ADVrider boards question - Ride in the rain or don’t ride at all »

What do you need to ride in the rain, especially in the great Pacific Northwest? An inquiring Antsaint (my handle on the ADVrider forums and IMZ Ural boards) wants to know.

All you snow and rain riders, especially those up here in the great Pacific Northwet, what would be your most-recommended mods and add-ons to a Ural, especially for better riding in that good ol’ gray and drizzly “Oregon/Washington sunshine”?

Now that’s what I call a shopping list

Folks have posted some very helpful tips and recommendations, including:

• Wet-weather tires
• Lap robe
• Electric vests
• Rubber/Goretex riding gear (doesn’t have to be armored/heavy-duty, since that’s what your gear underneath the rainwear is for)
• Dialectric grease (a water-resistant grease that is great for water-proofing bike bits and pieces that still need good electrical connections/ conductivity)
• Heated grips (which just sound nifty anyway)

It’s all about the rainwear

For my mind and money, the minimum to start with would be the wet-weather riding gear – generally a 1-piece or 2-piece zip together outfit. Just for keeping the wet and cold off your precious hide, this is also gear you’d keep stashed in your Ural’s trunk, because you just never know when the heavens are going to cloud over and open up.

Arguments could be made for the tires or lap robe, but if you had to get one, I’d say go with the rainwear. Why do I say that? My motorcycle-in-the-monsoon days aren’t here yet, but for the past 4 years I have ridden a bicycle to work. Year-round. Rain and even snow. And it’s all about the gear.

It doesn’t matter how much rain is pouring down when I leave the house in the morning. As long as I’ve got my rain coat and rain pants on, I’m good to go, and dry when I get to the office. More importantly, since I’m not worried about getting soaked to the bone I still enjoy the ride.

Jodie and I will be working on this rainy weather shopping list over time — but we’ll start with the rainwear. From there (and the dialectric grease, which is just good to keep in your rig’s toolkit anyway), we’ll probably move on to the tires or heated grips. All in due time.