rivers, I dont think you mentioned, but have you camped much in your life?
And where are you and where will you most likely be doing some bike trips--australia, the UK, Spain, somewhere in America? --and in what months?
I ask because generally here in Canada, there are rainy periods in spring and fall, and summers have less rain--or to put it this way, one can plan a bike trip and put the most chances on your side of not having lots of rainy weather by chosing the right time of year, and of course using the internet now to keep an eye on trends etc.
Last summer we rode across France and luckily in the weeks before we started, there had been weeks of rain in early June, unusually so, but after that it was typically nice end of june july weather. A few times of rain, but not a big deal
and as you say, being able to ask or look around for inside lodging is always an option for a real yucky day, but thats just part of the deal--dealing with stuff and finding a solution
as nun already said, if its raining at end of day, I await rain to stop before putting up tent. In summer it generally will stop after a while. Ive generally been lucky in mornings and wait for rain to stop or get very light to have to pack up, so not a real problem in years of camping and bike touring.
yes I have spent a lot of time camping, although last year we upgraded from a tent to a converted ford transit because we got a dog. It will be in the UK, mostly in late spring-early fall, which tend to be our drier months.
I'm not adverse to a bit of rain, I get stuck in the rain on occasion. Hell, I think I've had 1 dry commute since mid October. But, if my mates and I have a long weekend trip planned and the forecast says it's going to rain for 3 days straight, we will just reschedule. We are mostly going to be using the trips to explore places a bit further afield than we can get to in a day, and have a good time.