[Closed] What do you do if you are caught riding on exposed ground in a thunderstorm?

Lie down in a ball (seriously)

Make sure you're riding with someone taller than you?

Get off the top of the ridge/hill, don't get into a cave, sit on your pack tucked up in a ball.

Carry on the tyres will provide enough insulation

29" obv better

Pedal like f*@K 😈

be grateful I'm on a Ti frame and stay close to someone on carbon or steel?

[i]don't get into a cave[/i]

because of the bears?

Adopt the "lightning safety position"!

On your knees, thigh bones vertical, forehead on the ground. The idea is that, if you are struck, the current will earth itself via your femurs without going through any major organs. Sounds sketchy to me.

I do like that it's quite a close resemblance to putting your head between your legs and kissing your ar$e goodbye...

If the strike hits the ground near you it can still kill you. A chap died on our football pitch when lightening hit it. Everyone was slightly affected, he just didnt get up 🙁

"lightning safety position"!

Seems more like your about to get shafted while your head is buried.

This happened to me once and I did pedal like ****. Was actually pretty incredible, if ill advised.

be grateful I'm on a Ti frame

Combination of above, IMO plan A is to get off the hill top asap. If lightening starts getting close then lie on the ground and away from the bikes.

@Trimix that's a tough story.

Yup, his wife told me after I asked how he was. Not a lot I could say after that really.

[i]Why? [/i]

for comic effect, mainly.

Although I have high hopes for my fat bike.

[edit] read this mornign that a thunderstorm went through Europe last night - there were over 100,000 lightning strikes whilst it lasted 😯

Been through this on a motorbike several times. I took the point of view that it was extremely unlikely that I would be hit and just carried on. It did get the pulse racing a bit.

My mum believes* that she has seen St Elmo's Fire on her bike handlebars a very long time ago.

*I've learned that not everything she says is founded in reality.

This bit of advice from a former member has stuck in my mind and always makes me laugh:

"You should be able to see teh centre of the thundercell anyway and you can just avoid getting into the centre"

😆

What steveomcd says. Remember that lightning can arc from what it hits, so try to stay away from trees and conductive thingys.

You could use this [url= http://www.blitzortung.org/Webpages/index.php?lang=en ]handy map[/url] to avoid lightning.

Seems pretty scary in Lyon right now.

[url= http://www.lightningmaps.org/realtime?lang=en ]Google maps version[/url]

We did a ride in the pyrenees on a stormy day, our guide said something to the effect of "If it looks like thunder, we're all getting off the hill as fast as is humanly possible, and if anyone doesn't like it and thinks it'll spoil the ride, they can stay behind and think nonconductive thoughts"

You could use this handy map to avoid lightning.

(yes I know it's just a cross on a webpage but consider how much energy/potential is in each of those crosses)

Offer to give Hora a piggy back?

Pedal like f*@K

you can see a storm coming. either don't ride on the tops, or get down asap.

have ridden like I nicked it twice. once I dropped down to the road and then had the fortune for following an ambulance back in to town, so all the traffic lights went green. the other time was in a forest, on what was a 30C+ blue sky sunny day (so had the black iridium lenses on), and 15 minutes later it was like night time. had to time trial back with no glasses, squinting. both times torrential started as I got to the front door, both times I was watching lightning strike the buildings with 100 metres by the time I got indoors.

ps and I use that blitzortung thing all the time at this time of year. can be pretty reliable once you know roughly where your weather comes from. although here is right on edge from flat valley to hills, and have seen storms "appear" from nowhere.

Try and hit 88mph and hope I get struck by lightning 🙂

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/bikes-lightning ]http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/bikes-lightning[/url]

Sticking your arse in the air seems like an even stupider idea than relying on a bit of rubber to protect you!

I'd go for the pedal like **** option, everything else seems like variations on sitting still waiting to be hit. Head for a valley/woods (and pick a small tree).

and if anyone doesn't like it and thinks it'll spoil the ride, they can stay behind and think nonconductive thoughts"

😆

Carry on the tyres will provide enough insulation

29" obv better

Black Chilli Rubber Queens are even better in all regards

26ers are a little bit smaller..make sure your mates all have 29ers.

St Elmo’s fire? If that is like a plasma cloud effect I saw it up in the roof space of a factory that I used to work in when it got struck by lightning a few years ago.

There was a hell of a bang and one of the letters fell off the name on the side of the building.

I thought this was St Elmo's Fire?
[img] [/img]
Or is that just my age showing........ (cr*p film by the way)

Isnt the theory that the lightening hits the highest point i.e. your head, so sticking your ass in the air makes the lightening pass from your ass to the ground without frying your brain (making sure you keep your head off the ground... stopping a circuit?) At least i think that's what I read somewhere.

I've surfed during an intense thunderstorm... Was super scary with lightening hitting the water less than1/2 a mile away. But you are safe in a rubber suit right?

tbf some of the people I know, when sticking their arse in the air, are more likely to be hit in the brain!!!

cloudnine - yep, been there! Great evening session at Anglet, only a few people in the water. Starts raining but hey, the surfs good and I'm wet anyway! Out back in the line-up, bobbed-up on a wave as a set started to build and got a good view out to sea just as lightning struck a few hundred metres away. Huge section of ocean changed colour. I paddled like *** for the beach!

Bizarrely, I faced this very dilemma out with a couple of lads about two hours ago. We could see the stormn kicking off way behind us and thought it was going to blow through a neighbouring valley. 20 mins later we were in the thick of it with the thunderclaps worryingly close behind the lightning which looked to be striking 'just over there.'

We ditched the bikes and sat on our haunches in a hollow for ten mins being pelted by hail the size of peas until it passed.

This in June FFS.

This in June FFS.

That's normal isn't it? I'm not a meteorologist (although have a passing interest), but you need warm and cold air to form storms, and this time of year there's plenty of that about with warm air from the south and cold from the north/west, when they meet in the middle, you get storms.

I've been out on a big lake in Switzerland in the mountains in a rowing boat during a sudden storm with big lightning. Obv there were some mountains around to attract the lightning but we were in the middle of the lake with at least 500m to the nearest shore (eg something higher than us) and nothing to protect us other than 8 carbon fibre sticks.. One of the scariest things I've experienced as we did a flat out race to the shore to get off the water while lightning flashed and huge thunderclaps shook us. 😯

I've surfed during an intense thunderstorm... Was super scary with lightening hitting the water less than1/2 a mile away. But you are safe in a rubber suit right?

Mate of mine claims he was surfing hope cove when lightning struck really close. Didn't die but I think it proper rattled him. Couldn't breathe properly for a bit.

Personally I think it's more unlikely that hope cove was surf able...

I ride in chain mail just in case. It's also is a great excuse for why I'm always last up the hill...

@dazh - thunderstorms, yes - I wasn't expecting massive hail though!

I've been out on a big lake in Switzerland in the mountains in a rowing boat during a sudden storm...

often not so much the lightning storm that's the issue, but the squall

seen them come in over Lake Constance - at this time of year it can go from beautiful day to are we going to sink in a frickin' deep lake in minutes. ace on-shore storm warning system though. all the bars and reastaurants can turf everyone off the terrace and inside in 3 minutes, and get all the sun shades down and stowed, *just* before the carnage hits.

just stick "bodensee storm" or "bodensee unwetter" in to youtube to see how bad they can get (and normally it's a nice peaceful lake with lots of boats)

We used to summer in the hills over lake como, amazing storms.

@dazh - thunderstorms, yes - I wasn't expecting massive hail though!

Well I think the size of the hail is simply a function of the strength of the storm. Interestingly there are various bits of research that suggest this is likely to get worse with climate change...

[url= http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2421311/our_future_summers_thunderstorms_and_flash_floods.html ]http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2421311/our_future_summers_thunderstorms_and_flash_floods.html[/url]

explode?

Carry on the tyres will provide enough insulation

It's only travelled a mile through the air, 25mm of rubber ought to be enough to stop it.

[url= http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/07/13/173-sheep-killed-lightning.html ]Just don't stand under a potential conductor[/url]. It's not direct strikes that tend to kill, it's the potential difference across the contact points on the ground. It only takes milliamps to stop the heart.

If it's striking all around you or you can feel or hear the potential strike - buzzing sound from metal objects, hair standing up, get off and away from the bike, kneel down with your arse sticking in the air higher than your head and torso. Provides a direct route for any strike away from your heart and brain.

It's only happened to me once when moutaineering. Terrifying.

Bizarrely, I faced this very dilemma out with a couple of lads about two hours ago.

I did a season in the dolomites and had a few close calls, worst of which was being stuck on a via ferata as a storm came over. Figured we 'd rush to the top and get down asap but the storm centred on the summit right as we topped out. "fortunately" there was a cave on the summit to shelter in... Turns out not so fortunate as lightning struck the summit and it felt like a bomb went off in the cave, one guy knocked to his feet and dazed right next to an opening which dropped sheer 100's of metres down. Never been so scared or felt so lucky to be alive. Or run down off a mountain so quick...

Offer to give Hora a piggy back?

and when they find our bodies burned and fused together they'll say

''ere that fat bloke looked like he was fair old riding that other fat bloke hard when they were caught out in the thunderstorm'....

At the funeral it'll be uncomfortable, an unspoken 'why/what Daddy was doing when he died'

whilst our ghosts are shouting 'no no its was nothing like that it was a piggy back'!

Dickie back, you say? 😉

yeah got caught in a storm last night, got off the hill quick. Dropped though a wood so couldn't see the lightening but the thunder sounded very close. Pretty awesome really.

It was impressive though and very very loud