Rain test - check!

[flar]

After spending an evening going over all the materials I decided to find an excuse to ride it a little more before I put it to bed (i.e. charging) til morning so I went out for a late night snack.  Due to our quirky valley weather patterns I got a surprise on the way home with a sudden rain shower.

Oh fun!  Out in the middle of the night with tires that barely have 50 miles on them and fresh rain on the ground.  Well, nothing to report except that I wasn't electrocuted and even with shiny new tires it held nicely on a variety of wet pavements (not that I was dragging my knee or anything).

And, it doesn't melt!

[protomech]

I'm not sure why it surprises people - it's not like a conventional gas bike doesn't have a low voltage electrical system. Waterproofing the bikes is not entirely trivial, but it's not that hard..

My GS500 sputtered a little in really heavy downpours. The Zero handles those a little more nicely. Since on the Zero bikes the bottom-mounted charger is only rated for heavy splash protection and not immersion, I wouldn't want to ride it through more than about 6 inches of water..

[flar]

Well, on that note, I didn't get around to any "6 inches of water" testing on that ride, so we still have some more test results to report in the future.

Oh, and it was more the "not melting" that surprised me.  I was literally shaking thinking "I hope it's not *really* made of cheese!  I hope it's not *really* made of cheese!"  (I need to stop letting those voices in my head fill me with those kinds of scary thoughts...)