Do you ride in thunder/lightening?
 

Let me explain.
A few years ago i was struck by lightening - or rather my wife tells me (I don't rememebr) that a bolt of lightening hit the ground a few metrs in front of us. I felt like I'd been hit on the head with a frying pan, I jumped up in the air and felt an electric shock go through me.

Anyway, my point is that since then I've been scared of thunder, I mean really scared.

Yesterday I was riding across Nevada,(on Route 50 - the loneliest road) and got caught in the middle of a storm. I was the only person around and the tallest thing for miles. I then saw two bolts of lightening. It was 40 miles back to nearest towm and 60 miles forward. Not to put too fine a point on it, I was terrified.

Are there records of bikers being hit by lightening? Is it likely? What do you do when out for a ride and it starts to thunder?

It's due to thunde tomorrow on me and I'm thinking of just sitting put for two days until it passes? Am I over reacting??

Same therory as cars ?
 

Wouldn't being on the bike and therefore sitting on the insulated rubber of the wheels mean the lightening would not choose you as the point of contact ?

The path of least resistance to the ground...

I just pretend not to care, and I keep riding, since it's impossible to make much progress at certain times of year if you're always hiding from every passing storm cell. Secretly, though, I wonder whether that's wise. I've often been the tallest thing around during thunderstorms, often in the desert or on mountain plateaus. It's not a comfortable feeling.

On foot I've felt my hair standing up, fingertips tingling, and felt a sort've crackling sensation in the air. Once this happened on top of a mountain in thick fog, and it was followed immediately by multiple lightning strikes somewhere very nearby. Now that's scary.

Hmm, I know what you mean. I've never been concerned about lightning before but a couple of years back I got stuck in a massive lightning storm between Krasnoyarsk and Kemerov in Siberia - see Across the universe: From Russia (to Kazakhstan) with love. and since then I'm not so sure any more. :confused1:

Certainly on that night, if I had had the opportunity to have pulled over and stopped somewhere warm and dry i would have taken it, but towns with accommodation were few and far between and I wasn't going to put the tent up in that downpour.

Only if there is another obvious path Rob. The lightning doesn't know you have rubber tyres and besides, I'm pretty sure it could arc over the distance of a tyre sidewall to the ground with out problem. Even if it doesn't you'll still fry - that stored energy has to go somewhere.

In a car it's not the four rubber tyres that protect you, it's the fact that the car frame acts as a Faraday cage - in effect, the reverse of a microwave oven where the Faraday cage stops the microwaves escaping..

Tyres won't insulate you much ,they contain steel .However a car can act as a Faraday cage and allow the charge to pass on the outside of the car .

No such luck with a bike though !!!

In this area we have electric storms all summer ,if you don't ride during thunderstorms , you are going to be home a lot .:(

I like riding during thunderstorms ,it's great ,it's fun ,it's electrifying !doh

An example of how electrical charge only passes on the outside of a Faraday suit .

YouTube - Tesla Guitar Iron Man.mp4

Lonesome George you need a chainmail suit!:D:funmeteryes:

Hum... it just doesn't seem like the sensible thing to do - especially if you're the tallest thing around. A quick google shows that bikers do die...Motorcyclist Struck In Head By Lightning Bolt - Denver News Story - KMGH Denver and even if the actual lightening doesn't get you the pure force will make you crash.

I think I'm going to have to sit around for a day or two. Utah is supposed to get quite a few lightening storms in the next two days. It just sin't worth it. Crossing the salt flats in a thunder storm really is asking for trouble.

This from NWS Lightning Safety Outdoors

• Virginia Beach, VA: Motorcyclist killed while traveling on Route 58.
• Colorado: a 16 year old boy killed while riding a bicycle.
• Tennessee: a 47 year old man killed while leaning against his motorcycle.
• Virginia: a man killed riding his motorcycle.

Lightning strikes are a pretty minor consideration IMHO, they kill what a few people a week world wide? My worry would be the winds and rain and mud slides and flying debris and other hazards that come with it. I think it is a vital attribute in a long distance rider to know when to quit. If you get up and there is a hurricane, stay in. If you get caught in it ten miles from a town, surely better to ride ten miles and find shelter than panic and put your carbon fibre poled tent up in the dark, on a parking area used by trucks, in the middle of an electrical storm (I kid you not, I met a clown doing just that in Sweden, there was a very nice hotel 30 minutes down the road with very little risk of a 40-tonner parking on top of you).

Andy

Lonesome:

The lightening storms aren't likely to be all day events - they build up. On the front range (the plains area on the edge of the Rockies - Denver is 'front range' country) these build up in the late afternoon due to warm moist air up from the gulf of Mexico meeting the air in the mountains. The mornings are nearly always clear blue (Around 3 in the afternoon they start building).

I would think something similar is going in in Utah - the storms will build as the day goes on. Get up early. If weathers looking good, do your riding, keep an eye on the sky, have a plan to be sheltered in the afternoons. You can probably get lots of riding in before the lightening storms start.

Also, lightning storms are usually very local when they happen, not like all-day rain events that cover broad multi-state areas.

Don't sit and wait for something that may never happen ( kind of like canceling your euro vacation because of the new terror alert).

I never ride through lightning storms, if I can help it. Read in a German bike mag that the editor was killed by lightning on the motorway.

I think the real question is "Is it likely?"

Odds of being struck by lightning in a given year (estimated total deaths + injuries) 1/500,000

So, you've got a 1 in 500,000 chance of being struck in the first place in any given year. Now ask yourself what percentage of the people who've been struck by lightning were riding a motorcycle at the time? I'm sure no-one has the real number but it's probably safe to say that it's an incredibly small percentage (if any). Which means you have to hit the 1 in 500,000 lottery to even be remotely in the ball park, then out of the estimated 600 people who are injured or die in those strikes you've got probably a less than 1/600'th of a the strike hitting someone on a motorcycle.

So that's what? <1 in 300,000,000 ?

But, we're not done. What are the odds of being struck twice in the same lifetime?

I will take a 1 in >300,000,000 chance with my life any day of the week if it means I get to enjoy the world riding my bike. So yes, I ride in the lightning, any any other weather. My only restrictions are that i want traction under my tires and the hail stones can't be so large or plentiful as to, remove traction, be particularly painful, or leave bruises.

Remember the odds are FAR FAR greater that you'll get into a totally un-noteworthy vehicular accident. Car accidents are the leading cause of death of Americans and motorcycles have roughly equivalent odds of being in an accident as a car (thus the need for good gear), although if you simply don't drink before riding your odds of not getting in one skyrocket.

If you apply a bit of common sense it isn't a risk worth worrying about. Being struck by lightning is extremely rare ... unless of course you make an obvious target out of yourself. If I'm the tallest thing around with lightning approaching, I would seek safety as soon as I can.

Dont think the worldwide statistics will help.
Lightning is local, and if it is near you you do not want to encourage it to find you.
I have abandoned ploughing a field once , was out on the tractor and about 4-500 yards away lightning struck, not flash bang wallop type, I swear to you it was like someone welding, the arc struck and it buzzed for what seemed like a minute as the arc held and wandered across a field.

In other words if lightning is near you the odds of being hit ar very much increased.

Bit like saying the chances of you drowning by falling over niagra falls is minimal.. not so if you have to cross the thing daily.
Of course if you live in Europe, you are relatively safe :)

Thanks for the advise guys. Normally I wouldn't really worry but there are two factors at play here. First, here on the salt flats I'm the tallest thing around and this makes a hit more likely. And then theres the irrational. Having already been "hit" I have a very different attitude and its more about my fear than the reality.

This is not how statistics work. The chances of getting struck by lightning are not altered the second (or third!) time around. In other words, getting struck once doesn't make it less likely you'll get struck again. Same with tossing a coin: the chances of getting tails twice in a row are less than the 50% chance of getting tails once, but having thrown tails once your chances are *still* 50% on the next toss.

Still.....chances of getting struck by lightning are slight, and I sure don't think they warrant staying off the road just because there are thunderstorms around. Riding straight into the maw is perhaps a tad foolhardy, but if you're caught out you've got to go one direction or the other, and onwards has often seemed just as wise as retreating to where I came from.

As to the "rubber tires equals safety," consider the distance a lightning strike travels through the air, without benefit of any solid conductor at all. Think it'll have any problem at all jumping between you and the ground? Nuh uh.

On the other hand, riding a bike is supposed to be fun, right? If you're not having fun (whether this is due to prior trauma or to other reasons), you probably shouldn't be riding. Either work through your fears of lightning in order to make rational decisions about when to ride and when to hide, or avoid the monsoon season in the American west, during which there'll be lightning storms within sight most afternoons. Of course, the same is true during certain times of year elsewhere in the world, including much of Africa, Asia and South America.

Safe journeys!

Mark