Originally Posted by howsteepisit
Thirty years ago, that wold not be news for me. Last night on my 30 mile ride a squall came up, and I ended up in some pretty hard rain and wind. I first headed for a nearby overhang porch on an under construction building. After about 5 minutes there, I remembered that I had a waterproof light jacket in my "trunk", so I put that on and got going. It only rained for about 15 more minutes, then turned pretty decent. I discovered that its not bad riding in the rain (I used to really like it), and my Shimano 105 long reach brakes work really great in the rain.
Reminds me of my first tour and my first bike ralley.
First tour: rain predicted. Asked a friend to park at his office to leave bike on a circuitous route. He told me first stop was 24 miles. Being as we were getting to his office at 2pm to park the car, I thought all would be easy. When we got the directions to where we would get on the main route, I knew we were in trouble. It was in Feb., raining like hell, in the hill country in Texas, my partner had just had a baby (not mine) 3 months earlier, and the first sign we saw after riding 12 miles was, "Bandera 29 miles." Did I mention it was in the hill country**********???? I learned why they call it the Hill Country.
My first bike rally, there were about 800 participants. They thunderstorms came. The rain was horizontal. 150 +- turned around in the first 3 miles. The wind lasted about an hour. The ride kicked my butt, but I finished.
Conclusion:
If I can avoid the rain, (not showers) I don't try to ride.