A couple of times I bought heavy trash bags and duct tape to cover the bike.

If you bring the whole box of trash bags you'll make a lot of friends the night before :)

Why?

You'll be getting on the bike wet anyways and chances are you've ridden your bike in the rain before already and it survived just fine.

I tape my seat to the rack to stop it from blowing over. Also remove a treated chain and put it back on morning of

Why what?

Water isn't going to hurt your bike. The only thing a trash bag will do is catch a bunch of wind if a storm does roll through. I've seen covered bikes blown off racks.

Exactly as above - some races used to give you covers for your bike overnight - apart from the environmental impact, the covers act like sails and blow bikes off the racks / into each other - so they don't do it anymore.

If your bike isn't waterproof then you're in trouble during the race if it starts raining...............

I would just wrap up / cover my front end, including my Di2 junction box right behind my stem. It's perhaps unnecessary, but it made me feel better minimizing the time those parts spent in water.

If it's going to be windy, they'll likely allow you to rack your bike from the front to prevent it from flying off the rack. Then you just turn it around in the morning.

This is truly a do-nothing-differently situation. Per everyone, your bike is waterproof. You have probably washed it with a hose and been rained on multiple times. Raining on a waxed chain is also a non-event, because the chain isn't moving... rain by itself cannot rinse the wax off. Many races do not allow plastic bags anymore anyway.

Rack it. Don't sweat it. And hope the storms do not impact the race.

Nothing to add here, this is the final answer to the question.

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"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."
Hunter S. Thompson

It stops the blowing sand from sticking to your drive train while wet.

But i agree that water isn't going to hurt the bike.

Mechanically your bike should be ok. Problem is wind will move the bikes left and right and your frame and disc wheel can get scratched up badly by the pedals and skewers on the bikes next to yours. Ironman usually allows you to rack by handle bar if it's windy or storm is expected and that'll secure bikes a little better. I also carry bungee cords and use them to secure saddle, front wheel and whatnot. If I see my neighbors, I share some with them too. Anyway, in my case, it's not me. It's always the bikes next to me mess with mine.

I've never seen wet sand blown like that before!

If it's an IRONMAN brand race, then they're likely to remove any covers/bags that you place on the bike... at least they did that in Kona.

They have done that in Tremblant as well.

This happened to me at NOLA 70.3. There was 100% chance of super severe thunderstorms. They ended up allowing people to bring bike raceday and not rack night before.

No idea if Ironman branded races still consider this an option.

Otherwise just HTFU and accept it’ll get wet.

I use a waxed chain and cover up the drivetrain if it’s going to rain.... I’ve read waxed chains and these ceramic speed lubed chains perform sub-optimally after getting wet... is this true??

It poured rain all day and all night before Ironman Cork, we still had to put our bikes out there. Really not much to do, Di2, power meter and everything was fine sitting in the rain and then riding an Ironman entirely in the rain everything held up. Rack it by the handlebars if they will let you.

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http://www.jennacaer.com
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If it is true, then it would be a waste of money as any race at any given time could be rained upon. Then again, ceramic speed itself is a waste of money period.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I've given enough money to WTC to say that this is a rule for every race of theirs in the US where one racks the day before, as covered by athlete guides. Non-US, I wouldn't be able to confirm.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Yep... not always the case internationally. I was able to cover my bike overnight at Vietnam 70.3 earlier this year.

I've always done this. Some frames will take on water that flows down the seatpost, so you could be carrying some extra weight (not unusual to remove the seapost and drain the frame after a really wet ride (depends on the frame and BB design).

You'll also want the bags to put your gear into if it's still raining race day (sucks to put on soaked socks and saturated shoes, and wet armwarmers). You also want your gear backpack to stay dry.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Worked perfect!

Thank you

Lots of people with covers and and bungee cords.

Race director and USAT official said it was fine to do it.