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Today was my first longish ride in the rain. Maybe 40 or 50 miles of very light rain out of 130 miles.

I rode mostly in one of the dry tire tracks left by cars ahead. This worked great on the straights. I didn't always know the best track through curves.

On a curve, cars drift out of the lane. The tire track from the outside tire would be at the center of the lane and the inside tire track would be on the shoulder (right curve) or on the wrong side of the yellow (left curve).

Sometimes I stuck to my lane position and ignored where the dry stripe went. Sometimes I choose the dry stripe in the center of the lane figuring that most cars drifted there and the most oil would be centered between the dry stripes. Make sense? Can you point out a problem I'm overlooking? I DIDN'T go left-of-center.

Thanks.

There is no dry strip on the road when it is rainning. It can all be very dangerous, especially the puddles that form in some of the ruts. I am not trying to scare you, just be careful.

the dry strip is just where the car infronts tyre has pushed water aside....
with the round cross-section on a bikes tyre, your tyres should have no problem doing the same, so following other's tracks (to maintain grip) is only an illusion of safety.

However you are right about there being less oil there. In general I choice to ride as if the oil is all over the road anyways. Rain will not only lift it out the cracks, but will also distribute the oil everywhere.

I guess what I'm trying to say is assume everywhere is as bad as it can possibly be, and concentrate most on spotting obsticles and reading traffic movements, rather than following a line someones tire makes. And also it goes without saying - increase your braking distance as much as possible.

Oil can usually be seen if you're looking far enough ahead that the light gets reflected off it