robow

Hey thanks for belittling my bravado here. Geez, now how will I ever repair my macho image.

spinnaker

That's right just ignore scientific facts. I hear rubbing a rabbits foot protects you from lightening. You should give that a try.

boomhauer

Rubber tires under me seem like the safest option until the next 7-11. By that time the danger is probably over

DropBarFan

Last nite I read info that rubber tires, even auto tires, don't protect vs lightning. In autos it's supposedly the metal body acting as a "Faraday cage" that protects; not rubber tires preventing grounding. OTOH your strategy makes sense as long as shelter is close enough to reach. BTW if they start making passenger cars out of carbon fiber (as with many race cars)--would that affect Faraday cage protection?

staehpj1

My approach has generally been to take shelter if there is any available and the storm is bad. The thing is that many of the times when it would have been nice to have shelter, there was nothing but flat ground without so much as a guard rail, post, ditch, or even low spot for miles. In those cases I just rode it out.

andrewclaus

The electrical engineer in me knows that a few mm of wet rubber probably isn't a safe insulator from a 100 million volt charge that just traveled thousands of meters to reach me. But I try to convince myself it is so and I usually just keep riding, too.

Lightning is one of those things, like wild animal attack, that is very scary but statistically very unlikely. We should do our best to mitigate risk, though.

Redhatter

Where severe weather is concerned, the thing that worries me the most would be hail. Very heavy rain does not phase me when I'm cycling, I'll just keep going unless it's extremely gusty as well.

Lightning, there are various strategies to avoid being hit, but with hail, stones are being thrown down with great regularity. It's harder to dodge those.

It's been suggested to me that I get a swag and in the event of hail, I get inside it then roll up-side-down so the mattress is on top of me for shelter. How do people handle hail when on tour?

djb

Hail is pretty rare, so it's very unlikely, but I guess if really caught out, a pannier or two over the head would work and it's usually very short lived.
I've been lucky in regards to this topic in general, as others have mentioned the chances of any of this stuff are pretty slim.

What is a swag?

staehpj1

I have been caught out in hail a number of times on tour. I have been lucky enough to have some shelter available to get under most times. When there was no shelter I just kept riding, but depending on the size of the hail that could be pretty rough. I have only been caught out with no shelter in hail that was just a bit bigger than pea sized and even that stung a bit. I guess with golf ball sized or bigger hail I'd definitely be improvising some way to cover up.

Juan Foote

I have had lightning strike close enough to me to make the hairs stand up twice in my life. One of the times I was indoors at a doorway, the other under a picnic shelter. While sitting in my grandfathers house it struck the chicken house roof, went across a clothes line, in through a metal window screen and blew out the light I was sitting next to.
Childhood buddy of mine got struck getting a coke from a machine.

The point of that is, it doesn't much matter WHERE you are. IF you are going to get struck some silly crouch isn't going to do crap. My thoughts are, ride it out and hope it isn't your time, yet.

djb

bringing up statistics and chances of this sort of thing happening, when I see how many people tour without a mirror, it makes me think that the chance of having an incident of being passed super close by a car, truck or RV and not being aware of this incoming danger is in the thousands and thousands more times likely to be a real threat, with potential every time you ride.

gpburdell

While the theory does seem to have merit, as you say it's unlikely to do anything but make it easier to kiss your azz goodbye.
NWS isn't recommending it anymore: Weather Service expert clarifies: The lightning ?crouch? is not recommended - The Washington Post

gpburdell

Rubber tires won't do a darn thing to a voltage so high it's jumping across thousands of feet of air.

The (modicum of) safety of being inside a car comes from the Faraday Cage effect of the metal body channeling the current around the occupants.

This motorcyclists' rubber tires were FAR bigger than yours yet that didn't seem to help: Lightning Strike Kills Colo. Motorcyclist

boomhauer

Better than standing on the ground where a nearby lighting strike passes through the ground and up your leg.
Ever seen a spark plug wire ? 10,000 volts yet you can hold it in your hand and not get shocked.
I'm sure a lightning bolt is in the hundreds of thousands of volts so probably a poor example.

gpburdell

When checking for spark using a screw driver pressed into the cap of a spark plug wire and held near the engine block as someone cranks the starter, be careful not to grip up too high on the screwdriver. If you do, you'll end up walking a ways to retrieve the screwdriver from where you threw it to when shocked. Ask me how I know...

Electrical storms can generate a potential of up to 100,000,000 volts. A couple of skinny WET tires aren't going to do any more than the rubber in the soles of your shoes would prevent a shock from a streamer to a nearby strike. (which is what's really happening when you refer to a nearby strike "passing through the ground and up your leg") Facts & Figures all about Lightning.

See my link above regarding a motorcyclist struck while riding. Motorcycle tires have far more rubber between the road and the metal rim than anything but a fatbike tire.

DropBarFan

True indeed, I love my Safe Zone helmet mirror. 5.7 cm diameter gives nice clear view. Looks kinda nerdy but so what. A couple of people have asked about it since AFAIK most bike shops don't carry it.

djb

wow 5.7cm that is huge compared to my Take-A-Look mirror.
Well, no matter the size or where it is mounted, my comment was really about "possibilities of life threatening incidents" in regard to lightning--what I hoped to illustrate is that getting sqwershed by Mr and Mrs Retiree in a fricken Love Boat sized RV, or Billy Bob in his pickup pulling a trailer who doesnt give a rats ass, these sort of risks are magnitudes of times more of a danger to us than getting hit by lightening or getting a bonk or 20 on the head by hail.....

Machka 

Bedroll ... more or less.


Australian Songs, Waltzing Matilda, Lyrics and Music

https://panique.com.au/trishansoz/wal...lda/waltz.html ... this one has more definitions.

MassiveD

No, you see science works like this Windbag (hey it's your online name...). You have a 1/500 000 chance of being hit by lightning each year ( and a 1/40 000 chance of being hit by a car while riding a bike). I don't think there is much guesswork involved in seeing that the personal risk of being hit by lightning while cycle touring vs being hit by a car, are working in vastly different directions. The 1/500 000 chance of being hit by lightning includes some rather stupid risks people take. Anywho. Now let us image this great science on how to avoid getting struck by lightning improves survival by 50% over just the usual about don't be the highest object, covered in metal, and under a tree, which is way to much credit, but imagine. Your chance of being hit by lightning will drop to 1/333 000. Sorry, not interested in making any changes to my behaviour for what is a trivial risk, I will leave that to the bed wetters.

In reality it is probably a 5 percent improvement, but to be really scientific about it, it could turn out to be another helmet issue where the risk actually goes up. Panic, shot while trespassing to middle of field... To really make a scientific determination someone would have to run a some real experiments. But so far while I have known about what to do about lightning since my mountaineering days in the 70s, I am not going to get my shorts in a knot over trivial risks and no real information.

"The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Doesn't sound to me like he was talking about the sheeple who go looking for mummy at the first sign of bad weather. But hey, maybe it has a different meaning for scientists like you. It's sorta a stupid quote anyway. For example Hitler went wrong by trying to control the environment so totally. That is the totalitarian impulse, you get so successful you want to control outcomes, and then before you know it a few million people are missing. It's usually a mistake to take your philosophy instruction from scientists.

djb

thankyou love.

antokelly

you guys get some serious weather we dont get anything like it in ireland thank god.

DropBarFan

Midwest US known for some spectacular thunderstorms (lightning, tornadoes, hail etc). But at least there's usually accurate enough prediction so that one could arrange to cut a day's touring early to avoid afternoon/evening storms. East coast gets less of the more violent storms. Though South Florida gets frequent afternoon deluges. They only last a few minutes but ya' gotta scurry to shelter to avoid getting soaked.

Dave Cutter

My favorite LBS was hit by a tornado (and a heck of a rainstorm... just the other day). I bicycled near there.... the same day... but about three hours earlier. Midwestern weather can change as quickly as I change gears. I am convinced that my bicycle mileage is determined more by the weather... than my own fitness or determination. I can't avoid cycling.... just because the weather might not be nice.

I don't "go cycling" in the rain (let alone a storm).... but I do go cycling when foul weather is predicted. I have a rain bike equipped with a rack and trunk bag with a jacket and a poncho (in the winter it has hand warmers). I know where the parks, stores, and friends are along my routes. The odds of getting hit by lighting is remote.... the odds of getting injured by a near-by lighting strike a little more likely. Wind and flying debris are a big concern from storms as well as lighting.

The poncho is a very nice item to have along when the weather looks sketchy.

We have snakes too!

antokelly

no severe weather but still plenty snakes 2 legged type

Redhatter

We get the no-legged type… and some of the worlds most venomous too.

That is another concern I have, going to sleep one night and finding I have reptilian company the next day. That said, I haven't had it happen before so probably not likely to happen anytime soon.