20% Chance of Rain

[echinus1988]

Does anyone believe that?

I did. Took my GL1800 to work today. Stopped for a bite to eat and sit with my son to talk a bit. Started raining lightly, evaporated quickly so I thought nothing of it.

Well, on the way to work, hit 4 showers which weren't bad and didn't make it past the fairing as I rode. Didn't get wet at all.

#5 was completely different. It was a solid downpour and I did what I normally do not and stopped under an underpass. The car ahead of me moved up and his daughter signaled me to move up further out of the rain. Great People! I only stopped because it was coming down so fast and hard it was standing on the road making it treacherous to ride on it. It only lasted about 10 minutes but it put a lot of water down!

I didn't wear my waterproof boots so I couldn't put my right foot down because the water was about 3" deep and fast that side. So I couldn't even get off the bike to put on rain gear due to the deep water. Needless to say I was rather wet when I got to work and took about 3 hours to dry out most of the way. Since I kept the rubber side down, I can laugh about it and think of the other times I got caught when I was younger and just kept going because I wanted to get somewhere! Now it doesn't seem as important to keep going.

Not a super interesting story but I had to at least start my entries to try and win this months contest!

[Viking]

20% chance of rain means several things. 1) There is a 20% chance the spot you are standing on will get rained on. 2) 20% of the forecast area is going to get some rain. 3) People on motorcycles who are running through that country are giving themselves a higher chance of reaching one of those areas. Probably upping it to 80%. I believed it when I finally understood it.

[echinus1988]

I should understand it but I still have problems. I should have probably said, go home get the truck when it rained twice on me while eating dinner but it was so light and the clouds looked like they breaking up to the west.

Oh well, it was a wet soggy ride but it was still a ride. I finally dried out about 1:00 AM.

[FM-USA]

20% chance of rain means a free quick bike wash.

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[echinus1988]

Damn, I forgot about that!

Didn't do very well. I have dust spots everywhere on the bike. Cleaning it this weekend I think.

[alwrmcusn]

This is how it seems to work for me:
If our STAR chapter schedules a ride for Saturday we watch the local weather forecasts for rain chances.
If they (WBIR) forecast 40% or greater rain chances, then the ride gets cancelled.
That 40% forecast to me....means that 40% of the area will likely get rain and 60% of the area will likely not get rain.
In actuality this is usually how it works: With a 40% rain forecast, we cancel the ride, stay home and observe 100% sunshine the entire day.
After the cancellation if I decide to take a chance and ride despite that 40% chance of rain, I will get about 15-20 miles from home, the skies will open up and dump flood waters down and it will last all day or until I get the trike back under the carport. The rain Gods seem to love pranking me like that!

[FM-USA]

20% chance?
Heck even at 50% chance I'll still ride, tho
I'll look at the current radar and plan a
route around it.
Of course I'll check that my rain gear is
aboard. I also have in the trunk 'side tucked'
3 compact umbrellas from Goodwill $2 each.
Price is toss-able & donate-able.

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[redial]

I never can understand that 20% rain thing. We have it here as well, but I notice that they rarely sit on the fence and say 50%, it is 20%, 30%, 60%, 90%, and rarely 100%. It seems to have mind of its own, as others have mentioned, and any sign of rain in the forecast is not good enough for me to get the bike out for a ride.

However, I have been ill enough that anything keeps me off the road.

[brettchallenger]

any sign of rain in the forecast is not good enough for me to get the bike out for a ride.

And if we stayed at home in England if there was a chance of rain we would have very low mileage bikes. In terms of summer rain, it is really only thunderstorms which keep me off my bike.

[DenverWinger]

Here in Denver most of the time rain is in the form of little "Drive-By" storms that you can see in the sky, and just ride around them....

[ka4yqi]

I look at it like this, 20% chance of rain means that there is a 80% chance it not going to be raining where I am at. So that means, kick stand up and away we ride. If I get wet, I will dry out sooner or later.

[echinus1988]

Coming home from Sturgis yesterday, my first time up there.

I stopped in Wheatland, Wyoming on my way to Denver and home. I ate and left for home. I was looking at the clouds and watching the lightning hit in front of me and to the west of me, closer by far to me in the west. I kept looking and thinking that it was really nasty looking.

6 Miles south of Wheatland, I hit the exit to turn around. I'm not scared of rain but this storm looked too nasty to run into on a motorcycle hauling a bunkhouse trailer. For those of you who don't know Wyoming near Cheyenne and north, it's flat with few places you can stop for protection from bad weather. The lightning and heavy downpours I could see just had me nervous. I headed back to Wheatland and got a room for the night.

I watched the weather and it consisted of Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, Tornadic winds (first I have heard of those) that could affect cars and trucks (on a motorcycle, hmmm), heavy rain and hail, and eventually a tornado warning. I turned around at mile marker 73 and the worst area on I-25 was going to be between mile marker 49-50 which was only twenty some miles south of where I turned around. At mile marker 73 I was just under the edge of the black clouds and they reported gold ball size hail. Think, very few trees to hide under (worse since the lightning), very few overpasses to hide under and imagine getting caught in golf ball size hail!

Needless to say, I showered, relaxed and watched the weather alerts on TV and said I made the right move.

[Viking]

Yeah, prairie Thunderstorms are no joke, especially when there is hail. I have huddled under an overpass before in those areas, where Intrestates cross, waiting for the biggies to go through. Saw cars that looked like golf balls from the hail. That stuff could seriously affect ones day on a motorcycle. I have had friendly bartenders take me home when some of those biggies were coming through as well, and I still appreciate it and still have contact with some of them. One by one, however, they drop off the radar

I am really glad you enjoyed Sturgis. As I mentioned in your Sturgis post, everyone should go once, for the experience.

[echinus1988]

Agreed, I have gotten under overpasses before but the problem with Wyoming is, there are very few and they are widely separated so getting to them can be a problem. In addition, not sure I want to be there with tornadic winds because the underpasses tend to funnel and speed up the wind. I'm just glad I stopped.

As for going again, I may go next year if my son goes and wants me along but I told him no guarantees.