BMP kit in rain

retgi

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Yesterday while returning from a Publix run about 6 miles from home it started raining pretty darn hard. I have the BMP kit with 1.25 roller and she never skipped a beat, no slipping at all.
 
Yesterday while returning from a Publix run about 6 miles from home it started raining pretty darn hard. I have the BMP kit with 1.25 roller and she never skipped a beat, no slipping at all.

WOW !

Great news,

I like that since I am about to order BMP kit, what kind of tires are you using? What kind of bike and engine?
 
Andy, it's Pete up in Homosassa! Just using an old cruiser w/6-speed I got from a neighbor for $25.00. Painted it up a little, greased bearings, and got new seat and handlebars. Got the Titan and she's sweet with hardly any vibrations compared to the Chinese frame mount I have. The tires are "Bontrager" Cruiser tire 26x 2.125 I bought at a bike shop in Brooksville. They have a nice pattern but not rough and they don't make any noise, at least I can't hear it over the engine. I had some 6 or 7 miles to go in the rain and was expecting it to start slipping from the beginning but after a few minutes I realized these tires with the BMP roller must be a great match.
 
How firmly was your roller against the tyre?

The tire is only rated for max of 50 PSI and I keep it around 45 and just push down on it for maybe 1/4". Nothing scientific here, I just exert a little pressure on it and lock it in place.
 
It's possible to nurse FD along in the wet, particularly on flat ground without grades or hills. More attention to spindle down pressure, easy feathering of the throttle, no sudden accelerations and ease up to speed. It takes a different touch than when the surfaces are dry.
That said, all FDs that utilize a steel spindle will slip on a wet rubber tire for the same reason bikes with steel rims will have poor braking with hand brakes: wet rubber slips on steel.
I've logged about 3000 miles this year on MBs. I have the BMP FD, several actually, as well as a Staton and DE also. All of them with a steel spindle can and will slip in wet weather. Granted, where we live there is a lot more hills than FL but steel spindles will slip even when it's not raining just in wet leaves this time of year. About the only FD I know that won't slip in the wet is the DE with the stone aggregate rollers but they wear tires quickly once the road surfaces dry out. It's just one of the trade-offs with friction drive.
 
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Well, you must be the resident expert for friction drives then. It's true and pretty obvious you would nurse it along when wet but then again I've been motorcycling for forty some years and I guess it's second nature to me whenever riding on two wheels in the rain to not make sudden accelerations (which I can barely do anyway on this motorized bicycle) and definitely no sudden stops. You see, I don't want to bust these old bones. Sure, it's pretty obvious that when wet rubber meets wet steel that slippage usually occurs. Maybe my new tire/tread pattern and new steel roller with all protrusions still pretty sharp. Anyway, I stand by my original comments. In fact there were several slight upward grades and one in in particular was about a quarter mile long and not once did she slip in the rain.
 
Well resident expert are your words but I am someone who has put a few thousand miles on various MBs per year for the past few and comment on that combined experience.
This has been the third wettest summer in about a hundred years here so I've had to adapt. Friction drives have a lot going for them and great for putzing around but I've needed to add a belt drive MB for a dependable, any-day, all-season commuter pretty much regardless of the weather.
 
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Well resident expert are your words but I am someone who has put a few thousand miles on various MBs per year for the past few and comment on that combined experience.
This has been the third wettest summer in about a hundred years here so I've had to adapt. Friction drives have a lot going for them and great for putzing around but I've needed to add a belt drive MB for a dependable, any-day, all-season commuter pretty much regardless of the weather.

When I was 16 and lived in Ohio I road a motorcycle year round.

Winter driving was crazy !

I live in Florida now.

As for driving in the rain, done that !

At stop signs it gets slick like ice when it rains in Florida. The oil dripping from the cars builds up at these places.

I would think that this oil, water mix would also get on a friction drive roller and help cause it to slip during rain.

I would advise against riding any bicycle in the rain. Motorized or not.
 
To be clear, I almost got run off the road yesterday by a big truck and it was clear out.

He was so close. I get passed a lot by people that seem to not be able to see me.

Riding in the rain with cars passing is a bummer.

Sometimes when they pass it makes a big spray and all I can see is white for a few seconds.

Sometimes I get splashed real good.
 
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