Up Front

UP FRONT

Get wet

David Edwards

THE TV WEATHER GUY HAD LIED. THE night before, he'd called for scattered showers. But what I was slogging through on CW's test Honda CBR 1000 was, in actuality, scattered sunshine. Very scattered.

Contrary to myth, popular song and broadcasts of the Rose Bowl Parade, it does rain in Southern California. And when it does, most of the region's motorcyclists, like sensible riders everywhere, stay home where it’s warm and dry.

What a waste of perfectly good riding time.

Now, hold on. I’m not sugg-esting that we all take to the streets every time it clouds up, and go splashing about like rubber-covered, behelmeted Gene Kellys. But wetweather riding, like countersteering and panic braking, is a cultivated skill, and what I would suggest to you is that in the middle of a downpour, miles from home, with your favorite companion riding shotgun, is not the place to realize that your rainy-day riding capabilities are lacking.

The first step to becoming proficient in the rain is to dress for the part. Eighteen years ago, riding my CB350 from Maryland to Pennsylvania on the first long tour I'd been on, a lesson was driven home. When the sky opened up with quarter-sized dollops of rain, I stopped beneath an overpass and smugly pulled out my camouflaged, $4.95 rainsuit, purchased at a local sporting-goods store. Besides making me almost invisible to other motorists, the suit lasted only about as long as it took me to upshift through five gears, as the wind and raindrops whipped the suit’s thin plastic into useless shreds. A quick stop at the next town’s grocery store for trash bags and masking tape yielded a more-effective, if not overly stylish, solution, though restroom stops thereafter were a little difficult. Ever since that ride, 1 haven’t been without a colorful, quality rainsuit.

So, spend a couple of hours checking out your rain gear the next time you run into a wet Sunday afternoon. Besides ascertaining your rainsuit’s seaworthiness, determine if your rain gloves and boot covers are up to snuff. On this particular Sunday, I was in the midst of a few discoveries, the first being that my new, $500 riding suit, while just dandy at warding off fog, drizzle and brief dunkings, wasn't up to all-day deluges—just as its manufacturer had warned. The suit leaked around its zipper, leading to that most heinous of wet-weather maladies: a wet crotch. On the 100mile loop I was riding in 65-degree temperatures, this wasn't such a big deal, but if I’d been 1000 cold miles from home and had neglected to pack my rainsuit, well, hello trash bags and masking tape.

My second finding was something I re-discover every time I ride in the wet, especially if I happen to be at the till of a sportbike: Rain mittens make simultaneous front-wheel braking and blip-throttle downshifting darn near impossible. After each rain ride, I pledge to order a set of those neat, rubber gloves from BMW, then promptly forget until the next rainstorm. This time, I won’t forget.

Don’t disregard your passenger’s riding attire, either. Being high and dry won’t do you much good if you’ve got a sodden significant other seated behind you.

Other things to check? Does your helmet's faceshield seal properly? Wiping raindrops and road mist from the outside of the shield is easy, particularly if your left -hand glove is equipped with chamois-like material on its first two fingers, but water that makes its way to the shield’s inside surface is there for the duration. Do you have a problem with faceshield fogging? If so, here’s where that bottle of anti-fog you'll only use two or three times a year comes in handy.

If your motorcycle has a windshield. is it so tall that you can’t see over it, even when you sit up ramrodstraight? Heavy rains will usually keep the shield clear, but in light rain, squinting through a sheet of plexiglass obliterated by the muck thrown up by the car in front of you is neither fun nor safe.

Speaking of safety, nothing will point out a tire’s weaknesses as quickly as a riding in the rain. In my younger, poorer days, I thought buying a hard-compound, el-cheapo rear-rim protector was a good way of saving money. I should have skipped lunches for a month instead, as the tire was so allergic to moisture that it threatened to put me on my ear whenever someone so much as sneezed in its general direction. These days, I buy the best rubber possible, and that’s my advice to others. I’m worth it, and so are you. Also, don't try to squeeze those last few hundred miles out of a balding tire. It’s not smart.

Another wet-weather rule I always adhere to is that I stay off the roads for at least a couple of hours when the first storm of the season hits. The oil and dirt that are brought up after a long dry spell make for a surface that even Wayne Gretzky would have trouble coping with, so I head for a movie theater, library or good restaurant while the asphalt is washed clean and drivers re-adjust their braking distances.

Once on the road, I keep the transmission in as high a gear as possible to lessen the likelihood of wheelspin, and I concentrate on riding as smoothly as I can, with particular attention paid to getting all braking done in a straight line and peeling-off for corners very genteely.

Given effective gear, good tires, a scrubbed road, the proper riding technique and some practice, riding in rain can be almost as fun as riding in sunshine. But it won’t happen overnight and it won't happen in the dry: You're gonna have to get wet.

Now, where did I put that BMW accessory catalog?