Had been some fantastic stormy conditions in Edinburgh during the day but come home time it seemed pretty benign, but not for long!
Got caught with 10km to go in some crazy heavy rain, soon followed by thunder and lightening.
Mostly all fun and games, a couple of bottom bracket deep puddles to pedal through and some impressive streams flowing across roads from flooded fields.
As I got out of the city though I started feeling a bit more exposed to the lightening, never thought to count seconds so no idea how close the bolts were, but I realised I had been putting an awful lot of faith in 25mm of rubber between me and the road!
Is it a real risk like it could be in the hills, or was I worrying about nothing given that I was never the highest thing in the vicinity?
Rubber tyres - all good.
Moving target insulated from earth. Pretty safe I'd say!
Usual internet piffle re rubber tyres/soles etc. So lightning can jump big gaps between the clouds and the earth but a tyres width of rubber will stop it?
Actually I was joking about the tyres, I thought protection from the tyres had been shown to be a myth?
As long as you ride carbon, we are all good...
You're unlikely to get hit. If you are unlucky enough to be hit your bike tyres will offer precisely **** all protection.
Stopped in a bus shelter during a storm last year when everyone driving past seemed to take interest in what was happening behind us, we peeked out to see that the building behind had been struck by lightning and had caught fire.
It's a complete myth. Protection froma car is due to it acting as a Faraday Cage. In a previous situation, with lightening locally and could feel the static, I called into a house along the lane and they were very happy to have me! I called home for a ride (predates mobiles).
There is however a tiny bit of truth in the tyres providing insulation - Sheep die not from beind struck directly, but due to the potential difference across their legs in contact with the ground stopping their heart. So off-road, a tyre will protect against the same, but not a direct strike, or even one nearby.
Well, when you're in a thunderstorm, generally your tyres are going to be wet, so aside from the tyre thing being bollocks anyway, the water all over them will conduct nicely.
Anyway, personally I just avoid being up on the tops of the hills. If you stay low you're quite unlikely to be the path of least resistance unless you're wearing a kaiser helmet.
I was on a cable car in the Dolomites once when a lightning storm broke. They turned it up to full speed and we all had to jump off as it whizzed round the platform at the bottom… I was quite glad we weren't on the upper cable car, which—aside from being much higher and strung across a fairly spectacular gap—was basically a 1950s metal wardrobe.
A couple of weeks back was kayaking when a storm got close. Given the general dampness and the fact most of us have a nice conductive carbon paddle shaft I think it was wise to get off the water even though in theory there were better targets.
I would count the display/claps and once it got less than two second beyond strikes would look to really make sure I aint the best target starting by getting off the bike (unless somehow i ended up in somewhere surrounded by skyscrapers).
Some thoughts in Velonews recently: https://www.velonews.com/2019/06/technical-faq/technical-faq-feedback-on-lightning-strikes-and-junior-gears_495393
For my own story - was in a race a couple of months ago, when a lightning storm hit (West Texas). I was caught out on course - no shelter anywhere, the trail was a river, lightning hitting the canyon rim all around me. I wasn't sure whether to keep going and try to get back to safety, or stop and hunker down and hope I didn't get hit.
I'm sure this is psychosomatic - but I have metal plates in my left arm from a half-pipe incident in my teens, and my arm was going all tingly while the lighting was all around...
Joking aside - people do die in lightning storms, it is a real risk. If you can get to shelter, do. If you can't, try to get low. Or take the Chicken Run advice:
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a tyres width of rubber will stop it?
Obviously only if they're dry, so you should be safe if you carry a huge umbrella.
I’m sure this is psychosomatic – but I have metal plates in my left arm from a half-pipe incident in my teens, and my arm was going all tingly while the lighting was all around…
No, that could be right. You're surrounded by huge electrical charge that's trying to get up to clouds.
I've been on Crib Goch many years ago with hair standing on end, ice axes on bags humming/clicking and streamers of charge running off the ridge that we were desperately trying to get off...
I've been sent that same video by three different people, not me, I was struggling through bottom bracket deep puddles on the other side of the airport!
That guy's just a glory hog... 😆
I've concluded that yes it was riskier than not cycling through a thunderstorm, but overall the risk was still very low.
But yes, I was getting a little bit squeeky bum by the end, putting my head down every time I heard a crack of thunder probably wasn't going to help, in retrospect...
I was at Chasewater once when a bolt of lightning struck a mile away. About 20 windsurfers were on the water (nice pointy 5 metre carbon lightning conductors pointing at the clouds) and they all experienced some level of shock and all were thrown into the water. None of them were injured.
How wet is Edinburgh right now? Coming up tomorrow for the weekend staying off Keith walk. Will we need snorkel gear? We are driving but friends getting the train. Any issues with transport?
I saw that video on bbc news just now and it made me wonder!
My sister got struck by lightning in her family tent in a campsite at the bottom of a valley in Andorra. Lightning went down one tent pole, jumped into the frame of the camp bed on which one of the kids was lying, jumped through a big biscuit tin full of Brillo pads, into the second tent pole and to Earth. Everybody screamed but about a half second after the event! The Brillo pads were fused into a smoking mess of melted wire wool and soap.
That Edinburgh cyclist needs a fatbike with room for 4.8"+ tyres fully inflated, he will them float above the flooded road. 😉
Who’s this?
My first thought was Cynic-Al 😉
My first thought was Cynic-Al
I thought it was TJ but then spotted the helmet.
I got caught in a thunder storm on the moors above Eskdale last year. I could see the clouds coming in but no lightening or thunder to warn me it was a thunderstorm. Massive bang and the lightening hit some way off to my left. I've never got off a bike and laid down in a sheep scuff so quick in all my life. Bloody scary.
I was riding on Winter Hill in the snow a few years back when all of a sudden there was a big lightning flash followed almost instantaneously by the thunder. I got off the hill rather quickly 🙂
Think you need to keep all windows closed for the car to act as a Faraday cage...I think, but I can't remember where I got that.
Top Gear did a test a few years back where they sat someone inside a car and hit it with electricity, I think one of the safety checks before hitting the car was to check the windows were shut tight.
If you're caught out in the open the worst thing you can do is shelter in a cave or under an overhang or in a dip in the ground because lightning tracks across the ground and can pass straight through you on its way. Best advice is to hunker down in the open on just your feet, making your self into as tight a ball as possible. That way there's no way for lightning travelling across the ground to pass through you.
Lightening, you'd be safer playing with sharks.
Riding with the elements cracking about your head is probably best avoided if possible.
I actually quite like the ambience of it - when it turns black overhead and the weather gets a bit feisty - though that's tempered with the memory of playing cricket and a fielder being struck by lightning just before play was called off - with him being ferried off in an ambulance.
globaltiMember
jumped through a big biscuit tin full of Brillo pads
Why on earth did they have a tin on brillo pads with them when camping?
Surely if you are hit by lightening you'll just weigh less?
How wet is Edinburgh right now?
Right now, it's OK. At lunch time it was hosing down and is about to start again for the whole weekend.