Originally Posted by mcflyfisher

As a fly fisherman I am very aware of the danger of lightning. I think graphite is something like 4 times more conductive than steel. That is way distributor caps have a carbon element in the center of them. When I am waving my 10' fly rod around in a lightning storm it is much like waving around a 40' steel rod. This is just a bad idea. I try to avoid it, but sometimes the fishing is too good. I can tell you that graphite will warm a bit just before a lightning strike, and that when that happens a fisherman can just about fill his own waders. I got lucky. The lightning struck a tree on the bank about 40' from me. I had my rod parallel with with water at the time. I was changing flies and had the rod in my hand. I noticed it was sort of humming and warm, thought "that is not good" and then the whole world lit up, and I was deaf for a few minutes. I wobbled back to the truck and went home. I am more careful now, but honestly I wouldn't worry too much in my bike even if it was carbon.