Rain in the forecast?...Challenge accepted!

Because I drove yesterday, and need to drive tomorrow, I biked today even though it was forecast to be rainy and in the 30s. Another busy day awaited me at work and I was running late so I chose the big, heavy RockHopper because the bar-end shifters are trouble free.

I don't know if it was a tailwind or exuberance but I flew to work, taking corners faster and cutting across a couple of grassy sections in the park to avoid slowing for turns. (I usually try to avoid cutting across the grass so as not to kill it). In fact, I made it to work with only 26.5 minutes rolling time...my record is 25...the usual for this short route is 30.

It began raining after lunch. I finished work a half hour late (again!) at 5:30 and walked outside to check the weather. It was 38F with a steady light rain. I put on my bike clothes including long-fingered gloves, covered my backpack and phone and donned my rain cape. I rolled out of the building and it had stopped raining. But I decided to keep the rain gear on anyway, just in case.

First problem. This was the first time I wore the cape on the RockHopper since converting it to drop bars. The reach is a tad long, but very comfortable. However, when I reached forward the right hand loop came off the cape. And unlike the Charge bike with its brifters, or the 20" folder with its handgrip-adjacent thumb-shifter, or the 16" folder with its rapid-fire shifter, I had to remove my hands from the bars to shift the bar-end shifters on the RockHopper...so having the right hand loop gone helped, while the left shifter was problematic.

Two miles into the ride home the temperature jumped up to 44F and I was getting hot, so I stopped to take off the cape. Then it was a cool joyride to the big San Miguel east hill of Union...the one that took an extra 6 months to climb after my year off the bike in 2010. But the RockHopper's granny gear makes is a piece of cake despite the bike's weight.

Then a mile from home it began to drizzle which turned quickly into a light rain. With waiting for traffic to clear on the last busy street crossing it could be 5 to 8 minutes to get home. I started to slow down to stop and change, then thought, "Screw it!" If I get wet, I'll be at home, so no big deal. I spend back up and the rain stopped again.

I really needed that ride...it was a busy day with surprise emergencies (are there any other kind?) and clients who kept thinking of changes to make.

On days like today I think about that year I was off the bike with no way to work off the day's frustrations...I was miserable.

I just love the DropHopper...so fast with the higher custom gearing, despite the weight, and so grippy around turns with the big 26x2.125 smoothies.