Friday, August 21, 2009

Stormy Stuff

When it comes to bad weather, I am a completely irresponsible person. I love riding in it. Yesterday, a line of storms travelled across Southern Ontario. Multiple tornadoes touched down, thankfully not in London. I took a look at the weather radar before leaving work, and it looked bad. I read that there were tornado warnings. Unlike a rational person, I thought "oh, boy!" Mother nature did not disappoint...


The plastic covered camera didn't do the ride justice. I almost got knocked over by the wind a couple of times, and the thunder was sometimes super loud. It was great.

Please do as I say, not as I do. Take cover in bad weather.

R A N T W I C K
P.S. - I know I'm a broken record, but everything in my panniers remained completely dry.

17 comments:

cafiend said...

That's pretty crazy. I have a weekend of storm chances ahead of me here. It's hard to remain calm about the odds of a lightning strike when grinding slowly up a hill as a storm bears down. It feels much more glorious on a fast, open stretch.

Shelter can be hard to come by if you suddenly decide you need it, at least here in the woods. Nothing but tall trees to get under.

RANTWICK said...

I recommend sheltering under the tallest tree around and shouting "I dare you" at the sky. Do as you do, not as I say.

Our bike paths run along the river, which is low ground, of course. When lightning is busy, I usually pick the path.

Andrew said...

Tornadoes touched down within about 10km of our house yesterday. I was riding home from work, saw the huge line of stoms on the way and made it 2/3 of the way home before we got slammed. Luckily there is a community centre on my route home and I was able to hunker down there until the storm passed. It was two and a half hours before I could leave!

RANTWICK said...

Yeah, I was watching City and seeing all the GTA craziness. I'm glad you found somewhere to wait it out.

Keri said...

It does that here every afternoon. You'd love it :-)

Perhaps you'd like to fly in for our next hurricane?

I love the video. Riding in the rain makes me feel like a kid.

ChipSeal said...

You make yourself sound like a crazy person, my dear Rantwick!

Look, in the future, keep your peculiar ideas of fun to yourself and substitute some geeky guy rational like; "They said the panniers were water-proof, and so I was just product testing them."

Great post! I love idiosyncratic people!

One day, when I arrived at work drenched from a downpour, my co-workers looked at me in amazement. I looked back quipped; "I should have brought some soap!"

Anonymous said...

Love the high tech waterproofing system you are using. Regular strength or freezer bag?

Steve A said...

Shaking my head. I DROVE to work today. Cars I can deal with but I don't relish the idea of being a mobile lightning rod.

RANTWICK said...

Keri - Even I might draw the line at a Fla. hurricane.

Chipseal - thanks for the 'syncra' in idiosyncratic. Most people just leave it out in my case.

Anon - sandwich.

Steve A - I just ride as fast as I can in the hope that the lightning won't catch me, and you know, if it does, what a way to go!

Steve A said...

Do they also have softball-sized hail in Ontario when it rains like that? If so, does a bike helmet help?

cafiend said...

http://citizenrider.blogspot.com/2008/07/death-fear-and-high-gear.html

Doohickie said...

That's awesome. You are clearly more hardcore than I am. You're gettin' props on my commuting blog.

Doohickie said...

Oh, and I forgot to mention.... I love it when you pass the guy waiting it out under the bridge at 2:10! :-D

RANTWICK said...

CR - Great post... outrunning lightning, idio(syncrat)ic, the whole 9. Well written, too!

Doohickie - hardcore commuter is not the term I would use, and the sheltering cyclist did not have admiration in his eyes.

RANTWICK said...

Steve A - softballs are pretty rare here. Most bad hail is about golfball. There wasn't any for me on that trip, but I did think about it and bless my helmet.

GreenComotion said...

Riding in a rain storm has its advantages although I do not care for thunderstorms, which are dime a dozen in TX, it seems (based on my limited tenure). But getting hit but hail is painful and I guess it could be dangerous.

I was rollerblading in St. Louis once and suddenly it started hailing. There was no place to take shelter. I just kept going. For some strange reason, I did not fall but got hit by pebble-size hail. Luckily, I had my helmet on so my banging on the head LOL.

You may want to ave tons of lights on your bike if you're riding in the storms and please be safe!!

Peace :)

RANTWICK said...

Roger that Chandra. I am very careful and safe even while riding in lightning and thunder, if that makes any sense. I'm glad you didn't trip on hailstones that time.

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