I was on a ride yesterday afternoon when a thunderstorm started approaching. Hopeful that we could out-ride the thunderstorm we pressed on.

We started cycling up hill and as we climbed I realised we were becoming more and more exposed. Meanwhile the thunder was getting closer. As we reached the top of the road I saw that there was very little terrain that was higher than us.

I said to my cycle partner that we should get lower ASAP and find some cover. 10 seconds later there was an almighty flash bang, which we think caught a clump of trees 50m away.

We absolutely sh@t ourselves and cycled down the hill for our lives.

The annoying thing is I got caught in a thunderstorm around Macc forest only a month ago. Again, lightning strike 100m away as I came down Charity Lane. Frightening but not like yesterday.

Anyone got similar experiences?

Matt

I've been hit by lightning.
It's smarts a bit 😯

Best to keep away from the top of hills when thunder is around.

Best to keep away from the top of hills when thunder is around.

Also probably best not to sit on any metallic objects, I would have thought! 🙂

would the tyres insulate you though? what if you had spd's and unclipped….

We got caught out last year in Switzerland. Heading back to Champery, it started to rain, alot. We still had some climbing to do before we could ride down (all on big bikes so it was a push up job). Sheet and fork lightning all around atop a mountain with very poor visability….It was pretty scary to say the least, but we battled on and got back very, very wet, but in one piece.

I Remember the guy running the chair lift, gave us a 'your completely mad' look, as apart from him and us there was no one else around.

Blimey, sounds a bit scary.

Best thing to do would have been get off your bicycle and do the curling up in a ball like they tell you in the PSA stuff – has anyone actually done that?

Tyres don't insulate you. As it's well known that if you're in a car that gets struck by lightening you'll be ok, people think it's because of the tyres, it's actually due to the car acting as a Faraday cage (Yes i know i got this from Qi or top Gear)

What Houns said. Think about it – if there's enough electricity to ionise air / turn the air into plasma, there's no problem for it to go through you, the bike or whatever, then ionise another 6 inches of air to get around the tyres…

I live pretty much at the top of a hill in an area that frequently gets thunder storms. The lightening is bright and all around, strikes are not too far away and a rumble of thunder can last a couple of minutes. And now it's storm season.

Best thing to do would have been get off your bicycle and do the curling up in a ball like they tell you in the PSA stuff – has anyone actually done that?

Yes, and generally under the duvet!

When the storms are along or across the valley I'll get the camera out and take pics of the lightening, when it's close I won't even go outside, too scary.

Stacking bales of hay on an airfield as a kid, on top of a stack of hay 20 feet up on a trailer, had a lightning strike a radio mast, some 50 feet away from us.

The flash/bang was amazing!

Well too close for my liking…

Spent the next 10 min sheltering under the trailer cacking ourselves!

Not sure if that was the safest option, but we were not thinking straight at the time 😉

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8100953.stm

When Lightning Strikes…

etc…

Now that would make an amazing looking tattoo, once his back had healed 😉

seems familiar

Now that would make an amazing looking tattoo, once his back had healed 😉

That's exactly what I'd do if it happened to me! 8) And I survived of course 😯

Love thunder & lightning, awesome spectactle… lived in Darwin, Australia for a while, it's a well known lightning hotspot, I was there for the storm that produced the then world record of 1634 strikes over the course of 2-3hours… was amazing!!

I tend to about-face and get the hell down the hill at the first rumble of thunder.

Was hiking up in the mountains here in New Mexico several years ago and thunderstorms started building up–just as I got to the top of a mesa at about 9000 ft., a bolt of lightning struck a Ponderosa Pine about 100 yards from me–large tree, probably 150 years old and 125 feet tall. Tree literally exploded, sending fencepost sized chunks of the trunk flying like shrapnel in every direction, some smaller pieces landing around me. Started an instant fire in what was left of the tree, but moments later it started pouring rain, so forest fire averted. My German Shepherd and I set a new world's record for descending 1500 down the side of the mesa to the truck.

Blooody ell!