Rain Travel can be a BLAST on a bike ... as long as you're careful.  My ride down the west side of Crawl this morning was interesting!
A couple tips for the uninitiated (a.k.a. Bike Newbies):

-  Always get behind a 4-Wheeler & stay in line with the wheel in front of you.  Sounds backwards right?  Well, if there is enough water on the road like today, the cager's tires (by design) pump out the water to give better contact with the tarmac.  Even REALLY big puddles get parted like the Red Sea & you can ride right through them!
-  Beware of and ready for Cross-Splash.  Vehicles hitting big enough puddles on the OTHER side of the road will wash over you.  Try not to freak out, like a young girl did this morning in front of me!  Poor little thing almost decked on the spot!

RANTS:
Morning driving is THE most hazardous part of the day.  Why?
4-Wheelers climb into their Death Wagons half-asleep, don't use Indicators, put on makeup, dial the cell phone or text, checking mail on Crackberries, etc.
More than once, I've resisted the temptation to bang on the window while Dawnika is glossing her lips or Deamirko is texting his mate ... just to lend my assistance, of course

And another thing ... Why is it that 4-Wheelers insist on driving in dimished light WITHOUT Lights on?  The standard response I hear is, "Vell, I could see FINE.  I dunt need no bleddy headlights!"
I counted 15 vehicles - cars, vans, HC trucks & BUSES if you can believe it - with only driving lights on.  Morons.

A couple more things:

If you can avoid it, don't be out in the rain during the first 10 minutes or so.  That's when the road is most slippery because the moisture drives all of the oil and crap right up onto the surface, but it hasn't had time to wash off yet.

I hadn't thought about staying in the track of a car in front of you, but that would effective keep you out of the middle of your lane.  Next time your riding and it's just started raining (see point 1) check out how many mini oil-slicks there are... seems like there's one every 10' on middle!

USE BOTH BRAKES!  Maybe it's just my office, maybe it's an expat thing, I don't know... but I can't even begin to tell you the number of  people I know who use the rear brake only.  Why??  The well-intentioned people at Wheels (and maybe elsewhere) tell you to "only use this one" and basically imply that should you even *think* about putting on the front brake you will be immediately thrown off the bike.    Semi-reasonable advice for 20kph newbies, but the problem is that front brake phobia sticks with them for years, and you've got a bunch of people running around using only one brake!   So now the road's wet, you need to stop from 50 in a hurry... could this possibly lead to a lockup?


I think every story I've ever heard from an experienced rider who "came off" starts with:

1) "It had just started raining and I was going around this curve"
2) "It was raining, and ____ happened and I needed to stop and then my back ti(y)re started skidding"
3) "I was on my way home from the bar and I hadn't had *that* much"

I'll get into a nice arm-waving rant about #3 sometime later

Well spotted D.D.  Someone got to slipping on that new bridge the other day in front of me (on the bike) ... very scary indeed.

You would think the Contractors/Designers/Architects would have read up on what would be considered safe materials for the traverse?

"You would think the Contractors/Designers/Architects would have read up on what would be considered safe materials for the traverse?"

I had serious issues with that stuff when they put it down on the corner on harbour road right where the exit from the Dingy Club is....it was like a freaking ice-rink.  Even dry it was horrible when they first put it down.

Apparently after a while it gets better, but I agree with you....who in their right mind authorises the use of a substance that makes the road MORE dangerous then it was previously?

lol

Indeed.

I was at a football game here a while back and it started to rain.  Immediately people began heading for the exits.  One Bermudian guy standing nearby turned to his mate and said "Look at ths crap...people leaving because of a little rain!  They aren't real fans."  His mate shrugged and said "The rain stoppped the riots".

LOL!!!