Wet weather riding

After couple days cooked up at home I could stay no more.

I got my rubber/neoprene riding shoes (Keen Commuters), synthetic REI stretch pants and synthetic long sleeve top, and I was off!

At first I was ecstatic. I was riding, and there was pretty much no one on the beach. Figures, it was still raining, but not hard.

I rode North, towards Malibu.

As I approached Santa Monica Pier, I expected some flooding. Well, "some" turned out to be a lot, and I ended up riding through what I think was up to 4 inches of water. I figured I could just downshift and power through the water. The concrete path was still there, just underwater.

Riding through water feeling was great. There was increased resistance, but I knew where the path was so I was not concerned with road disappearing. Good thing, it did not, and I safely forded the water barrier.

After my water experience, I decided to test my weather resistant disc brake.

BB7 brake has turned to mush. There was no fiction to stop, then the calipers started to drag on the rotors, then the lever would not spring back to neutral.

Slowly, the brake sponged back to semi neutral so it was not making scraping noises, but whenever I tried to use it to slow down the bike, it was pretty much useless.

If I was touring with a load and going downhill, and that was my only brake option, I would be in deep trouble.

So much for "improved wet performance" over rim brakes. On my front wheel I had Avid V brake, and it was still functioning. Granted, it took a moment for the brake to start breaking, but the friction was still there.

My dry lube (right now I had Finish Line dry lubricant, in the past I used Boeshield T9 with good results) got washed out and I could hear sand crunching on my chainring and middle drive chainrings. I stopped at the shower and tried to wash the sand, and that helped for 30 yards, then the sand was back.

I think I pair of fenders would have slowed down the sand working it's way from the water and sand slury into the chain. Also, I will use wet lube for my next wet ride.

What did work extremely well was the Shimano LX derailleur. It did not skip a beat through my shifting, no problem whatsoever. I was waiting for sand induced noises, but all was in vain. Noises were coming for lower bracket/chainring area, but not from derailleur.

Lessons learned:

1. Riding in the rain could be fun. Way better than being cooked up at home in front of the computer!
2. Horses for courses. You have to have wet weather clothes and wet weather lubricants on your bike. Fenders don't hurt either. You have to keep sand laden water out of the drive train!
3. Brakes that work in wet, not only in dry. I always thought of my BB7 disk brake as my best defense against weather. Not so - it has failed to live up to it's expectations. On my next bike I am sticking with rim brakes.
4. I am very impressed by Shimano LX derailleur. I was set to get Rohloff Speedhub for my next bike build, but now I feel I need to rethink my convictions. I still think if money is no option Rohloff is the way to go, but my newly regained respect for Shimano keeps them in the running.
5. My hat is off to all of you in Northern climates - snow and ice are not cyclists friends. I do have a friend who moved from California to New England and was riding his bike (with studded tires and all) through the winter. Go Winston!