E-biking in the rain
I had some extra time today before going into work. Pulled the late shift that starts at 7:00pm. Pretty much a nice day with temps in the low 80's. I figured a good time to get a much desired day ride in. After changing into my bike clothes I checked the weather app on my phone. Damn, the radar screen showed a big ominous storm not far away and from the looks of it was definitely heading in my direction. Regardless I decided I could get a quickie ride in. Rain jacket and rain shorts in my rack box just in case I didn't make it back in time.
Got about 3/4 of the way when suddenly my phone lights up with a tornado warning...okay, that's not a great sign. By this time I was on one of the local MUP's and was about a quarter mile from my home. Just minutes after getting the T-warning suddenly a massive wind began to blow through the trees. Also started to feel the first drops of rain. But the wind was the key warning. I quickly stopped my bike and got the rain jacket out. Almost before I could get it on it started to come down. In moments I was in a torrential down-pour. While my rain jacket has a hood it is not a cycling hood designed to overlap a helmet. Covers about 3/4 of the helmet which helps a lot but I had no time to put the shorts on. Not worried about the shorts because it was a warm day so I wasn't so worried about my shorts getting wet.
The biggest problem I had was with the hood. With the sudden high winds and the added wind when riding, this caused the hood to constantly blow back. No way to keep the hood from blowing back. By this time the rain was coming down so hard I could hardly see. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse they did. Suddenly I realized that the water that was flooding into my eyes was beginning to burn my eyes ( WTF! ). Bad enough I had to deal with all the water on my glasses but this was a total F if you catch my drift. I've been caught in rain before but I've never had anything like this happen. The effect was I could hardly keep my eyes open it hurt so much. Somewhat of a mystery as to "why" this happened. My theory is the natural oils ( and sweat ) on my scalp and hair were washing down my face and getting into my eyes. This was not good. I was glad however that I was not on a road at the time. Ten minutes later with one hand trying to hold the hood in place I pull up to my building. The only thing remotely dry on me was my jersey. Otherwise I was as soaked as a swamp rat.
The storm cell passed quickly ten minutes after I got home. Looking back it was all kind of fun, except for the thing that made my eyes feel like they were on fire. I now know what I need to do in order to have a better rain strategy. I'll buy one of those cheap helmet covers and attach some Velcro on it so I can attach my hood to it and hopefully that will keep the hood in place. Not sure what to do about keeping my feet dry. Shoe covers are only going to do so much as the rain will just run down my leg, onto my socks and then pretty much soak the inside of my shoes. Not a big issue if it's warm but in cold weather it would really be a bad thing to happen. .Waterproof full finger gloves are easy to find.
The Conduit ebike had no problems functioning in the rain. My cell phone holder worked fairly well and kept most moisture out of the plastic sleeve. All of my lights ( day flashing ) and other electronics had no problems