I hope no one really thinks lightning is capable of jumping miles and miles of open air, yet it can't jump 3 inches from rim to ground....
My late grandmother used to always tell everyone to make sure that you're wearing rubber sole sneakers in a thunderstorm. Probably not useful for a direct strike for the reason above, but I guess it could prevent injury from secondary charges traveling through the ground from a nearby strike.
Last month, I went insane and bought a carbon fiber chassis car. The first thought was that it can't rust. My second thought was that I can't get an antenna ground plane on the roof for a radio transceiver. My third thought was that I will be a goner if it gets struck by lightning, since there's no inherent metal Faraday cage around the cabin.
Yes, there are carbon fiber components that can conduct electricity to an extent. Given that the fiberglass DOT helmet above probably uses the same fiber resins that is used in carbon fiber components, I'm afraid that the helmet picture above will be a preview of my car's roof some day.....