General Discussion

There's not much you can do for the sealed bearings that I'm aware of. The up side is that water and grit can't get in as easily as the old fashioned adjustable race style bearings. But when they do, and eventually they will, the bearings are toast. The particular storm that caught me on US 1 resulted in a squeeky bottom bracket that required new bearings. However it's worth noting that the bike was only a month old and the issue was covered under warranty. The bearings should not have failed from one storm.

You're doing right by cleaning the drivetrain and lubing the chain. A drop of penetrating lubricant on the pivot points of your brake callipers, levers, and derailleurs won't hurt either, but be sure to wipe away any excess so you don't collect dirt. I use tri-flow in a bottle, not the aerosol stuff, so I can put it right where I want it to go. A little 2 oz bottle should last one bike for years or you're using too much. Drying the bike immediately after a rainy ride or a wash will help prevent rust on bolt heads and steel bits. That's all I got. Anyone else?

Thank you Pen,

You've brought up some great points on the visibility, which I'll have to keep in mind more now.

I agree on the bike becoming a mess after being out in the rain, as it seems to be a magnet for all of the sand and grit out on the road. Usually when that happens I pull the chain, crankset, and rear sprocket and clean everything up and re-lube the chain. It takes some time, but keeps the drivetrain in better condition.

However, I don't do anything for the bottom bracket bearings (Shimano Ultegra) or the headset, as you mentioned they have sealed bearings. Do you do anything for them?

Thanks again,

Terry T.

As a rule I avoid rain. It's not so much a fear of lightning, or my cat-like disapproval of being wet in general, but laziness that stops me. I hate cleaning my bike. I'll lube the chain as needed, but I dread greasing bearings, and with all the "sealed" press fit bearings on my latest bike you can't do much with them anyway. Sooner or later, however, we all get caught.

Last summer I got caught in a bad storm in St Augustine, on US 1 as it happened. The lighting wasn't too bad, it was mostly popping over by the ocean. The real danger was traffic. I was on a divided four line highway in a heavy downpour with no more than 20 feet of visibility. My little red blinky light was not going to keep me safe, and there was no cover in sight. Eventually I came to a business with an awning, and sheltered there until the rain slowed down.

My point in all this is that we get some pretty strong afternoon storms this time of year, so plan your route accordingly. Riding in rain is inherently more dangerous as you (and everyone else on the road) suffer compromised traction and longer breaking distances, reduced visibility, and less predictable behavior (avoiding deep puddles and so on). If you know it could potentially be a wet ride, plan the "at risk" part of your course in an area with little traffic and plenty of opportunities for shelter from lightning should you need it. And don't neglect your bike, you will need to clean and lubricate everything after a soaker.

I'm going to ask a question here, with the understanding that I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. For example, when I lived in the Northeast I tried to keep my cycling up through the winter. One cloudy afternoon I headed out when it was 27F and got back some 3-hours later when it was 24F, and I was mildly hypothermic. I'd like to be a real he-man and say that I loved it, but it sucked. Granted, I rode with panniers in the winter and changed gloves, hat, and base layer each hour; and even after spending thousands on winter cycling clothing, nothing worked for me in those temperatures.

Those long cold winters were also the time I lost nearly all of my gains from cycling through the summer and fall. I know there are indoor trainers, but I've never gotten used to the bike-to-nowhere. So after a while I started to realize the futility of fighting the winter, and convinced my wife and two boys that we should move down to St. Augustine. We've been here almost 2-years, and love it.

That said, I know we have a lot of these pesky thunderstorms that pop up in the afternoons, all through the summer. I planned a 53-mile solo ride, which I owed to myself before the start of the workweek. I'm a Clydesdale and working on losing weight, so riding slow it would be at least a 4-hour ride. I checked The Weather Channel on-line and it looked like I'd be OK until past 5PM, so I figured I'd go for it.

As I've been telling my two young boys lately, "There's always going to be an excuse for you not to do something; an easy way out that will always be tempting you and keeping you from realizing your goals." Turning left off Bartram Parkway onto Greenbriar around 2:30 I could see the black sky ahead and could hear the thunder in the distance. A moment of pause at the traffic light, and I defiantly headed straight off into it.

Right after turning south onto Route 13, it started to rain very heavily, and sure there was a lot of thunder and lightning. But the time between flash and boom was still a second or more, so I kept going. I stopped in at the Rivertown Park to get under and awning and call my wife to tell her that I was fine. Granted, you could hear the thunder pretty clearly through the phone, so my telling her I as OK didn't do much good. She was a total wreck, and I got that talk about her and the boys, and what was I thinking?

What was I thinking? Actually, I was having a great time, and wasn't at all worried. But she insisted that I stay right there and she'd come with the van for an "extraction", as she calls it. And I'm not saying any of this to put my wife down, or draw anyone to one side or another. I know she was a wreck and I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the rest of my ride anyway.

So my fellow cyclists, what do the Northern Florida experts do in such a case? No, not should I have called my wife or not; do you guys and gals go cycling into the thunderstorms, away from them, or not at all?

Thanks in advance,

Terry







Terry T.