GhostRider62

Ride faster with wider tires and a large fork crown gap and I assure you, your face will get wet when down on the TT bars

Eric F 

How does the front wheel spray penetrate the frame of your Teammachine to get to your face? Also, your arrows are not the predominant direction of spray. There will be some (in decreasing amounts) around the circumference of the tire, but due to gravity most of it will be rearward.

Eric F 

Hmmm...Wide tires and a large fork crown gap doesn't sound like a bike I would likely put TT bars on. That said, you do you.

Maelochs

Anyone who rides a bike in the rain with his or her eyes open can see that the spray from the front tire sprays in a sort of wedge (actually more of a horn shape as the motion is a segment of a circle) starting from the back of the contact point.

Physics, folks. The tire from the top to the ground is moving Forward---- Spinning around the axle---and any spray from the front half of the tire (minimal because most spray is water picked up off the pavement) is going down and forward ... and all that "spray" is just raindrops hitting the tire (which is a pretty small target compared to your head and face.)

Spray from the back half of the tire, from the contact point back, is mostly road water flung by the tire and almost all goes goes back and up into the frame, or onto the feet.

Anyone who really rides in the rain doesn't need to be told.

Maelochs

Slightly more comprehensive and equally crude ... but as I say, people who do, know, and people who only talk are worth about what they offer ..... disturbances in the atmosphere.

rumrunn6

too late. now it's like "how do you clean your chain"

rumrunn6

fwiw - water, etc also goes outward, toward the sides

livedarklions

Your claim was googles were needed because the front wheel sprays water in your face. Last time I checked, my face isn't on my back. And your front wheel lines aren't pointing at the face, are they? Do you even read what you're writing?

BTW, you used the "do you even own a bike" line with your last identity when you were going on about not being able to get a good workout on a flat course. It demonstrated your cluelessness then and it does likewise now..

Everyone has acknowledged that the rear wheel shoots crud on your back. What does that have to do with goggles to block spray from the front wheel?

Troll.

Reflector Guy

I stay dry in the rain because it is my sock that gets wet.

GhostRider62

That was my TABR rig. I wouldn't expect much from a Fred like you to be honest.

Admit you are wrong.

livedarklions

Motorcycles aren't bicycles. The speeds are different, the tires are completely different sizes.

livedarklions

Funny trick of my mind. In conversations like this, I forget that not everyone is riding on pavement.

79pmooney

Easily the best diagram on this thread for the wet riding we do in Oregon. And eastern Massachusetts and southeastern Michigan. I've done little enough rain riding elsewhere to have any business commenting on how water behaves in other states.

The five spray arrows off the front wheel - yup, matches my experience. I love full fenders with deep front flaps. (That flap does about as much to keep road water off the bike and myself as all the rest of the two fenders. Keeps my feet far cleaner and the vast majority of the grit out of my drivetrain. I get the jersey stripe being a badge worn with pride but I don't get the love of grit in the drivetrain (or is chain cleaning a meditation practice?)

livedarklions

Don't know about other states, but I think it comes off the other side of the wheel in the southern hemisphere.

(Yes, I'm joking, OP).

Eric F 

What is TABR?
I’m an Eric, not a Fred.
I'm wrong about a lot of stuff. Just ask my wife.

If you put your body in a position where your face is in the spray pattern of the front wheel, of course you're going to get spray on your face. I didn't get any clue that the OP was talking about riding in that kind of position. In a typical position on a road bike (such as the silhouette I posted) the rider's face is not in the spray pattern. This has been my experience with riding my road bikes in the rain, and has been echoed by others in this thread who also have experience with riding in the rain.

Maelochs

Even on aero bars---whether ridding a TT bike or touring or randonneuring or whatever--I wouldn't expect a lot of front-wheel spray to hit one's face .... but whatever.

You know, we can post here and not demean each other all the time .... some folks seem to invite it with their <censored> posts but not everyone, all the time.

I also expect each rider to be able to apply fenders or whatever as needed .... there are so many fender options and so many mounting options, I'd think one could make something work for just about any ride if one truly wanted to.

rumrunn6

yes & no. found some pics from an older "mudflap discussion"
here's a road bike on pavement

& 2 more from dirt trails

I love seeing the water adhesion in this next one. it just sticks to the tire as it rotates up in the back

HTupolev

I'm surprised at how many people baulk at the idea that stuff flung off the front tire can splatter into a rider's front. If you ever ride on wet roads that aren't clean, it quickly becomes obvious that it's not just rainwater splattering onto the arms and cockpit and whatnot. Of my bikes, the one that experiences this effect the least is the one with Velo-Orange fenders, which have far more front extension than most other fenders.

I'm also not sure why this phenomenon is confusing. While it's usually true that there's not a direct tangent path from the tire to the rider's front, cycling isn't happening in a vacuum. At sea level, there's well over a kilogram of atmosphere in every cubic meter of air, and that air can be moving around with respect to the ground. Small particles have extremely high aerodynamic drag coefficients relative to their mass, and can do all kinds of things after being flung away.

I agree that the rider's face won't experience much of their own front tire spray, if any, for most postures and riding conditions. There are exceptions, though.

Eric F 

The discussion was specifically about the face, which the OP claimed gets sprayed with water from the front tire while riding in the rain, and therefore, goggles are necessary.

Maelochs

I know what you mean, but I still find it funny .......

Anyway, until OP gets a bike and rides it, all points are moot ......

smd4

Who would ever willingly ride in the rain?

How much of a PITA is it to type with the shift key randomly turned on? Especially on a phone?

beng1

I don't plan on riding in the rain and I would rather not, but of course it happens. I make no special preparation for it, I just get wet and don't worry about it. The only thing I feel bad about it the machinery because the water can be bad for bearings, chains etc.. So it is extra cost in money and time to keep the bike going. Unless the weather in someone's area gives them no choice, or they are on a ride over a number of days longer than the weather can be predicted, then their choice should be to ride an indoor trainer when it is wet outside.

tomato coupe

He just types the letters; his cat is responsible for the shift key. (Actually, maybe his cat is responsible for the letters -- that would explain a lot.)

indyfabz

Uncorrect, but thanks for playing.

smd4

lol!