whats it like riding a motorbike in the rain?

Question

I mean, cars have windscreen wipers to keep clear vision.
How do motorcyclists see through the visor with all that rain on it?

also is it loud when riding? or does the helmet provide good acoustic protection to keep it quiet?

Answer 1

Basically it sucks. But it's still better than driving a car.

Answer 2

Visibility is an issue - but not as bad as you'd think. You can use your gloved finger as an occasional windscreen wiper, and it blows off at higher speeds. Misting can occur on some helmets. This is reduced or cured by doing the following: opening vents, opening the visor, using an anti-mist spray or paste on the inside, fitting a visor insert (acts like very thin and light double glazing.

In addition, because the visor is so close to your face then you tend to see through the rain (i.e. between the drops).

Loudness is fixed by using ear plugs. These foam plugs are available on the net at about £20 for 200 pairs. I use them as I ride a reasonable mileage. If I just rode around town then I probably wouldn't bother. The helmet does provide some "acoustic protection", but not hugely. It will depend on speed - faster means louder as the air is disturbed by the bike and by your helmet. I'm assuming a road-legal exhaust is fitted. Non-legal systems are load and add to the experience - but not always in a positive way.

About getting wet... buy waterproof gear. When I ride my bike to places in the wet I often arrive drier than car drivers. Good clothing keeps me absolutely dry, and I don't remove it till I get inside. Car drivers get wet on the walk from the car park to their office / shop / other destination. I use leathers with over jacket and over trousers. Others I know use fabric which is waterproof. Get waterproof boots, and waterproof gloves (not summer gloves). Good gear will not be really cheap (but needn't be ridiculously expensive. Expect a life of several years. Army surplus can provide some good budget gear on occasions.

For me a bigger problem is cold. I don't mean cool, but sub-zero. Riding for hours in these conditions can lead to hypothermia. Electric body warmers will help to counter this. But this isn't what your question is about.

Answer 3

sure it's wet. sure it's cold. and at 60+the rain feels like shards of glass.but what did you expect?
but if you're wearing proper gear, you can't feel the rain anyway...and that's when the beauty of riding in the rain comes out...its amazing.
riding isn't a way of getting around, it's a passion. and if you're passionate about something, everything you ever do only adds to the experiance.
you slow down, you take it easy, and you practice driving smoothy. smooth and controlled. you become so aware of everything, and everything is so much more beautiful in the rain.
the road reflects the light, the puddles spashing water, and the spray from tyres is amazing...stuff you would normally just ignore or dread becomes part of the journey.

sure it's more dangerous, but it's only as dangerous as your riding.the biggest problem is rain on your visor- stops you seeing- but just wipe its with your glove every now and then- its fine. and moderate speed blows the rain off the front. if its cold, you might mist up. just open the visor a little bit- that'll fix it. and you can feel a cool mist on your face too- which is another reason to open the visor a little- its great.
you can't hear rain on a helmet above the wind and engine!
and when you get home, you're a little bit more grateful to be there.

Answer 4

Its a matter of personal tastes; I like riding in the rain if I have the right riding gear i.e. good waterproof clothing. If you don't have good riding gear forget it! You will get absolutely sodden in a very short time. I remember going into work for an hour on a Sunday morning. Whilst I was there it began to hiss with rain...real heavy stuff. I just had ordinary slacks and shoes with a lightweight windcheater (it WAS summer). On the run home, 5 miles, I got soaked, totally. When I got home I poured water out of my shoes. Equally important...understand that wet roads don't give as much grip as dry ones. Braking distances increase significantly, road surfaces vary in terms of grip some are pretty good, others are very slippery and it is easy to end up on your ear if you are not careful. And, be doubly aware of car drivers who sit in their cocooned comfort with no comprehension of the potential for a motorcyclist to fall on his ear if a car doesn't give him/her room or fails to give any indication of his (the car driver's) intentions.
It's not all bad; modern motorcycling waterproofed gear is terrific I have ridden hundreds of miles in the rain and, apart from the odd trickle down the neck, reached my destination completely dry AND, I've enjoyed it. There's a lot more I could say but the last thing I'll mention here is braking distances; in the wet they are significantly greater then when riding on dry roads. The visor, by the way is curved; by turning your head left or right briefly, the raindrops get blown off to give you pretty good vision (but you have to turn it every few seconds) and you can buy a water repellant liquid which you can apply to the visor; this will speed up the clearance of rain. Have fun.

Answer 5

Hi there,
I am a stunt rider and i absolutely love riding in the rain the only problem bikers have in the rain is grease and oil on the roads become more slippery when wet, and allot of bikers find it hard to corner.... I find move yourself off to one side of the bike witch stops the tyre spreading out as much and you are able to give it more gas,.
Helmets (lids): well my helmets are both good makes they are suomy and shoei and they cost enough to lol but yes they stop most noise they stop the engine noise and they stop allot of road and wind noise too you can still hear the emergency services early enough to pull in fir them though, and yes on the rain a biker has very little visibility but i seem to keep my visor clean whilst I'm riding i can wipe it with my glove,
I suppose it is louder for some riders than it is for others, because like my stunt bike some decide to have loud pipes on and yes they are loud i tend to wear ear plugs when i ride that bike....

Hope this cleared some of your queries
Wendy c

Answer 6

All of the above (well most all) are true. As you can see everyone is different. Rain does not stop me from riding. To me, it's just part of the total motorcycle experience.

Some rain riding tips for you.
It is the most slippery (and most dangerous) from when the rain first starts until about 15-20 minutes after it started. This is because all the oil on the road rises to the surface and get mixed with the water. Very slippery. It's okay to ride then just slow down and be carefull. After awhile the roads become less slippery but of course you do need to slow down during the rain just as you would with a car.

Don't let a little rain stop you. Get good rain gear, a full face helmet and you'll be wet but still have fun.

Answer 7

You just go a bit slower and take more care. I have a strip of material on my glove which I use to wipe the visor clear every so often. As the visor is close to the face, the eyes focus through and past it (or at least mine do!) so it isn't as difficult to see through as you might think.

Wind noise is the main sound you hear inside a helmet. For long distance riding I wear earplugs, I can still hear the important sounds (my engine, other vehicles, sirens/horns) but it blocks the wind noise considerably.

Answer 8

Nice little 4 part question.
A: Pure bliss. Yes, visibility is decreased. Yes, stopping distances are longer. Yes, cages disrespect you more.
B: Rain runs off. Treating your visor/goggles/glasses helps. Turning your head to the side will make the droplets slide to the side and off. There are gloves with a wiper built into the left forefinger.
C: It's no louder than riding in a car.

Answer 9

Riding in the rain can be a problem when it comes to keeping the helmet visor clear. There are different methods of doing this. 1, coat the visor with a rain repellant spray. This causes the rain to "bead" on the visor and to clear the rain off you can turn your head to one side whilst riding this causes the wind blast to blow the beaded rain off the visor. 2, you can buy a "gizmo" (a bit like a mini squeegy) that attaches to your glove and you then wipe off the rain as you ride. 3, you can buy a simlilar "gizmo" that you just attache to a convenient part of the handle bars and use this to wipe off the rain. One of the other problems of riding in the rain is the visor misting up on the inside so to prevent this they have an anti-mist coating and a flow of air throught the helmet to stop misting. Regarding noise whilst riding different makes of helmet offer different levels of quietness and you will find the the great majority of motorcyclists wear earplugs to cut the level of wind & motorcycle engine noise down. Ufortunately its difficult to totally eliminate all the noise you just try to reduce it to an acceptable level. One of the hazards of riding a motorcycle.
David Henderson

Answer 10

I turn my head side to side so the rain blows off the visor. To deal with the water, I wear a set of Frogg Toggs; a good rain suit is very good to have. I also wear earplugs to keep out wind noise. The biggest nuisance is that the blackish area in front of stoplights gets very, very slick. The rest of the pavement isn't too bad.

Answer 11

The same as dry only wet.Wind will keep your visor clear and helmets noise will be pretty much the same.My advice is to get some practice in all weather,as there will be a time when it will pay off.enjoy.