Steel bike in a thunderstorm?

Thor is kicking off big style over Newcastle at the mo.
And I’ve got to ride home in a bit. 😯

What tyres for electrical insulation? 😕

Does it normally hum when you go under an electricity pylon?

If it does, I think I would walk tonight 😉

Never mind, I’m pretty sure the torrential rain is going to make any insulating properties fairly irrelevant.

Kinda wish I’d brought my jacket now…

Yay for the British summer.

Played golf in a thunderstorm on Friday. Actually standing in the eye of the storm with lightning hitting the ground nearby.

Nearly pat my shants.

probably a good time to remove any commuter friendly flag that flaps about, a foot above you – more on trailers I know, but you know the sort of thing I mean.. 🙂

If the few thousand meters of air is going to act as a conductor then there’s no tyres on this Earth that will save you 😥

Played golf in a thunderstorm on Friday…lightning hitting the ground nearby.

switch to only using your one iron until the storm has passed…

I’ve got a wire coathanger at work – reckon I can fashion a crude lightning rod?

I was very close to getting struck by lightening once. It hit a car I was walking next to and the alarm went off…ruined my Calvins.

What about a tin foil hat?

😉

or put on a chainmail suit:

Flippin’ hate thunderstorms.

Got caught in a massive one coming back down Rushup Edge in The Peak’s a few years ago.

Could see it coming towards me as I rode up onto Rushup Edge from the Mam Tor end.

Car was parked in the layby halfway up from Chapel.

Don’t think I’ve ever ridden over & down Rushup Edge so fast.

Got back to the car at the same time as the storm broke overhead. Threw the bike against the wall & jumped in the car.

Saw lighning strike the ground once or twice within 100m of the car. Makes quite a bang.

Eventually summoned up the courage to get out of the car & load the bike into the back before driving home.

or put on a chainmail suit

Don’t be silly. I’m at the office.
I’ve only got my formal dress armour here. All the chainmail is at home.

Setting off in 20 minutes on a steel bike. I’ll post if I make it home.

Might be a bit of standing water on the road. I do wish I’d bought some form of waterproof though…

Still going, anyone got a canoe in the Felling area I can borrow?

lightning is god’s way of killing golfers…. 😉

I don’t think that we should really be picking on steel

Aluminium and Titatnium aren’t exactly famous for their insulation.
Carbon fiber would better as the resin is an insultator, but I assume the fibres conduct…

All quiet again now, and brightening up. That was a bit wild for a while though.

🙂

Arf!

Just realised today is the VirginMoney “Tyne 6 Bridges” event – a bimble event for leisure riders along the Tyne.

I suspect they may have just a few no-shows!

All quiet again now

Well the lightning has stopped – but all I can hear is car alarms going off now 😀

Just hit us about 30 minutes Alnwick Town Centre flooded, a few days ago we were talking about the poor people in Calderdale and how lucky we were as it’ll never flood here.

Bit damp outside mine too

Bloody Hell! Is that Mini being washed down the road? Still just ominous thunderings and black skies here (between Durham and Sunderland).

Yup down Alnwick main street it apparently was being washed all over.

Yeah – I think I’m going to take the missus up on her offer to come rescue me in the car! 😳

Call me a big tart – but lightning is currently hitting the building I’m in and the road outside appears to be a river.

Grief, that pic of Alnwick looks extreme! 😐 Hope everyone’s all right / insured.

Got caught in a brief snow and lightning storm coming down from the high point of Trail 401 in Colorado, and again in two hours of an absolute downpour with sheet lightning on the hills approaching Burgos on the Camino de Santiago while on a steel bike. The polished limestone descent was also quite entertaining on the latter 😯

All very character building – big manhug with my mate after we’d got down from the descent! 😀

Unheard of that’s pure rain there the river is about 1/4 mile away and 150 feet below.

Hate to think of what it’s like near the rivers and low ground, houses opposite me have had their garages flooded, stopped about 1″ short of flooding ours from the backyard.

I was working at the top of a telegraph pole when the thunder started suddenly never got down a pole as quick

Union Jacks, a Mini and torrential rain in the middle of summer – all that image needs is some Morris dancers treading water in the middle of the high street river and it would be the perfect pictorial representation of this fair isle.

Should put it on a stamp.

I survived! Despite a second thunderstorm so my survey of one say you are good to go. Newcastle is under water, seems completely gridlocked, every dip in the road is flooded and traffic going no where fast.

Trains are being terminated in Darlington. My wife has just phoned me to say she’s stuck!

that’s an insane picture of Alnwick – looks like 2/3 feet of water. Has one of the Duchess’s water features escaped?

I got the Mrs to pick me up from work. There was no way I was riding from Stanley to consett in that.

Carbon fiber would better as the resin is an insultator

Of course there would be the slightly painful issue of removing the melted resin from your inner thighs and legs

Safely in the car but every other road in the city is at a standstill and loads of road closures, including the Tyne Tunnel.
All Metro stations are closed.

Footage take near where that mini is http://bcove.me/84fxb6qo

The wife’s at work still so can’t get out for any photos. 🙁

Bloody hell!

The sun is out. I can see blue sky.

But… the BBC Newcastle is talking about water 3 or 4 foot deep in places and walls/roofs collapsing!

Not sure how long it’s going to take to get home. Lucky we have friends to pick up our daughter from nursery.

Seeing loads of photos of Newcastle now too, flooded Metro stations, shops and roads. A nursery evacuated at Newburn they’re using Ambulance HQ to shelter them.

Don’t be silly. I’m at the office.
I’ve only got my formal dress armour here. All the chainmail is at home

Actually done this.

Doing a multi-period show at Kirby Hall, all of us lined up to do the final parade in front of the massed public when the sky turned black and lightning started to flicker around the sky…

We looked across at the English Civil War lads with their 16ft pikes, we looked down at our own steel plate armour…

..and whimpered, before the ranks dissolved into loads of blokes panicking like crazy and throwing down weapons whilst frantically attepmting to rip of our armour! 😆

Sat at work wondering when it’ll be worth attempting to cross Newcastle.