Oh Yeah
Last night’s ride home was the first real wet and rainy commute of the season.
It was already coming down steadily—if not that hard—when I left campus and from about Kenmore to around the U-District, the shower was constant, enough that my rain pants got pretty saturated and eventually, a fairly constant stream ran from my cuffs into any openings in my shoe covers, drenching my ankles and making for a somewhat unpleasant squishiness in my shoes.
The new Showers Pass jacket performed pretty well, though; I stayed dry from the outside, but even with the pit zips opened all the way, I got pretty wet from the sweat inside, especially coming up the last few hills from Montlake to home.
Nevertheless, I was reminded that even in a steady downpour, it’s not so bad to be on a bike, as long as you’ve got gear that works well enough. In fact, I’d rather, in some ways, find myself coming home in weather like yesterday, that allowed me to keep pedaling and not have to change clothes every few miles, than the kind of on-again/off-again showers that bedeviled me over the weekend.
On the other hand, the prospect of eight more months of rides like yesterday’s is not all that enticing. While I often say to folks who remark at my willingness to ride in the rain, “Well, if you don’t ride your bike in the rain in Seattle, you’re not going to ride your bike in Seattle very much,” it’s not as if I prefer the sodden commute to one where I can saddle up in shirtsleeves and still make it home comfortably.
But what can you do? (Aside from complain to people, both in person and virtually, like this. And sadly, no amount of pissing and moaning is going to make any difference to the weather.)
My strategy will be to look on the bright side: I got no flats and arrived home before dark.
It was already coming down steadily—if not that hard—when I left campus and from about Kenmore to around the U-District, the shower was constant, enough that my rain pants got pretty saturated and eventually, a fairly constant stream ran from my cuffs into any openings in my shoe covers, drenching my ankles and making for a somewhat unpleasant squishiness in my shoes.
The new Showers Pass jacket performed pretty well, though; I stayed dry from the outside, but even with the pit zips opened all the way, I got pretty wet from the sweat inside, especially coming up the last few hills from Montlake to home.
Nevertheless, I was reminded that even in a steady downpour, it’s not so bad to be on a bike, as long as you’ve got gear that works well enough. In fact, I’d rather, in some ways, find myself coming home in weather like yesterday, that allowed me to keep pedaling and not have to change clothes every few miles, than the kind of on-again/off-again showers that bedeviled me over the weekend.
On the other hand, the prospect of eight more months of rides like yesterday’s is not all that enticing. While I often say to folks who remark at my willingness to ride in the rain, “Well, if you don’t ride your bike in the rain in Seattle, you’re not going to ride your bike in Seattle very much,” it’s not as if I prefer the sodden commute to one where I can saddle up in shirtsleeves and still make it home comfortably.
But what can you do? (Aside from complain to people, both in person and virtually, like this. And sadly, no amount of pissing and moaning is going to make any difference to the weather.)
My strategy will be to look on the bright side: I got no flats and arrived home before dark.
posted by Professor Dave at 2:48 PM
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