Cycling through flood water.

[GuyBoden]

I was impressed, but I was waiting for him to fall off........

I once was forced into flood water on one side of the road by an inconsiderate car driver, hit a pot hole and fell off. The car driver laughed.

 

[Gravity Aided]

If I don't know how deep it is , I don't go through it. Because there could be an abrupt dip in the road covered by water, or a sinkhole, caused by the flooding, or the cause of the flooding.

 

[Johnno260]

I wouldn't risk it, but each to their own.

 

[ChrisEyles]

I've been over BB height once before cycling through a flood. No problems cycling through it other than wet feet, but it was a PITA re-greasing the BB and wheel hubs afterwards!

 

[HLaB]

Think if that was one of my “good” bikes, I would have walked and carried it!

Or he could have just crossed the dual carriageway at its crossing points and stayed dry

 

[Globalti]

It's a silly thing to do to a bike because once water gets inside the frame it won't dry out but will just create a moist atmosphere, which will rust the BB and anything else inside the frame, no matter how well you think you've dried it out.

It's the reason why my best bike doesn't get ridden in the wet or washed down, I just wipe it over with a damp cloth after a ride.

 

[MrBeanz]

I saw a dude riding thru a puddle about 10 yards long, 10 inches deep take a bad tumble. Thought he would roll right through but there was sand at the bottom that had drifted down from the shoulder. He hit hard. Then I realized riding through any bit of water can be disastrous!

 

[ChrisPAmbulance]

I have done this. It was a very short bit of bridge over which I had cycled many times before and didn't expect any problems.

What I didn't appreciate was that once the water level rises noticeably above the BB, pedaling becomes significantly harder against the inertia of the water. I slowly and surely ground to a halt and just like something out of Monty Python toppled over sideways.

At the top of the road was a church with a sign outside that said - Bring us your problems and we will pray for them. I found someone inside and asked if they could pray for my socks. They were very kind and let me and the bike dry off on their old cast iron radiators before I headed home to strip the bike down.

FOOL!

 

[nickyboy]

It's a silly thing to do to a bike because once water gets inside the frame it won't dry out but will just create a moist atmosphere, which will rust the BB and anything else inside the frame, no matter how well you think you've dried it out.

It's the reason why my best bike doesn't get ridden in the wet or washed down, I just wipe it over with a damp cloth after a ride.

Don't understand this. If there is a way for water to get in surely there is a way for water vapour to get out? Vapour will get out easier than water will get in

 

[Globalti]

No. A damp atmosphere can never escape from an enclosed space because inevitably some of the moisture condenses on the cooler walls then re-evaporates in a constant cycle inside the container. It's the reason why double glazing eventually "fails". It doesn't fail but it's made with tiny breather holes in the separator bar so as to allow atmospheric pressure to equalise inside, otherwise cyclonic or anticyclonic weather would stress the two panes. Each time atmospheric pressure increases, air enters the gap carrying a tiny amount of moisture. After 20 years or so the water-absorbing granules become saturated and the atmosphere in the gap becomes moist enough that condensation begins to happen inside the outer pane, which is when the unit is said to have failed. Water can easily penetrate a bike frame but the only way to dry the tubes out thoroughly would be to pass a stream of warmed air through them.

 

[Goldy]

Even ruts on farm tracks can be an issue when it's dry everywhere else

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

He's an idiot. The floodwater can rise quick enough to blow off manhole covers, and then the force of the water draining can suck a human in and easily fold them in half to fit the normal the pipe. It's not nice.

So true


This idiot took the biscuit for me
June 2007 (so the file states)

Barnsdale Road/A656
Out of Castleford, to (quite ironically) Allerton Bywater (or, Inwater, as it was that week), towards Aberford
If any locals know the road, & the River Aires nature, you'll know that it's essentially a floodplain

I took this, then movement in the distance took my attention
I had one of my decent cameras with me, as I was in the Landie that day

At first I thought it was maybe a branch floating, but a zoom in revealed...………………….

That guy will have been wading through floodwater that deep, for almost 1/2mile

As @Drago states, the pressure will have lifted manhole covers, before the floodwater rose to cover the road
He was damned lucky
I did watch the local news, & keep a close eye in my 'Yorkshire Post' partially expecting to read a missing person report

 

[tyred]

No mudguards He'll get his feet wet

 

[tyred]

When I was younger and stupid(er) I drove a MKI Golf through a piece of flooded road at a bridge near my parent's house. I knew the road well, it regularly flooded there, I knew to look at the hedge that it wasn't stupidly deep, perhaps about 6 inches at most, it looked calm on the top and I thought it wouldn't be a problem but there was clearly some sort of undercurrent and I knew that as soon as I entered the water as I felt the pull on the steering wheel and it almost tool the back end around with it. I accelerated and hoped for the best. Perhaps I should have driven into it faster with more confidence but even so, I learned the lesson to respect floods and treat with extreme caution and avoid if at all possible as if it could almost wash away a 900KG car, what would it have done to a cyclist? You do not know what is going on beneath the calm surface.

 

[nickyboy]

No. A damp atmosphere can never escape from an enclosed space because inevitably some of the moisture condenses on the cooler walls then re-evaporates in a constant cycle inside the container. It's the reason why double glazing eventually "fails". It doesn't fail but it's made with tiny breather holes in the separator bar so as to allow atmospheric pressure to equalise inside, otherwise cyclonic or anticyclonic weather would stress the two panes. Each time atmospheric pressure increases, air enters the gap carrying a tiny amount of moisture. After 20 years or so the water-absorbing granules become saturated and the atmosphere in the gap becomes moist enough that condensation begins to happen inside the outer pane, which is when the unit is said to have failed. Water can easily penetrate a bike frame but the only way to dry the tubes out thoroughly would be to pass a stream of warmed air through them.

You warm up the whole frame by popping it in the sun. Water evaporates and escapes the frame. It doesn't condense as the frame is the same temperature as the water in it (it must be as the water can only get warm via conduction from the frame) Problem solved