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Rainy Overnight Bike Check
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Gonna rain like a mofo. Do anything special for your bike?
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Your bike gets wet as soon as you get on it out of the swim.

I wouldnt bother doing anything.

Rhymenocerus wrote:
I think everyone should consult ST before they do anything.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Nope
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Go to Walmart and get some construction garbage bags and some duct tape.

Use 2 or 3 bags then give the rest of them to your rack-mates and make some friends.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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If you have Zipps or the like, position your valve stems so they are at the top pointing downward. Mine filled with rain water at Chatt 70.3 last yr with the stems facing up. Never would have thought about that. It was like someone filled them with a hose.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Cover your seat

Seriously - cover your chain or bring some lube the following morning.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Take the chain off, put it back on in the morning.

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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i cover my bike whenever i can if there's even a faint chance of rain. but not all races allow that, so it goes the way the race rules dictate.
that said, i always have in my bike case (as packing/buffering material) a christmas wrapping bike cover. these i've picked up at that venerable and price-friendly outfit, the 99 cent store. sometimes they've been in single packets, sometimes two to a packet, and i've scored enough times after christmas to get them half off so i now have a goodly supply.
if allowed, i pull the whole bag over my bike and secure it with masking tape. i've used duct tape, but it's a lot harder to undo. how i get the bag to fit over everything on my bike has varied with each bike. and i've had much better luck covering it while on the ground, not yet hanging on the rack.
where covering the whole bike is not allowed i've gone with wrapping a plastic bag around the shifting elements, at the least.
peggy
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [pmcdc] [ In reply to ]
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Scotch Guard

1% of the time, it works 60% of the time.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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ESC ?

I did that race and Tri AC a few years ago when the night before both of those races it was a monsoon. Pretty sure the morning of both Delmo's crew had to re rack a lot of bikes that got blown around.

If you wrap it up too much the wind will blow it all over the place. You'll see bikes there pretty much shrink wrapped. ESC I didn't do anything. Tri AC I wrapped the cranks, chain and such in a disposable tarp just in case it got blown off the rack and ended up on sandy ground.

End of the season, I think that was 2015 or 2106, I went to change tires. Both wheels had water in them. The front it was a noticeable amount.

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [Leddy] [ In reply to ]
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I carry a short 6"-8" bungee cord in my tri bag that I can wrap around the seat and the rail of the bike rack. This will at least keep a strong wind from blowing my bike off, or blowing my neighbor's bike into mine and having them both on the ground.

I'm closer to the feathered end of the spear than the point.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [pmcdc] [ In reply to ]
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Shifting elements being the front end, or including the derailleurs? I have di2 and while I have read they should be waterproof, I am still somewhat concerned if I run into this situation later this year as my understanding is IM events don't usually allow you to cover anything but saddle and maybe the front end.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [lenny07] [ In reply to ]
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lenny07 wrote:
Shifting elements being the front end, or including the derailleurs? I have di2 and while I have read they should be waterproof, I am still somewhat concerned if I run into this situation later this year as my understanding is IM events don't usually allow you to cover anything but saddle and maybe the front end.
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1. normally, both, for the reasons you state.
2. if the race specifies saddle and front only, then that's it and i figure we (all racers) are all in the same boat and it will work out equally, for ill or good.
peggy
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [Leddy] [ In reply to ]
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Leddy wrote:
ESC ?

I did that race and Tri AC a few years ago when the night before both of those races it was a monsoon. Pretty sure the morning of both Delmo's crew had to re rack a lot of bikes that got blown around.

If you wrap it up too much the wind will blow it all over the place. You'll see bikes there pretty much shrink wrapped. ESC I didn't do anything. Tri AC I wrapped the cranks, chain and such in a disposable tarp just in case it got blown off the rack and ended up on sandy ground.

End of the season, I think that was 2015 or 2106, I went to change tires. Both wheels had water in them. The front it was a noticeable amount.

Yup, ESC.

That TriAC race was one of the few Delmo races I haven't done since 2011, but I remember seeing the pictures and hearing the stories. Lucked out on that one! But I did do ESC the year we were standing in transition in the AM while it was lightening. Kinda smart...open area...lots of metal...standing water. I think I remember boarding the Ferry and they delayed the race like an hour.

I was thinking of covering the cranks and chain. I don't have a super bike. I always put the computer on in the AM.

Last year I did 10 or so races and 8 of them were perfect weather. Dry, cool, etc.

This year, I'm 3-3 with rain. It sucks because wet roads scare me more than anything since I don't ride outside much. I just take every turn very cautiously and lower the PSI a bit.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
That TriAC race was one of the few Delmo races I haven't done since 2011, but I remember seeing the pictures and hearing the stories. Lucked out on that one! But I did do ESC the year we were standing in transition in the AM while it was lightening. Kinda smart...open area...lots of metal...standing water. I think I remember boarding the Ferry and they delayed the race like an hour.

I think that was the year. We were on the boat forever also I think. That might have been the year the women missed the start for the Olympic and pleaded with Delmo to turn the boat around.

I forgot to put my bag in plastic so when the race was over everything I had was soaked. I sat around waiting for awards and would have been absolutely miserable except for cape may brewery.

"I think I've cracked the code. double letters are cheaters except for perfect squares (a, d, i, p and y). So Leddy isn't a cheater... "
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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I wouldn’t worry about it. Pro cyclists are biking through the rain all the time. They’re not rebuilding their bike every time it rains in training.

I agree with someone else on the chain lube part just cause you’ll give up watts but the rest of the bike will be fine
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks to all for the replies. Turns out my bike was rained on more driving there on Saturday than it was overnight. Still, for future searchers who find this thread, here's what I did:
  1. Wiped the bike down and dried it off really well when I arrived in transition for bike drop.
  2. Covered the cockpit with a trash bag. I used a trash bag with built in ties so I just pulled it tight and tied it shut. I also wrapped some tape around it for added attachment. I wasn't being OCD on dryness. I did this more to be sure the plastic bag didn't get blown off and become garbage flying around transition.
  3. Covered my seat with a Ziploc freezer-sized bag. No additional tapping was needed as I wrapped the bag under the seat and the weight of the seat held the bag to the rack.
  4. Covered my Vectors with Ziploc freezer-sized bag, which also were large enough to cover the cranks and a good portion of the front ring. Wrapped tape around those to secure them. Again, so they didn't become flying garbage.
  5. Used a small bungee cord to secure the seat post to the bike rack.

When I arrived in the AM, all was well. I carefully removed the bags to be sure the puddled water didn't fall on the things I was trying to keep dry. I wiped the chain and re-lubed.

The range of coverage was from nothing, to similarly what I did, to black trash bags covering most of the bike, to a few full tarps.

If presented with the same situation, I would do what I did again.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Kudos for coming back to the thread afterwards with a followup. It's mounmentally frustrating when there is no resolution and people don't know what advice worked or didn't work.
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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [Grant.Reuter] [ In reply to ]
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Grant.Reuter wrote:
I wouldn’t worry about it. Pro cyclists are biking through the rain all the time. They’re not rebuilding their bike every time it rains in training.

I agree with someone else on the chain lube part just cause you’ll give up watts but the rest of the bike will be fine

No - their full-time Pro wrenches are.


float , hammer , and jog

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Re: Rainy Overnight Bike Check [DJRed] [ In reply to ]
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Make sure your seat stays dry... You don't want to risk getting your ass wet!

DJRed wrote:
Gonna rain like a mofo. Do anything special for your bike?

What's your CdA?
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