Originally Posted by
billydonn
Thinking "if the pros can ride in the rain, so can I", I did a rain ride a few days ago. It was a steady moderate rain, not a downpour or anything. Well, after two hours I was truly wet and miserable, not to mention SLOW. My bike had water draining out the bottom when I placed it on the car rack. (Road bike with no fenders... titanium, thank heavens.) There was drivetrain noise I don't normally hear.
Had my Showers Pass Rain Jacket on (pit zips open though), Garneau "waterproof" booties (HA!), Hincapie skull cap under my helmet... I should be fairly dry no? Well, no. Absolutely no. I wasn't riding very hard so I don't think the moisture came from within... but I can't be totally sure. Perhaps I should have used my over the helmet rain cover, but I didn't. Well, if this had been a longer ride on a tour for example, I would have surely been SOL.
Tips and tricks for rain riding from veterans who do that sort of thing would be welcome. (I'm aware that a certain amount of HTFU is going to be called for, of course.)
Yup - if you ride for a while in the rain, you're going to get wet. But, once you get soaking wet, you can't get any wetter! The real problem is the cold, so you need some kind of jacket to keep you warm and maybe a helmet cover to keep your head dry and warm. I second what others have said about fenders and flats. I always carry some plastic bags (ziploc freezer bags) so if it starts raining, I can put my wallet, cell phone, and whatever else might need to stay dry in the plastic bags. On organized tours, this includes the cue sheet. In fact, I usually put the cue sheet in a bag just to protect from sweat, water bottle drips, whatever, even if it's not raining.
- Ed