Monsoon riding. Some say that if you don’t ride in the rain, you don’t ride at all. On some level it is true. Hitting the highways when it’s pouring down is nothing short of a heavenly feeling. However, monsoon roads can actually send you on a one way ticket to heaven if your aren’t careful. City riding gets a lot more complicated and being alert is of the essence. The roads get bikers covered in dirt, has them dodging pedestrians, potholes, patches of water and psychotic drivers with no consideration for anyone else on the road. So, here are a few tips to hopefully ensure an incident free monsoon season.
Your biggest safety assurance is the fact that others can see you. Wear bright clothing, get a reflector jacket and use a bright coloured helmet as well. If it rains too hard, switch on your headlamps and ride. Hazard lights on motorcycles aren’t that widespread, but most mechanics can tweak the wiring a little bit and slap on a make shift switch that will turn your indicator switches into hazard light indicators. Avoid using them unless visibility is poor.
Safety gear
Helmets are an elementary part of safety gear, but is your head the only thing at risk? Motorcycle accidents increase during the monsoons and scrapes and bruises can be avoided to certain extent. Knee pads, elbow guard, riding gloves or even an armored riding jacket are a great idea during monsoon riding. They may be used primarily by long distance or leisure riders, but safety gear doesn’t come with any drawbacks. Plus they look pretty cool.
Braking distance
Bikes cannot stop as fast as cars in general. During the monsoons, your braking distance matters more than ever. Always leave a little room for error.
Monitor your braking
Disc brakes have become a standard feature on more motorcycles now. However, ABS isn’t that common so jamming the brakes will send you into a skid in seconds. No matter what type of brake you use, in the monsoons, slamming them is the worst thing you can do. Your braking distance goes hand in hand with you monitoring your brake force. Since you can’t brake as hard in the monsoons, you need to keep a larger gap between yourself and any other vehicle.
Empathize with car drivers
Us bikers have it worse than car drivers do in the monsoons. We get wet, dirty and stinky while car drivers are protected from all this. However, drivers face a big problem with visibility. Water can be cleared from the windshield, but the windows and side view mirrors are always a gamble. Their vision gets blurred and drivers have to focus more. This is the time for bikers to empathize and give cars their space. Avoid lane splitting, cutting between cars etc. Even if a responsible driver paid attention to his mirrors, chances are the water blurred his vision and he couldn’t see you. At the end of the day for a car driver an accident may cause some property damage. It can be a lot worse for bikers.
Clean your visors
Visors get dusty in normal weather, but every rain drop carries some additional dirt with it and you get a heap of water drop stains on your visor. Clean it up after every ride and carry a cloth to wipe it down if it gets too dirty.
Helmets
It’s advisable to carry a helmet for any pillion as well. Whether or not the monsoons are on, both ride and passenger should always wear a helmet, but this is even more important when the road conditions are unpredictable.
Servicing
Get your bike checked up before the monsoon. Mainly keep an eye on the wheel alignment, brake health, throttle fluidity and electrical components (Tape up any exposed wires). Also check for places where your seat is torn and patch it up before any water seeps in. Also get your bike serviced after the monsoons and changing your engine oil, oil filter and air filter is advisable.
Fuel cap focus
Tighten your fuel cap after filling up. Water seeping into the tank is a major and common issue for monsoon riders. If you feel there’s a small amount of water, crank the engine while running a few times and it will burn the water with the petrol. If there’s too much water, go to mechanic and let him drain the fuel tank.
Easy on the corners
Take your time on the corners. Even during in city riding, we get a good number or race circuit like curves which many riders enjoy. In the monsoons however, rider should take their time and avoid pretending they’re Rossi. Slippery roads, a pothole or a manhole cover can send your bike flying.
No Shiny surfaces
Manhole covers, gutters, planks are all over the road. Your tyres lose a huge amount of traction because these surfaces are smooth. Avoid them.
Watch out for cracks
Cracks in our mismanaged roads are common, but the rain water loosens everything up. These cracks make you go off balance and are a big cause of punctures. The monsoons are a tyre service point’s favorite season, because of all the loose stones and gravel.
The road is lava
Water patches are all over the place. Sometime you see a patch of water on a stretch of road that you are a regular on and assume it’s just a little puddle. Avoid these water patches as far as possible and pretend the patches are lava. (Remember the floor is lava game when you were a kid?) This doesn’t mean you ride helter skelter and cut off those around you for your own safety. Avoid the water patches when you can and if you’re boxed in and have no choice. Go slow.
Poker eyes
Dart your eyes and look at everything. Stay alert for reckless drivers, loose gravel, potholes, puddles, incomplete road work run-off etc. Glance at your side view mirrors every few seconds and keep an eye on how traffic ahead of you is behaving.