My one experience with silks in heavy rain contradicts John Pergolizzi. On RAAM 19874 (with fully on-topic equipment), Elaine Mariolle was riding a pair of well aged Criterium Seta Extra's. In Las Vegas, of all places, we hit rain that was rim-deep all across the road. I had been sleeping when we hit the rain, and she had been riding for an hour or more with the tubulars soaked. When I checked them, they had stretched to the size of del Mondos! That had confirmed the conventional knowledge of the time: Don't ride silks in the rain. And then there are the early nylon tires. Even a sprinkle was enough to make the 230 gram Raleigh/Panasonic nylon tires of the late '70s and early 80's treacherously slippery.
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