Riding in the rain on a motorcycle happens to just about every rider. The difference is that some of us ride in the rain on purpose, while other motorcyclists get caught in a downpour by accident. If you’re the former, here are some tips for keeping your pants dry during foul-weather commuting.

• Gear up. The most important thing, obviously, is wearing waterproof motorcycle gear. You’re going to need:
  • Textile pants with a waterproof liner
  • Waterproof motorcycling boots — regular waterproof boots aren’t a good option because they are usually not tall enough to prevent upspray (more on that in a minute). Furthermore, they may not hold up in a crash as well as boots built specifically for motorcycling. Also make sure your boots have a gaiter on the inside to help keep water out of the openings along the side of the boot. I personally prefer buckles to zippers, but if your boot has a zipper make sure there is a gaiter behind the zipper, too. I wear Sidi On Roads (available at NewEnough).
  • If you are really concerned about staying dry — or you motorcycle during the colder months — you should buy a separate set of waterproof overpants. I own a jacket and pants set of Frogg Toggs Elite Highway (Amazon.com). It makes a huge difference when riding in torrential rain. It is also important for keeping me safe and warm when it’s cold out. You may stay dry when your waterproof textile jacket gets waterlogged, but the wind of riding at highway speeds plus a low ambient air temperature will make you cold in a hurry. It’s uncomfortable at best, and dangerous at worst.
• Tuck your clothes in when going out in public. Fold your pant hem flat against your leg. Put your pant leg inside your boot. If you don’t do this, water upspray from the road my find its way past the various hem contraptions of your motorcycling pants and soak your “real” pants. This is particularly irksome if you are wearing jeans. Demin will rapidly transfer any water absorbed at the hem up your pants. I figured out “the tuck” the hard way after wondering why my knees were wet — it was from my jeans absorbing water on a three-hour ride in the rain.

I planned on riding Apollo, my Yamaha FJR1300A, up to New York state this weekend to watch my friend Bond get married. Unfortunately the weather looks a little something like this:

I don’t mind riding in the rain, and I don’t even mind riding in a thunderstorm. However, that’s a lot of consistent rain to go through on a ten to twelve hour ride.

I’m going to try to remind myself that my Mazdaspeed3 is a fantastic car and not be too bummed out about it.

At least this way I can drink coffee while driving and experience this thing people call “air conditioning.”

My new 2009 Yamaha FJR1300A motorcycle has an electric windshield with an adjustable height. It is too hot to really deploy the screen in any other position but “low,” as I need as much airflow as I can get. However, the screen makes a very nice barrier against rain when adjusted to its full height.

Such was the case this evening, when I was riding around with Xamot on the way to meet his wife. We had just swooped onto a highway onramp, hoping to minimize our exposure to the elements. Rain had just started to fall.

I shifted up into fourth gear and signaled my intent to merge. It felt like being in the trench of the Death Star. I thumbed the windshield control, and up the screen came, slowly but surely.

Before I realized what I was doing, I screamed out to no one, “switch your own deflectors on, double front.”

Since I commute to work and take mid-distance trips on my motorcycle, dealing with rain is part of the deal. The weather is pretty dynamic where I live, so if I only rode on days that promised great riding weather I would always take my car. :)

Anyway, as time has gone by I’ve accumulated a fair amount of waterproof riding gear. My Sidi OnRoad boots are waterproof, and I have waterproof liners for my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket and Motoport kevlar mesh pants. I also have a pair of Fahrenheit Rev’It waterproof winter gloves. On top of that I have a set of Frogg Toggs Elite Highway rain gear, which I will eventually get around to reviewing.

The problem with waterproof riding gear is that most of the time the waterproof barrier is under the primary material. In the case of my jacket, pants, boots, and gloves, there is a waterproof membrane under the textile or leather. This means that the top layer gets saturated after awhile, even though I may be dry underneath. This isn’t such a problem when it’s warm, but it can be uncomfortable — if not dangerous — when it’s cold.

On my last trip to Georgia I rode back in a rainstorm that drenched my Rev’It gloves. The air temperature and speed of highway travel sucked all the heat away from my hands, even behind my BMW’s handguards and with the heated grips on high.

I started looking for textile waterproof gloves, but there aren’t really any to be found. I turned to the Web for solutions; surely someone else has had this problem, too. My search led me to the Aerostich Triple Digit waterproof glove rain covers.
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It has been raining since last Friday (technically wintery mix then), but yesterday I rode into work anyway. Light rain, no problem. It didn’t rain a SINGLE DROP from 9AM until about 3PM, and then it started to rain more and more.

By 5PM it was steady; by the time I was on the highway it was a downpour :)

I really enjoy riding in the rain, but it adds a few layers of complexity to an already sketchy commute. I have to allow for extra space between cars, worry about putting my feet down on painted surfaces, etc. I also have to worry (particularly on the way into work) about water getting through my gear. I kept a status check looping through my brain: car in front of you, car behind you, car to the right, gauntlets are covering sleeves, visor clear enough to see, neckline still dry, car in front of you, car behind you, car to the right ….

It becomes meditative. I think that motorcycle riding puts me in a trance anyway, which is probably why I think so clearly while riding, and why I am happy when I get to work. Riding in the rain also plays on that traditional motorcycle spirit of being independent. I didn’t see another single bike out yesterday. I really enjoy riding in the rain, as long as I am prepared and am traveling a short distance.

My gear did very well: my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket was fantastic, and the Motoport mesh kevlar pants were watertight, too. I wore my Teknic Speedstar gloves, although I probably shouldn’t have; they are great gloves and I don’t want to shorten their lifespan by wearing them in the rain too often. I have some Aerostich waterproof glove covers, but that will have to wait for another entry. My Sidi OnRoad boots kept my feets dry.

The Gmax helmet is still very comfortable, but it doesn’t vent for shit. All of those vents on the top didn’t keep my face shield from fogging up. I had to decide between a partially fogged visor or getting blasted in the face from wind and rain. I split the difference on the highway, and ran with the visor three clicks open once I got back to the surface streets.

It’s supposed to be less rainy today, so I will be riding again. Hopefully this time without the free bike wash. ;)

Here’s the problem. You stay pretty motionless while riding a motorcycle. This makes it hard for the body to generate heat to keep warm. This is a major problem while riding at high speeds in cold temperatures. I got frostbite my first year of riding on my toes because I wasn’t adequately protected from the elements.

It’s been a major struggle of mine to keep my hands warm in anything below 40°F at highway speeds. Heated grips and handguards help, but you really need special purpose gloves to keep your hands warm. The problem with buying winter gloves is that they tend to be very bulky. The insulation material makes the gloves look more like a ski mitt than a motorcycle glove, and the fine manipulation required to work the throttle can become lost. I own a pair of Tour Master winter gloves, and it feels like I am not touching the controls at all.

Rev’It makes several winter gloves. Thanks to Dennis over at Beach Moto, I selected the Fahrenheit H2O waterproof winter motorcycle glove. He helped me with the sizing, suggesting an XL that fit perfectly.

Would Rev’It’s high technology help me overcome my cold hand blues?
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The first half of my ride home from Georgia was great. I was moving along at a good clip, and the sun was bright and shining.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Fayetteville seems to be the tipping point for bad motorcycle weather. On my trip down, my route south of Fayetteville was completely covered by rain. I guess the northern part of my return trip got jealous and wanted to get in on the “fun.”

It rained non-stop, and hard, all the way home. It wasn’t as bad as my trip down, but it was a soaking rain. Paranoid (and hopefully wiser) from my gear problems on the way down, I adjusted my waterproofing strategy slightly.
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As mentioned earlier, I spent four days on a motorcycle trip to see two of my friends outside of Savannah, Georgia. It’s almost five hundred highway miles, which winds up being between eight to nine hours depending on traffic, weather conditions, and the bike I’m on. My best time was on my first trip on my FZ6 because I had great weather and a very comfortable saddle.

This time I took Raider, my BMW R1150R. In theory, it should have been the best of both of my trips: the comfort of my old K1200LTE touring bike, and the mobility of Cylon. Thanks to the weather and an extremely hard seat, it was really the worst of both worlds.

But I still had a kick ass time. ;)
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The first half of my trip down to Georgia was fantastic. It was cool enough that I wasn’t hot in my Rev’It Cayenne Pro jacket, but not so cold my hands were freezing. It was overcast enough that I didn’t have to squint behind my Native sunglasses, but not so overcast that I had to worry about rain.

That is, until I got to Fayetteville, North Carolina. Then the sky opened up. It didn’t stop until I reached Savannah, some 280 miles later.

What followed was a near total failure of every piece of waterproof motorcycling gear that I owned. Am I being too harsh?
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I was supposed to go visit my family up in Syracuse, NY this weekend. I was going to ride Raider up there and then putter around with my stepfather. I quickly encountered two monkey wrenches.

1) The bike my dad owned does not have a state inspection. Neither does Raider, but he won’t ride without a 100% legal bike. So a paired ride is out of the picture.

2) It is supposed to rain the entire time I am there. The thing about Syracuse is that the temperature could drop at any time. I’d go from rain to snow in a hurry. Who wants to be caught in that?

So, tell me what you’d choose:
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