Lightning Ride

Your place for the latest news in mountain biking is right here. Yes, indeed, you can hear it here first.

The most recent conundrum for the hobbled subset of mountain bikers is the worry over lightning. Their question is if they are straddling what amounts to a lightning rod.

It’s a valid concern when you’re striving for elevation and you do it in all kinds of weather. Also validating for concern is the statistic of an average of 20 people being killed by lightning each year.

Perhaps ironically, the inexpensive, and least in demand, mountain bikes are not conductive: those made of bamboo. Bamboo is the only frame-building material that is shown to be an insulator. Bamboo is a strong material. It really is a great way to build a bike frame, even though the mountain biking community tends to disregard it.

The skateboard community has embraced bamboo more openly. It’s understandable for them though, because their material is usually wood. Usually. A rare board is one made of metal. The parts—trucks and bearings—are metal, but parts aren’t a concern since skateboarders aren’t often worried about lightning anyway. The sport of skateboarding, like baseball, gets canceled when there’s any sign of rain.

Of course, and as you’ve probably already guessed, the parts that go into making a completely functional bike are metallic and very conductive. Chain links and spokes are not likely to be made of anything but metal. So, unfortunately, the bamboo-framed bike isn’t 100% lightning resistant.

There are frame and part materials which are less conductive, some are more. For instance, the resins which are used to form carbon composite frames are not conductive, though the carbon fibers are. So, yes, that doubly expensive MTB frame made of carbons will attract lightning. The anxious biker is not safe sitting on top of it any more than standing at the edge of a lake during a lightning storm.

What else is there?

Titanium? Conductive.

Aluminum? Conductive.

Steel? Wait, steel? Oh it’s your bike-packing bike? Gotcha. That’s super cool, but yep, that one’s conductive for sure.

If you’re one of the stressed-out type of mountain bikers, worried about lightning, even disabled by it, then you should either get a bamboo frame to ease your worry, or watch the weather closely enough to know when it’s time to go up the mountain or when it’s time to stay down.