Rode to work today,

Got rained on for the ride to work, At work another guy and I were talking about riding in the rain and I was reminded of a time.....

Back in 1979 my brother with his wife and his in-laws and I took a ride to Valhalla. That's in New York State, near White plains. There was a Fire department Muster at the Kenisco dam that we had gone to the year before and decided to do the ride again.

This trip was my first introduction to a New York Pizza. I ordered a large cheese pizza for myself, The waiter said "Large for you?" I replied "yes". He replied, "Pig"

Now, back in the 70's and 80's I could eat a large pizza, well I still can, but back then I wouldn't regret it. What I didn't know was a New York Large pizza was about 3 feet in diameter. But hey, I ate most of it. 

Anyway, back to the reason for this tale and rain. Leaving Valhalla it started raining, and it kept picking up. We cleared New Haven and the rain kept coming. The other two bikes had windshields, I had a Chopped hard-tail with a raised drag-bar.

Needless to say, I was soaked. 

For some reason, I have yet to figure out, they decided to stop and wait out the rain under the Four Mile River Road overpass on I-95 north. So we sat and sat and ... sat. Finally, thinking to myself, this makes no sense, here I am soaked to the bone, having ridden 120 miles and an hour and a half in the pouring ran and only being about 18 miles from my house. I bid them adieu, started the bike and took off up the highway. I raced up 95, crossed the Thames River, grabbed 184 and then back roads to the house. For some reason, the extra distance of 20 feet down the road to the driveway and up the driveway seemed a total waste of time so I just flew off the road and across the yard.

There is an old statistic about how most accidents occur within five miles of your home, well this one occurred 10 feet from my front door. When you are pushing about thirty miles an hour, jump the bike in the air as you clear the road and come down onto wet grass, what you create is sort of a mix master effect. The wheels fly out from beneath you as the hit the wet grass and the bike keeps running, churning up grass and mud. So there you are, after running about 300 miles, half that in the rain, you crash in your yard. When I got up I looked like I had been dirt biking in a mud field.

So, here's a couple lessons learned.
1) If you have ridden 120 miles in a downpour another 18 won't kill you.

2) If you have just ridden 138 miles in the rain, another twenty feet to the driveway, won't kill you.