rdtompki

Looks like at least a week of nasty weather. Horses, bicycles, women and children will be kept inside. Cyclists frustration levels will increase exponentially as the days go by. We can only hope for better days ahead.

JoelS

Thankfully, my legs are blasted and I'm going to rest this weekend. Other than that, ride in the rain! It can be a ton of fun if your attitude is in the right place.

caloso

I don't mind rain. And I don't mind wind. But when it's forecast for dumping rain and 30mph winds, I think I'll be riding the trainer in my garage.

cccorlew

I bike commute every day, so I get something in no matter how much rain there is.
Fenders and lights are my friends. I fear no California Bay Area rain.

JoelS

Where's the "like" button?

rdtompki

No HTFU for me. I do need an SS which is more basic and easier to clean. Day after I retire I'm building/buying a mountain bike and SS and ?. The silver lining of this winter is the long term forecast is for drier than usual. We want a decent snowpack + water and no rain in the South Bay.

gpelpel

I admire your resilience. Your post put a smile on my face until I watched the video below. Sounds like the coming storm(s) won't be fun riding into. Be careful out there!

https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/west-coast-braces-incoming-storm-systems-17833051

bjorke

Wha???

The worse the weather, the more I enjoy riding in it. Seriously.

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!
Crack nature’s moulds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!
Showers Pass!

Red Rider

I'm with you.

Our LBS has a group spinning class, aka bikes on trainers, every Thursday from tomorrow until mid-March. And other days I'll hit the gym to cross-train, or, if I can't make a spinning or TRX class, I'll set the bike up on the trainer in the kitchen and do push-ups and crunches after.

When I roll the dice and ride my bike outside and get caught in the rain, fine. I'll deal with it.

To leave the dry, warm comfort of my house to ride out into pouring rain, no matter how prepared, just seems foolish. I'm not commuting. The ride is for fun. And fun for me doesn't include being wet, cold, dirty, and having a dirty bike.

And that's my full disclosure.

cccorlew

I guess it could be bad, but the fact is, where I live in East Contra Costa I've only had to ride in big wind with major hard rain two or three times in all the years I've been commuting. Those newscasters are talking about mountain passes, and the worst places.

Even on days it rains hard here, if you notice it usually doesn't rain hard all day long. So the odds against being really drenched are actually pretty good.

Plus, I have rain pants (which I almost never need) and a nice rain jacket. I'm only out for 40 minutes each way, so I really never get totally soaked to the bone.

The only time it was really awful was a night when, instead of my usual tail wind home I had a brutal headwind and it poured. Even then I lived, though it took an extra 15 minutes to get home.

Of couse, now that I have taunted the weather gods there's no telling what they'll throw at me.....

And just because I like posting photos, here's my commuter bike:


Motobecane Phantom Outlaw commuter bike by ccorlew, on Flickr

anotherbrian

From last Thanksgiving until spring, I rode 2x the miles on the trainer than I ended up riding outdoors from the spring to this fall. I dunno if it is sad or not, but I expect to do the same this winter ... I'm headed down to do 1hr on the trainer now.

hamster

In the mean time, it looks like I need to turn on my sprinkler system again, because, here in Escondido, weather forecast calls for a total of 0.12 inches of precipitation between now and Saturday evening.

MetinUz

I am with Curtis. I commute by bike just about every day, regardless of the weather. I have been caught in heavy rain or wind just a handful of times, I can usually time things to avoid the worst of it. I don't like rain, headwind and darkness all at the same time, but take away one and I can deal with it.

UmneyDurak

Oh thank God! Maybe less people randomly jumping on my wheel and creeping the **** out of me as they follow me for miles without saying a word. It's creepy people!

bigbenaugust 

I rode today. Suck it up.

(my commuter looks something like cccorlew's, but is all-metal, has cantis, and is generally way more ghetto)

3alarmer 

I, too, rode this afternoon after the worst had passed.

Buncha girly men...........

Wait, strike that.........................looks like only the OP is a girly man.

UmneyDurak

3alarmer 

OK, maybe two girly men.................still, hopeful for the future of humanity.

hamster

Girly man!

blt

I'll take a few nasty days of rain in the winter over a drought any time, even if it takes away time on the bike. I sure like rides on beautiful sunny winter and spring days a lot better when the hills are a lovely green. I'm depressed when we get those years the hills never turn fully green, or they get fully green and it lasts about a week. Give me some rain.

For the most part, if it is raining at a time when I plan to be on the bike, I'll go for a hike instead. I need to get my hiking quota anyway. Too often I bike in lieu of a hike, rain offers me a good excuse to get in a hike. Hiking in the rain is easier, safer, and less annoying than cycling in the rain. If it is raining TOO hard, I might go to a park with a paved trail, and will definitely avoid steep hills or trails that get too flooded or muddy, but with raingear, I can always stay pretty dry on the inside.

In any event, it is the blessing of NorCal winter blessing about to strike, not the curse.

3alarmer 

That is the most hilariously disturbed video I've seen in some time.......thank you. Tollywood

treadtread

I couldn't watch it more than 20 seconds or so - but I really suspect that translation
I rode in to work too today morning - strong headwinds, but no rain. But I chickened out and didn't take the 5.6 mile route - took the shorter 3 mile route.

bsektzer

Havinge reached the age where I am not so much affected by testosterone poisoning, I do not feel compelled to ride in nasty weather. And just because I did get both a flu and pneumonia vaccination doesn't mean I ought to go out and be a CDC test case.

The forecast for my area is calling for rain/wind today, cold, rain, and wind tomorrow, and just plain heavy rain for Sunday. So I'll be spending plenty of time on my E-Motion rollers with the resistance turned up a bit. No argument about it not being as much fun as riding (in decent conditions), but it also beats the crap out of either risking ill health or just getting fat(ter).

bjorke

I think of it more in the Byron/Shelley romantic tradition, that one blunders around the heath (or central expressway) in the storm and hopes that some profound truth about nature will be revealed

caloso

Annoyingly, it was not raining and the wind quite mild as I got into my car to drive to work this morning. God, I hate when that happens.