LAJ

I didn't buy a nice bike to hang on the wall and look at. As nice as it is, I am happy to ride it in whatever weather happens to be out there that particular day.

newb242

What are you putting on the chain?

A generous application of Vaseline will do in a pinch.

5stone

wow.

stapfam

Did a century a few years ago and the newish wheels started to cause a problem. The freehub would skip a bit when changing gear. Mind you it was wet with a few fords to go across that were running high. It was a Freehub rebuild, clean and regrease but luckily this is easy to do on Mavic Hubs.

On the MTB- After a wet muddy ride I wash the bike of with soap and water and a sponge and then hose down gently. Thoroughly clean the chain and then take the wheels off. AND cover the saddle and brake blocks and out with the WD40. Release the cables and wash out any muck inside the outers- and lube the inners. Anything steel will get sprayed with the WD- in fact as it's an ally frame- I just spray the bike with the stuff. Shake the bike and out with the rag and wipe down everything.

Main problem is leaving water against anything that will corrode- so WD will get rid of the water. It's then down to elbow grease to clean the bike.

coasting 

what an effort. other than the usual drivetrain cleaning, i just hose it down, wipe dry then polish with furtinture polish.

tntyz

To reduce your chance of getting hit by lightning just ride lower in the drops than anyone else.

coasting 

i was once caught in a very scary thunderstorm on my steel bike. the rain came down so hard i stopped to shelter under a big oak tree holding the bike. very very silly. when a lighting strike came really close i threw the bike away and ran out into the middle of the road.

jdon

I am glad I ride Specialized. Goes out and comes back in all weather all year and hasn't let me down. Why own a bike you are afraid to ride? :-)

palesaint

Do you have 320+ days of sunshine? Some people do. When 90% of my days are uber nice, I will glady bag a rainy ride and avoid the 20 hours* of cleaning and maintenance that is required to return my bike to like-new condition.



*= an arbitrary, made-up number

5stone

I own two other bikes, a fixed gear (Langster) and a mountain bike (Stumpjumper) and they're both Specialized. And while they're good bikes and I love 'em, it's not like they're anything.....'special'.

And I'm not afraid to ride the Cervelo. I'm packed up and heading out to the suburbs where I'll spend the night before tomorrow's ride, rain or shine. But I thought I should check in with folks here as research seemed to indicate lots of grime can F up a bike. And since I stretched beyond breaking to even get this bike, I can't have any huge surprise expenses. But I do fall on the tool side in tool vs. jewel debate.

All that said, the Cervelo is absolutely miles beyond anything I've ever ridden by Specialized. And I test rode their high end road bikes.

fingers crossed re: lightning.

LAJ

I don't know how many days of sunshine we have. I do know last weekend was the first rain-free weekend in a long time. Either way, the "pain" of cleaning my bike no way wipes out the fun of the ride I just took.

mkael

Riding trough wet mud causes a huge subjective loss of efficiency on a bike. Cleaned up it's like it was before.Or just continue riding on a clean road in pouring rain. After a few hours the chain's are squeaky clean. Lubrication can be mostly gone too. I notice increased chain wear after this. I have done a lot of this yet I haven never really killed any bottom brackets or hubs prematurely. My bike maintenance was long a crappy level though so maybe I have had crappy standards. I have ridden very little with road hubs. Makes me wonder what the sealings on these are like. Cyclocross bikes are ridden in an enviroment like this, I think they use road hubs. I haven't noticed the bearings being so sensitive to abuse.

Mark Manner

I have ridden my nice bikes in the rain in centuries frequently. It is a bit of a pain to clean them afterwards, but that is what they are for. The first time you do it is the hardest, but then you will be more relaxed about it. In addition to the obvious things like washing the bike and relubing things, believe it or not, water gets inside the frame when you ride long distances in the rain, and it needs to be let out. There should be a screw on the bottom of the bottom bracket (probably holding the plastic cable guides on) that when removed will allow water to drain out of the bottom bracket. I usually take the screw out and let it sit overnight, then the next day pick up the bike and rock it back and forth and some more water will run out. Sometimes a lot of water runs out, so be prepared.
Have fun.
Mark

jdon

That is great! Enjoy the ride and I hope you and your steed stay clean and dry. S-Works rules! :-)

bangkok

My new cheapo floorpump came with a needle/pin adapter as used to inflate a basketball etc. This is just right for blowing water out of cables and joints if you get caught in the rain.

icyclist 

>I own [snip] a mountain bike (Stumpjumper)<

Over the years I've ridden many centuries on Stumpjumper equipped with narrow road tires. By a set of slicks and keep them for just such a situation as you are now encountering, and for whenever your road bike is out of commission.

>From the research I've done (here and elsewhere) it seems like opinions are divided.<

Why were you expecting something different than what you'd already learned?

mustang1

If you can afford to replace anything that wears out or breaks, then ride the heck out of your cervelo, no matter what the weather is. It sounds like you are well capable of doing your own servicing, so my vote is to go ahead and do your century. Have a great ride!

serac

What kind of components are you guys riding that crap out after a single day in the rain? Living in Seattle, I don't have much of a choice most of the year and ride in the rain a lot.

Reynolds 

One of my bikes has a '90 7sp 105 group in excellent condition. Once I rode about 80 km in the rain. When I came home, disassembled it - hubs, BB, headset - and didn't find a drop of water inside. My rain riding confidence increased after that.

bostongarden

bingo

ok_commuter

How did it go?

5stone

It went great! So glad I went. Only ended up raining for an hour. The rest of the ride was awesome and I met some cool people to ride with in the future. As someone earlier pointed out, I would've been frustrated had I chosen not to go. The bike was incredible and I've decided to just not worry about anything and ride the hell out of it. Now I gotta go clean it, using some of the tips y'all provided.

Thanks to everyone for weighing in.

p.s. 5:30 for my first century the season.