mr_bill

Rain and leaves are bad for you.
Rain and thermoplastic are bad for you.

Rain and your bike?

Wash it.

(If you don’t have access to outdoor water, a five liter hand pumped pressure bottle works great, plus you can fill it with warm water, which is nice.)

Clean the frame and wipe down the drivetrain and brakes and rims (if applicable) and let dry.

After it dries, use your favorite material for lubricating your drivetrain. (Lubricating material is the third rail of bike forums, don’t even....)

Don’t lubricate your brakes, except pivot points (if applicable).

-mr. bill

mcours2006

Rain is fine for your bike, but like others have noted, it's the grit from the road that can get on your drive train and wear it down. Ideally you should give the bike a hose-down after a wet ride, but I don't generally due to an issue of laziness. Slush and salt, on the other hand, is bad for your bike. But you might have guess that already. I try to hose down after a slushy ride.

Fenders are NOT over-rated. You can't prevent getting wet from the rain coming down, but the fenders will keep you from getting sprayed from the crap underneath. They will keep you feet dryer for longer when riding in the wet. Long front fenders will protect your bottom bracket from the road spray. My MK2's and 3's have an overlapping flange to protect the FD as well.

Best of all, fenders keep your backside dry. That alone is worth it!

Pratt

Perhaps you could gain some perspective by trying to wash chain lube off your hands with cold water, no soap.
Water left on steel, rust will ensue.
Salt and grit, definitely bad for bikes.
You did treat the inside of your steel frame tubes with some sort of rust preventative, didn't you?

Nyah

I Use A Rain Cape, Which, When Used With Sufficient Fenders, Does A Lot To Keep Rain Off The Bicycle (As Well As Off The Rider) In The First Place. I Use A Rain Cape Without A Hood, As Hoods Aren't Compatible With Eyeshield-Mounted Mirror. But Also With Relevance, As Others Have Said, Wetness Isn't Too Bad For The Bicycle, Just Wipe It Down After You Get It Back Under Cover.

rsbob 

Commuted for in the rain years wearing a simple poncho draped over the drops to keep my legs dry, with full fenders front and rear. Would always keep the chain and gears clean and oiled with zero problems. No bikes were hurt riding in the rain.

Flip Flop Rider

fenders for sure make it more than tolerable

noimagination

Trying to wrap my head around this, and failing. How would fenders make your bike wetter? There is the same amount of rain coming down, regardless of whether or not you have fenders. There is the same amount of road spray kicked up by your tires, regardless of whether or not you have fenders. The road spay from your tires, instead of spraying on your down tube, bottom bracket, feet, back brake, back, etc. gets sprayed on the inside of the fender and drips down to the ground.

Trying to see how this makes your bike wetter ... still trying ... still trying ,.. still trying ... aaannnddd ... nada.

commo_soulja

Rain? Ride and wash. Wipe down the chain and re-lube.

Also, full fenders rock. Sometimes I leave them on when it's dry so I can ride through water puddles without consequence.

Hypno Toad

THIS ^^^ As a person that has bike commuted in year-round in Minneapolis, I've biked in cold rain and keeping that rear tire spray off your bum is a critical. I made the mistake taking without fender in the spring rain with temps just above freezing, the skin on my backside was dangerously cold because of the constant ice-cold spray.

To the OP, the only reason I don't ride a bike in the rain is that it's clean and I don't want to make it a mess. I have 6 bikes, 2 with full fenders, and these two are the first choice on a rainy ride (see above). Otherwise, all of my bike end up riding in the rain from time to time. I store all my bikes in the house, after a rainy ride, they go to the basement storage space to drip off; before the next ride add lube to the chain and off we go.

For reference, here's the conditions on a 100-mile gravel race I did back in 2018 ... we did have some dry times, but we also had heavier rain ... so heavy that traffic on a highway stopped! With some general maintenance and drivetrain cleaning, I turned around and used the same bike for The DAMn a two months later. So no real damage done riding in the rain.

epnnf

The rain water that would normally fly off the tires, now hits the fenders & onto the brakes, drivetrain, etc.

epnnf

Im glad it works for you, but I get wet, fenders or not.

Hypno Toad

What kinda fenders have you used? I've never used fenders that directs runoff to the brakes and/or drivetrain.

caloso

I wonder if he's talking about Race Blades or some other half fenders. Those will keep the crap off you, but depending on how you set them up, they direct a lot of crap into the brakes.



Suboptimal.

epnnf

I can't remember what fenders I"ve used; thought any fenders would splash down.

Hypno Toad

In brief the water is going "down" either way.

Full-fenders, like on my commuter set up, end up with most water running off the leading or trailing ends of the fender, which in 3 of 4 places is directing the water at the ground and below the bikes key components.

Frankly stated, if your riding in the rain, you want some kind of fender to protect your back from the rear tires spray.

noimagination

Sorry, still trying to understand this. So, you have some sort of fenders that take the "water that would normally fly off the tires", that is normally sprayed onto downtube, drive train, brakes, etc. and somehow directs it to ... those same areas?

Fenders are, admittedly, not magic, and they don't keep your bike completely dry. But wetter? Not a chance.