Even though road condition is very good, riding in rain has more risk than dry rides. On top of that, if its evening or night the risk multiplies. If you must ride during rain, you should always be well equipped with gears for rain. The whole idea is to keep yourself as much dry as possible during the ride. You already know what happens if you soak yourself in water if you are not the Aquaman. And that won’t be good for continuing the ride for next 2-3 days. Here are the checks that I have during my ride
Motorcycle Tyre
change your stock tyre to rain tyres/ wet grip tyres. There are
quite a few options in India though fewer compared to the international market.
For obvious reason, the motorcycle industry in India is more focused on commuter
segment.
Luggage
If you have saddle bags your luggage must have rain covers. It’s
advised to set it up when you start. Sometimes you may not get time to safeguard
your luggage when the rain hits you. If your motorcycle is equipped with side boxes
great, your stuffs are almost safe. If you have extra baggage that you tie to carrier,
make sure your rain cover is a fluorescent one. Just for better visibility. The
trekking bags from best of the brands may have a rain covered attached to it
but it does not work. I repeat it does not work. You still must go with a rain
cover. Tank bags usually comes rain cover and depending on what you store in it
you may try to have additional layer of plastic cover.
Riding Gears
Jacket and rain liner/ rain suite is a must. These days
riding jackets are designed in much simpler way. They don’t have inner rain
liners anymore. Its external rain jackets that you can wear on top of your
riding jackets which projects the jacket as well. If you have the older models
of jackets, you already know, your jacket it going to be drenched. It is advisable
to still carry an external rain jacket because riding jackets takes time to dry
(for fabric one). 2 extra pair of gloves if you don't have waterproof gloves, helmet cleaner, if possible, a dryer
is also advisable. A helmet with pinlock visor is highly recommended to avoid fogging
of visor during rain. If your helmet does not have a pinlock, there is still a
solution that can void fogging. A visor sprays. I will share the link. Riding
shoes are always one of the best projection gears on any season. Mostly those
are waterproof shoes. You may find it difficult to get any other shoes which is
waterproof for riding in rain.
Accessories
If you have a cell phone holder mounted on your handlebar with USB charging port, during rain try to switch off the charging port. That’s the best one can do. For navigation you can keep your phone still mounted. Most mobile phones these days are waterproof with IP 67/68 certification. I used my iPhone with out any extra layer of cover on top of it. I dint face any problem. While taking selfie I saw the front camera got fogged from inside but that became normal after few hours. I suppose this happened because raindrops would have hit the earpiece (the speaker bar close to your front camera) directly and some water would have entered the phone. I was sure this phone can handle it.
If you have action cameras mounted on helmets, do ensure to
its wrapped up in a waterproof camera case. Vlogging setup are usually difficult
to protect from heavy rain because these camera cases are not waterproof. Additionally,
you will have mic wires coming out of the setup. However, if your camera is
waterproof like the GoPro and you don’t have attachment like mic it can take
heavy rain. I wasn’t certain initially if I should mount my GoPro Hero 9 Black,
but I took the risk and mounted it to capture the ride during rain and it
worked perfectly. My camera still working 😊. But I was sure my other action camera (1st
version of PROCUS action camera) won’t be able to handle the rain of such intensity
and I packed it back.
Finally, the communicator setup. If you have a Chinese one, do
your research about their capability of handling rain. Anything from SENA, you don’t
have to worry about. It’s robust against rain as per their product guide. The padding
of helmet might have got water sprinkles and would have got wet along with the
mic may of your communicator. After you stop at your destination dry your
helmet may be by removing the padding. The speakers wont get water even if it’s
the heaviest rain unless you dip your helmet somewhere.
If you use any other electronic accessories in your motorcycle
do let me know how do you protect them during rain.
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