Cycling through floods

[HJ]

The overshoes worked well! What experience do others have of riding through floods?

What overshoes do you use??

 

[levad]

I have no idea! A chap at work gave them to me, they are neoprene (sp?). When I say they worked well, what I mean is that my feet were only damp, not completely soaked and they stayed warm and comfortable for the rest of the journey. The floods were not so deep that my feet were submerged but the wake from the front wheel did come over the top of my feet.

 

[fossyant]

No overshoes are that good - I do neoprene and a plastic bag corner underneath, and it keeps my feet dry, but not if under more than a few inches of water...

Watch it if you have a "soft roader" or a diesel - low air intakes suck up the water and kill the engine..new one needed and many pounds.... I don't see the need for soft roaders at all - crap off road, crap on road...just big....

Pompey...watch it it will cost you if you knacker your BB or hubs- not cheap !! even at cheap prices !!! Get wet and dance through it with the bike on shoulders, then pedal off !

 

[ccj]

What experience do others have of riding through floods?

It wasn't until I'd ridden quite a way down this road, that I saw the water. It didn't look too bad, although I couldn't see around the bend, so I kept pedalling, but of course it became deeper. About midway I couldn't see my wheels & thought I might need to swim, but I got through to the bridge ok, & then saw the next dip. Fortunately that was only for a short distance. Several cars came towards me, but declined to drive through either stretch.

My bike looked very clean after that ;-)

I had about 12 miles to go, so you can perhaps imagine I was glad to get in a hot bath when I reached home!

It hadn't occurred to me that manhole covers may have become dislodged, & with my small wheels that could have been scary, so having just read Arch's post, maybe next time I'll take the long diversion (I'd never ridden this route before).

 

[longers]

Between Christmas and New Year I was riding along the A6 North Lancs with plenty of floods right across the road. If no traffic I would scoot out to the middle of the road where it was theoretically shallower. On one stretch I could hear a car approaching from behind and see a line of traffic approaching so I stayed to the left thinking the car from the rear would slow down.

Not so.

I first heard the "WHOOSH" and the next thing I knew the wave of water crashed down from head height. Funny.

 

[LLB]

No overshoes are that good - I do neoprene and a plastic bag corner underneath, and it keeps my feet dry, but not if under more than a few inches of water...

Watch it if you have a "soft roader" or a diesel - low air intakes suck up the water and kill the engine..new one needed and many pounds.... I don't see the need for soft roaders at all - crap off road, crap on road...just big....

Pompey...watch it it will cost you if you knacker your BB or hubs- not cheap !! even at cheap prices !!! Get wet and dance through it with the bike on shoulders, then pedal off !

I live in Cheltenham. A lot of people I work with lost cars in the floods in the summer. On all my cars, I check to see where the intake is on them and now again the roads around Gloucester are flooded with 100mm forecast over the weekend in Wales which will make it all a lot worse. The intake vent on mine is just above the offside wheelarch and the tyres are 31' 1/2" inches in diameter as a guide

This pic was taken a few years ago at a charity offroading day just after I got it. It took 2 hours to clean the engine bay alone and its still not 100% clean in there now. I try to avoid this activity now as it always results in damage.
A soft roader was never an option for my primary purpose (towing 2 tonne trailers across muddy fields). They just aren't heavy enough to be legal or safe with this load, and are rubbish when you do need the real offroading capability.

 

[Arch]

You could call it ironic that the more severe the weather, the more justification there is for the regular drivers to own one.

I've done a fair bit of fording in mine, and I anything more than a foot of fast flowing water and you are asking for real trouble as it can wash you sideways even though mine can ford 2 1/2 foot of standing water

Not sure I'd call it a justification in this case. He could just as well have driven round the flooded part as a matter of fact, with a small detour. And I think a normal car, driven with care, would have got through anyway....

 

[wafflycat]

Do all be careful. Drain covers and manhole covers can be forced up by water backing up, and if the water is silty and you can't see, you might end up with a wheel going down a nasty hole. Not to mention slippery silt accumulating.

That's one of the more common ways for folks to die in floods. Flooded area, not too deep (so they think), have a splash about for fun and hey, presto, slip down a drain where the manhole has come off. It's why when I see footage of kids playing in floodwater, I have a little shiver go down the back of my spine.

 

[LLB]

Having rescued the possessions from the flooded house of my inlaws in last years floods (my car was the only one with enough clearance to get in there), I know what it is like to wade around in that soup. It was vile

 

[gambatte]

I was down near JEJames in Rotherham last year. Roads were flooded. As I drove over a manhole, the cover blew off. Don't know how it didn't make a mess of the car.

Drove back later. You could see the cover, elevated about 10" off the road by the volume of water shooting out from underneath