BluesDawg

Someone asked about riding in rain. Here is a ride report I posted on my club's website for the rainy ride I did this morning. It was my club's annual April Fools Ride which is our fund raiser for our advocacy and awareness projects. We figure the rain and threat of storms cost us about 50 to 75 day of ride registrations and kept about 50 of our pre-registered riders from showing up.
The saving grace is that we had great sponsors and good pre-registration numbers, so we will still make a respectable profit, but nothing like we could have with good weather.
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I think I've been through the full range of emotions in the past few days. Everything was looking good to have a big turnout for our ride. Watching the weather forecast go from bad to worse to terrible was not much fun. I wondered if anyone at all would show up today. Rain was a certainty and it was possible that thunderstorms were on the way.

To my surprise, riders started showing up around 7:45, intent on riding. People from Atlanta, Augusta, Warner Robins and other places, and some locals. To my shock and awe, a few people actually registered today, standing in the rain and listening to discussions about whether or not we would cancel the ride. About 40 people checked in this morning. Some only picked up their packets and asked when dinner would be served. About 30 people rode.

We did decide to cancel the 62 mile route today as reports were calling for increased chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. We also cut out the first nine miles of the 34 mile loop, so most of us rode about 25 miles in a constant rain. It really wasn't that bad. Fun even. But the occasional sound of distant thunder did make it a bit worrisome. Fortunately, it never got close and there was no immediate threat of lightning. Everyone got in safely with no accidents. I heard about a couple of broken chains. One was repaired roadside and one was not. One person missed a turn (off 243 onto JF Hall), but found his way back before too long.

The food was fantastic (of course) and it was fun sitting around with everyone eating and talking about the ride. We gave out some nice door prizes and gave out the last of last year's shirts.

I wish it had turned out to be good weather so more people would have come to ride, but that's the nature of the beast. Sunday's weather is supposed to be great, so we have decided to do it again. At 9am Sunday, we will meet at the same start location and ride the routes in the sun. We won't have the road support or the rest stop support we had today, but we will be serving up the after ride meal again. There's so much good food and it has to be eaten. So come out and join us for a second chance at a fantastic ride. You'll be glad you did.

Here are some of Lori's pictures from the home base. I hope we can get some of the pictures that Alexander took on the road to post. We'll get lots more tomorrow.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bluesda...7604402392911/

Tom Bombadil

Too bad about the rain. Better luck on your next attempt!

Do people wear sunglasses in the rain? If so, how well does that work out, with all of the water on the lenses?

Louis

Yeah, too bad about the weather. Wish I lived closer, I'd be out Sunday for sure.

Hopefully there is a nearby charity to donate the food to if it doesn't get used up tomorrow.

BluesDawg

Works a lot better than raindrops on eyeballs.

I don't find it to be much of a problem. Sometimes they fog up when I stop. The rain usually rolls off if I turn my head a little. If it builds up too much, I use the terry pad on the thumb of my gloves to wipe them.

stapfam

I do envy your weather. Not the rain of course but there are people in T shirts.

Sounds like a good group of keen riders so hope Sundays ride will be just as well attended.