Rain

Minnesota has seen a lot of it. Every day this week I've encountered it on the bike. Morning, evening, daytime. Every day.

It's ok - I really don't mind a warm rain, the soak feels kinda good actually. The bike gets cleaned off (well, not really, but the muddy dirt is concentrated to a few spots where the water tends to accumulate as opposed to a fine dirt laying all over the bike) and the wetness cuts the heat of driving around in summer with full gear on. Most of my gear sheds water fine, but I have to come up with a way not to end up with inches of standing water in my leather boots by the end of a long rain ride. Haven't figured that out yet.

The actual challenge of riding in and through lightening, hail, rain, downpours, etc. seems pretty straightforward now, known actors and all that. It's also pretty sweet that the streets (wet as they are) are usually empty during the thick of a storm. People seem to slow down and stay sheltered, and that's just fine by me. I don't mind being the only bike and one of the few vehicles 'braving' the road. It's really no big deal.

I'm sure some of my confidence comes from these new Pilot Road 5s - they are outstanding wet weather tires, even driving through several-inch deep 'hydroplaning puddles', the bike stays pretty firmly in place most of the time. Still, I try to avoid the deeper water (or steer through the water's periphery if can't avoid it entirely) because I don't know what obstacles lay hidden in any of those rainwater washes.

During the last thunderstorm ride, I drowned my cheap-o ($50) Amazon Bluetooth headset receiver, so now I'm looking for a wired setup to replace it. Even if it was still working perfectly, my rides these days are taking me longer than the battery life of most of these devices, and so I'm faced with either carrying around multiple charged wireless devices so I can stay dialed in, or just eliminating the wireless factor altogether and just going wired with my phone-to-helmet setup.

The weather has been charged these days. Very changeable and erratic/unpredictable. A lot like my life these days. So much in flux, so many storms all around, but I'm navigating through those, too.

The bike and the freedom to ride helps a lot with keeping all that in check.