Cycling in the Rain

Rain changes three things about riding and leaves everything else alone. Your brakes bite later, your tires grip less in corners, and drivers see you later than they would in the dry. Handle those three and a wet ride is simply a ride where you arrive wet.

The fourth thing rain changes is what happens to the bike afterwards, and that is where most of the actual cost is. Ten minutes when you get home prevents a worn drivetrain and a rusted chain.

What to change about how you ride

Brake earlier, and in two stages

With rim brakes the pads have to wipe water off the rim before they grip, so the first part of every braking effort does nothing. The fix is to brake lightly and early to clear the rim, then brake properly. With disc brakes the delay is much smaller, which is the clearest real-world argument for them. The full comparison is here.

Either way, leave more distance than feels necessary. Wet pads and a wet rim or rotor also wear faster, so a winter of wet riding is also a pad-replacement schedule. How to tell when they are done.

Corner slower, and more upright

Lean angle is grip you are spending. In the wet, slow down before the corner rather than in it, keep the bike closer to vertical, and stay off the brakes mid-corner. Avoid three surfaces specifically: painted road markings, metal covers and drain grates, and the shiny strip in the middle of the lane where oil collects. All three are far more slippery than the tarmac next to them.

Drop a few PSI

A slightly lower pressure puts more rubber on the road. Start from the range printed on the tire sidewall and take a few PSI off your usual dry figure — not so much that the tire squirms or you risk a pinch flat. Road tire pressure by rider weight and the same thing for gravel tires.

Be seen, in daylight too

Rain cuts contrast, and the federal rule that new bikes ship with a rear reflector only helps when a driver’s headlights are pointed at you. A rear light in a daytime flash mode is the cheapest meaningful upgrade for wet riding, and a second one means you are never out there with a flat battery. The full light comparison.

What to look for in wet-weather kit

Four decisions, in the order they matter. Note that these are fit and compatibility questions, not brand questions — the wrong fender for your frame is useless regardless of who made it.

• Fenders: eyelets or no eyelets.Full-length fenders bolt to frame and fork eyelets and give the best coverage. If your frame has none, you need the clamp-on type, which covers less but fits anything. SKS publish a tire-width fit range for their sets — check yours against it rather than assuming.
• Clearance.A fender needs room between the tire and the frame. If you run wide tires, check the fender’s published fit range covers your width.
• Lights: be-seen, not see-by. For daytime rain you want a flashing rear light. Many budget lights do not publish output or runtime figures, so treat an unpublished number as unknown rather than as adequate.
• Layers: windproof first, waterproof second. In cool rain, wind chill on wet skin is what ends rides. A windproof jacket keeps you warm while wet; a fully waterproof one keeps you dry for about an hour and then keeps your own sweat in. What each layer actually does.

The ten minutes when you get home

1. Rinse the grit off. Low pressure. Wet road grime is an abrasive paste and leaving it on the drivetrain is what actually wears the parts.
2. Dry the chain with a rag, then re-lube it. A chain left wet can show surface rust within hours.
3. Towel the frame and let air at the bike. A closed shed holds moisture against the metal.
4. Check the pads if you have been riding wet for weeks. Wet grit takes pad material off quickly, discs and rims both.

The full wash routine, including the two mistakes that cause real damage, and where to keep the bike so the drying is not undone.

When to simply not go

Three conditions where the honest advice is to stay in. Standing water deep enough to hide what is under it, because a pothole you cannot see is how wheels get destroyed. Ice or near-freezing rain, where a drop-bar bike on narrow tires has no answer. And heavy rain in traffic at dusk, where the visibility problem belongs to drivers and you cannot fix it from a bike.

For the shopping half of this page — fenders with a published tire-width range, a light that publishes a water rating, a puncture belt and the pad compound that helps on a wet rim — wet-weather gear is the list, with live prices and an honest note about why there is no rain jacket on it.

If winter is your reason for asking, there is a third option worth knowing about: riding the same bike indoors on a trainer, which is how a lot of riders keep fitness through a wet season.

The opposite weather has its own version of this page. Heat is the condition where the risk is to you rather than to your grip, and the thresholds that matter are published by the National Weather Service and OSHA rather than by anyone in cycling — riding in hot weather works through both.