Monsoons create opportunities for some of the most beautiful road trips, but they can also damage your bike if not taken care of properly.
Travelling on your motorcycle during monsoons is not a pleasant experience, especially if you live in cities where it rains frequently. Wet seats and handles can make for an unpleasant riding experience. Not just this, your bike also risks rusting or engine failure if not protected during the rains.
Simple Ways to Protect Your Bike in the Rain
1. Add a Teflon or Ceramic Coating
Teflon coating aims to ensure that your bike's paint remains intact for a long time. The procedure involves adding a layer on top of your bike’s paint, which gives it additional protection. Not just that, it also makes your bike look glossy. During monsoons, your bike risks getting corroded, and Teflon helps prevent corrosion.
Getting your bike Teflon-coated is simple and quick (should take a total of about 1 hour) and can help your motorcycle maintain its flair for a long time. Hence, it’s a worthwhile investment to make.
Ceramic coating is a more advanced way of protecting your bike. This also adds a layer over your bike’s paint but is stronger than Teflon because it connects with the vehicle’s paint at a molecular level. The problem, however, is that this coating requires 2-3 days to complete and is not as cheap as Teflon.
Depending on your bike usage and your budget, you should get your two-wheeler coated with one of these to prevent the paint from getting damaged during the rain.
2. Get Your Bike Serviced
Regular bike serving is also important in normal conditions, but during the rain, your bike runs a higher risk of slipping or getting damaged if not checked frequently. Here are a few things that you should pay special attention to:
3. Bike Tyres
Worn-out tyres are a major safety hazard. When wet, roads provide much less friction to the bike, and as a result, the chances of slipping increase. Your bike’s tyres carry the entire weight of the vehicle and the rider, and if they slip or skid, you will likely get into an accident.
Hence, you should check your tyres to see if the treading is fine to ride in monsoons or if you need to replace the same.
Also, the tyre pressure settings for the rain are different than in summers or winters. During the monsoon season, the tyres are riding on cooler roads, so the pressure to be maintained is slightly lower than the ideal limit to ensure better treading. Your attention is to be focused on not just keeping the tyres in a good working condition but also getting a tyre protection cover for your bike to help you deal with such situations better. .
4. Brakes
After tyres, your brakes are the most important thing to pay attention to. When riding on wet roads, braking could lead to the bike skidding or slipping. If the brakes are not working well, they might not apply in time, and as a result, you may meet with an accident. If you brake too hard, you might lock your tires and slip on the road.
5. Lubrication
During monsoons, water and dirt spray across your bike. Many dust particles stick to your bike and could go on to clog its chains, thus making it hard to ride the motorcycle again.
Hence, it’s important to keep your bike lubricated. Lubricants ensure that the chain continues to move smoothly and help prevent dirt particles from getting stuck between the gaps of the chain. Since lubricants are oils, they also repel water and prevent it from rusting.
6. Get a Comprehensive Bike Insurance Policy
Because of the above factors, the risk of an unforeseen event is higher during rains. Hence, you must get a comprehensive insurance policy for your bike. This would protect it against an unforeseen accident and give you the mental peace and confidence required to ride the bike in the rain.
A comprehensive bike insurance policy covers damages caused by man-made disasters or natural disasters like floods. With the weather becoming increasingly unpredictable, it is common to see several Indian cities flooding. When your bike is caught in a flood, water could enter the engines and harm them.
With the unpredictable nature of all of these, a comprehensive insurance policy is an obvious upgrade to let you be stress-free. You can get bike insurance online after comparing several plans.
Add Some Upgrades to Your Bike
Nowadays, you can buy some things that make your bike-riding experience much easier in the rain. Let’s take a look at a few:
1. Bike Lights
During the rain, your visibility reduces dramatically. If you wear a helmet, you will see droplets and haze covering your visor. At the same time, our typical lights aren’t powerful enough to show a good picture of the road ahead during rains. Hence, getting good lights that can work with the rain will help you ride safely. Lights are important not just for you but also for others who are following you.
To add to your bike lights, you can wear bright illuminating clothes as you ride to let other riders know of your presence.
2. Seat Covers
In the rain, bike seat covers can become mushy if we leave our bikes outside for too long. This can cause issues when riding, as the seat will always be wet. As soon as you sit on this seat, you will get wet.
And because monsoons are long, the seats won’t dry up for a considerable time, raising hygiene concerns. Hence, it is better to use seat covers that repel water and make sure that they enclose the entire seat tightly to prevent any water from slipping into the seat.
3. Park Your Bike in a Covered Area
Last but one of the most important tips. Keeping your bike in a covered area or adding a water-repellant cover to your bike will help keep it dry, thus avoiding the problems around rusting and wear-and-tear.
Conclusion
Riding your bike in the rain can be tricky. It’s best if we get our bikes checked regularly to ensure everything is working smoothly and, if not, resolve the issues before facing challenges on the road. Let’s ensure our bikes don’t have to go through a lot during the rains.
Also read -
