick as if it's raining, sometimes slicker because the various slimy things that rise to the surface in the rain don't get washed away. And you get tiny droplets on your visor that are harder to shake off than big raindrops. I found myself pondering whether it's worse to ride in a cold, foggy morning or in a thunderstorm.

Well, this afternoon I got to make a comparison. It was one of the worst storms I've ridden through at times. For a short ride, I'd rather take the thunderstorm than the mist as visiblity is, believe it or not, better, and the right gear can keep you dry. But on a long ride, my gloves and boots started to soak through. Alpinestar Drystar gloves proved that they are not, as the name implies, rain gloves. They will keep water out for maybe 15 to 20 minutes, but they don't shed water, they absorb it. About halfway through the ride I found I could wring some of the water out just by balling my hands into fists. I need some truly waterproof gloves. The Frogg Toggs held up just fine, though.

One other rain riding tip: Tuck your gloves into the sleeves of your rainsuit. If you go the other way around and tuck the sleeves into your gloves' cuffs, you'll get a lot wetter. It seems more rain trickles down the sleeves and into the gloves than blows back up the sleeves at speed.

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