Thoughts about Sandy and riding in the rain

Today, it is a 5°C day with light rain going on the whole time. Yet, during my one hour drive in the city, I saw two motorcyclists. I do not feel confident enough on the ninja 250's tyres to go out in such cold and wet day, so these two people first amazed me and then reminded me of last Tuesday, the day Sandy was supposed to hit here.

The storm was obviously a nightmare to people in north-eastern USA. I sincerely hope they recover well. We were expecting some major winds and rain here as well on the morning after Sandy landed on the eastern coast. We were lucky to be spared though, as the storm did not curve north, but continued straight inland. What we had was warm weather with some showers instead.

That day, I decided to go to the cinema. Since I hate public transport and do not own a car, I decided to go by motorcycle at a time when nobody was actually sure whether the storm would decide to turn this way. The day seemed fine to me though. Cloudy with a little rain and 19°C warm. Going out of the cinema I realised it had rained, but that did not worry me much, as there was at least no wind. Riding a wet ninja is always amusing. The only part that gets wet is the knee area of my jeans. Is it due to aerodynamics or something else, I have no idea. In any case, I thought it was somewhat cool to ride a motorcycle in a time when a storm could be approaching. It gives a sense of extreme.

However, another thing that I remember from that day is the uneasy feeling of my rear tyre being unstable and slipping a little. It might have been my imagination, over worrying for riding with cold tyres on soaking wet streets, or it might have been a real slippage indeed. Fact is though, today, I saw two guys riding in much colder weather, when it has not stopped raining the whole time. And although there is no tropical storm imminent, these guys beat me on the extreme riding factor scale by a mile; amazing. But, I suppose we have no other choice here in Canada, but to ride in such weather. Otherwise, there would be only a few months worthy of riding.

How do you feel about riding in cold and rainy weather? Does it matter to you what motorcycle and what tyres you would be using in such situation?