Friday 28 May 2010

Dressing for a Downpour

It rained last night and started raining again this morning. The streets were wet and there were many puddles.

Normally if we are having a rain shower, I may put on a jacket, but basically it is business-as-usual.

This morning, because I knew the roads were already soggy, I dressed a little differently. A waterproof jacket, quick drying trousers and rubber boots. I packed my stuff in my backpack because it has a raincover and my panniers do not. The panniers don't even pretend to be remotely water repellent, as I found out in a heavy rain last year.

The boots were fine for the smaller puddles, but I did ride through some very deep lakes and the wake from the front wheel washed over the boot tops; soggy socks. Oh well.
I could have driven (and I am already starting to question my decision in the picture). My truck was at the garage having the battery replaced, and I could have taken the Geek's car, but it seemed too much hassle to try to get two cars home again. Putting Eselin in the back of the truck for the trip home just made sense.
The only really bad part: the front of my jacket drained water onto the nose of my saddle, which then ran across the top of the seat. The one part of me I thought would be dry for sure, was not.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That rain was nuts - and there was a heck of a lot of thunder, too... I'm glad to hear you didn't get washed away in the storm!

I think I've said it before, but I like the lines of that bike - it's very classy. Have you ever been on gravel with it?

Sox said...

The back lane is gravel (well, dirt actually) but it is quite gravel-like when the grader comes by. It handles it quite well. Of course, I am not going 50km/hr.

Velouria said...

This might sound crazy, but I seem to get soaked to different degrees on different bikes (the amount of rain held constant). On my Pashley I stay drier than on other bikes; could be that the geometry places me so that the least surface area is exposed to rain? Oh well, it is probably in my head!

noricum said...

Great boots! Too bad they didn't keep your socks dry. :(