Riding in Heavy Rain - The Thai Raining Season is Coming
The raining season is coming and we should practice drills for bad conditions.Knowing the road is an important part of wet weather riding because you'll know where puddles form, mud gathers or corners are slippery. If you know the corner ahead has a manhole in the middle, or the road under the flyover gathers water in heavy rain you can be prepared.
Having said that, a road surface can and will change on different days so reading the ever-changing surface is extremely important. You'll need to be more observant at this time of year, constantly scanning the surface, watching other traffic, adjusting lines and adjusting speed. Not forget that the average Thai car driver will hit the brakes when more than 7 rain drops land on his front window.
Don't tense up when you see something you don't like the looks shiny, hard braking is a sure-fire way of fetching you off. Learn to ride around problems smoothly and use more rear brake at this time of year to gently scrub off speed without testing the front tires as much.
Look after your visor. If you're like me traveling to and from work you're not seeing the light of day too much. Clean your visor before every trip, inside and out. Then apply water repellent coating to the outside and de-mister to the inside.
Heavy rain wet roads take longer to dry up but rush hour traffic has a habit of drying where tires and engines have driven over it. So pick your route....
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