If you want to ride a bike in the Pac Northwest, you HAVE to enjoy riding in the rain!

Actually, if you are a racer or a randonneur, you NEED to train in the rain. It makes you tougher, and you don't embarass yourself or your country when you withdraw from Paris-Brest-Paris just because it's cold & raining!

But being tough doesn't mean you have to be uncomfortable. At the very least you need fenders, but even those partial race blades will keep you protected from water splashing off the road into your face and up your back. And here in the Pac NW, you can't go on a group ride without having flaps on the rear fender to protect the guy behind you. I'm too lazy to figure out how to get a flap onto a race blade, so I just ride by myself in the rain.

And you need shoe covers to keep your shoes clean. Not dry, just clean; there's not a shoe cover (bootie) made that will keep you feet dry for more than about 40 minutes. Getting road grit out of cycling shoes is just too much hard work, unless you toss the shoes into the washer.

Here in Vancouver, BC, you find out who the real cyclists are when it rains. Surprisingly, I see LOTS of bike tire tracks on the dry portions of the greenway on my way to work, way more than a few years ago.

And I think that this winter, Seattle got the brunt of the bad weather. It was snowing in Seattle/Olympia when it was only raining in Vancouver back in Dec/Jan. But the nice thing is that you have a much greater appreciation for warm, dry days of riding! I am so looking forward to doing double centuries in California in May!

Luis