Utility Cycling - Parking in the Rain

When you go to the store and there is no covered parking, do you just put a plastic bag over the seat or do you have a more elaborate system? How about you Xtra folks, those bags have a small river running through them during a rain.

I typically bring my bike inside wherever I go unless told otherwise by store employees/owners.

A small cheap grill cover (made for round/square charcoal grills) may work for larger areas (covering seat & xtracycle).

I have become a conesseur of plastic bags to protect my Brooks - my favorites are the heavy duty ones that phone books are delivered in (recycle the book, save the bag). On the back of my Xtracycle, I use Oyster Buckets ( http://www.cobbworks.com/ ), so there's no problem there. On the front, I have the largest Wald basket mounted to the frame, with a cover. I made the cover as rain protection, which it does beautifully, but I find that it also contributes to security - if passers by can't see what's in the basket, they won't remove the cover to find out; never so far, anyway.

I use a plastic grocery bag on my seat. They compress to a really small size when not needed. Aside from removing my computer/speedometer (which I place in my pocket), that's about all I do.

My solution was to get rid of the Brooks saddle. It was uncomfortable for me any way. I don't cover my plastic seat but use rain paints. The xtracyle deck is already covered with closed-cell foam for the kids, so nothing done there. The side bags are also pretty porous so rain just goes through it and later dries quickly.

i've done a lot of rain stuff.
i dont own a car
my bike(s) have to be able to handle water.

on the road (touring), and if it raining a ton, the bike is outside 24/7, i like these "draw string tarps (http://www.hardwareandtools.com/invt/u797904)"

at home, or other places that i park the bike on a regular basis, i like to use a heavy oiled canvas tarp (http://tarps.com/canvas.htm)

Most of my bikes have leather saddles. They get covered with a cheap (free from the motels I stay at ;)) shower cap. Bags are usually waterproof (relatively speaking). About the only time I have to park in the rain is on tour or during the summer months when I get caught in a shower. I do have a lightweight nylon tarp I use when touring to cover the bike at night.

Shopping, I can usually park my bike under the overhang at the grocery store.

Aaron:)

Our food coop has made some covered parking for bikes but there are more and more bikes (thank goodness) and I am trying to come up with something that doesn't have to be built. I quite often have construction stuff on my Xtra and have it covered but the food coop has had requests for more covered parking.

before i bought a second bike to use as a weather beater/tourer i cut two large trash bags open and duct taped them together to form one big cover that slid over my entire bike. This was very effective at keeping my bike dry while parked outside the office, but I soon realized there was really no point to do this if i was riding back in the rain (bike is going to get wet anyway), hence the 2nd bike I use for weather.

If I only had one bike, or if I had to park outside for extended periods of time (days at a time), especially if it's cold and rain is expected to freeze, I'd go back to my garbage bag method. Nobody wants to steal garbage bags.