Lightning

SouthernDave

IS riding through a storm, in particualr one with lightning, dangerous? IN a car you are electrically insulated, but is it true for a cycle? Are carbon bikes worse than steel in this respect?

I ask because I had an interesting commute home today with lightning, gale force winds, freezing rain and hail...... :shock:

cooldad

Rubber tyres = insulated.

MaxwellBygraves

I've meant to ask this before - had one particularly hairy commute in summer where I got caught out in a big thunderstorm directly overhead in quite an open and exposed area. Very scary.

Kieran_Burns

cooldad wrote:

Rubber tyres = insulated.

Riiiiight.....

The several million volts of arcing plasma have just crossed several hundred (if not thousand) feet of air and are going to be stopped by 25 mm of rubber.....

Good luck with that one.

UndercoverElephant

I got struck by lightening on a commute a couple of years back. It turned me into a super-human commuter racer, the likes the world has never seen.

SimonAH

The reason you are OK in a car is that you are.inside a conductive box

On a bike you are not.

What you need is a wet copper skinsuit.

big_p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

cooldad

Kieran_Burns wrote:

cooldad wrote:

Rubber tyres = insulated.

Riiiiight.....

The several million volts of arcing plasma have just crossed several hundred (if not thousand) feet of air and are going to be stopped by 25 mm of rubber.....

Good luck with that one.

Good point. You might want to avoid a helmet like this as well.

meanredspider

Yup - ideally I think you want to avoid riding in a thunderstorm. I don't think the frame material will make any difference though I don't think carbon fibre is a particularly good conductor but, as to the point above, the voltages involved are massive besides which everything is likely to be wet. Trees, after all, get struck and wood is a good insulator. If you're the best target in the path of the lightning, you're toast.

prj45

Get off bike, put it on the ground, move away from it and crouch down on thee balls of your feet with feet close together. That last bit doesn't help but it does make it easier to kiss your arse goodbye if your hair stands on end.

Kieran_Burns

I've been caught in a couple of thunderstorms in the past - one was terrifying / exciting and the other was.... Hmmm... exactly the same.

I was cycling over the top of Cannock Chase when we (my mate and I) heard deep rumblings, he said it was lorries. I called him an idiot. We got off the top of the Chase and hid at the bottom of a hill - we watched the roof of a barn get blown off by a bolt and a tree at the top of the hill we were hiding by got hit and THAT was enough to send us scurrying for cover in a shop a 1/2 mile down the road.

The other time was on the last stretch to home commuting back from Derby - I could see the storm coming my way and was giving it my all to get home in time. I didn't quite make it and had the amazing 'good' fortune to see bolts hitting the fields alongside of the road I was careering down. That was exciting.

rick_chasey

Chances of being struck by lighting? Google says 587,000 to 1.

I'll take a punt and say you'll be ok.

daviesee

Odds. Hmmm.

How many people assume that they won't get hit by lightening at those odds yet will still buy a lottery ticket at much longer odds?
I assume that neither is going to happen but others...........

Kieran_Burns

daviesee wrote:

Odds. Hmmm.

How many people assume that they won't get hit by lightening at those odds yet will still buy a lottery ticket at much longer odds?
I assume that neither is going to happen but others...........

For exactly the same reason why the Monty Hall paradox works...

bompington

Nothing to do with Monty Hall, but everything to do with the fact that most people are not outside in the open in a thunderstorm, so the probability of getting hit by lightning for the population in general is a lot less than the probability for someone who is underneath a thundercloud.

Kieran_Burns

bompington wrote:

Nothing to do with Monty Hall, but everything to do with the fact that most people are not outside in the open in a thunderstorm, so the probability of getting hit by lightning for the population in general is a lot less than the probability for someone who is underneath a thundercloud.

I was referring to people not using probabilities when making a decision but 'gut feelings'

(as in why people spend money buying a Lottery ticket but won't go outside in a thunderstorm)

rick_chasey

Or get scared on a rollercoaster, but not on the drive to the park...

bompington

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I was referring to people not using probabilities when making a decision but 'gut feelings'

You're probably right