I ride. Year round. In any weather. As I keep telling people - the thing that's worse than riding in this mess, is NOT riding in this mess.

I actually ENJOY riding in rain - as long as I am dressed for it. I shold note, though, that I am not primarilly a recreational rider - I commute and run errands, and if the ride is recreational, it is usually at kid speed - and I don't make the kids ride in rain.

The thing I find about rain riding is that you need a balance between breath-able and water repellant. Cheap waterproof raingear does not breathe, and that defeats the goal of keeping dry since one ends up stewing in one's own persiration - wet is wet. Raincapes are great in warmish weather - though you have to accept that you will not remain perfectly dry, but "dry enough", which is good enough. I sometimes combine rain trousers with the cape, but most often I just ride in shorts and accept that my legs will get a bit wet - this really depends on temperature and wind. One can spend a bundle on good gore-tex high tech gear, but, while it does breate, it does not breate so freely as one might wish. My favourite find in this arena has been the water repellant hoodie - they breate nearly like a cotton hoodie, but I have riden quite long distances in the rain and remained dry and warm, without excess perspiration - particularly with a layer (or 2) of wool underneath (or some polyester tech fabric when temps rise).

If I am riding in rain and have decided to try to stay completely dry (say when temps are closer to freezing) I ride with rain-proof trousers and use high top old-man overshoes and platform pedals.

Good gloves are essential - I either use water-proofed leather mittens with wool gloves inside, or thin work gloves which I found at the local dollar store, which turned out, unexpectedly, to be mostly waterproof (and high viz - high viz gloves = bicycle turn signals). I also carry extra gloves on wet days. Wet, cold hands WILL make me misreable, no matter how comfortable the rest of me is.

And - a rain cover for my helmet. Many of you may not ride with a helmet, but I do, and the combination of helmet with rain cover greatly improves comfort in wet and cold.

MUDGUARDS!!!

HOWEVER - with all that said, I do not insist that all should enjoy riding in all sorts of weather, as I do, and I won't think the less of you if you don't, and choose not to. I might give you hard time for it, but I won't think less of you.

I also should admit, that I do derrive some sense of accomplishment from pushing through to live my life by bike in bad weather. Accomplishment and smug self satisfaction. Not sure what that says about me ...