Originally Posted by kjorissen
Same location as HereNT, temp was low 60s. Luckily the first 6 miles of my commute is on a bike path so I don't have too much of a problem with cars. So, it didn't bug me much. 35 and rain is going to be interesting.
First ride in a steady rain and my question about how the backpack would handle lots of water has been answered with the somewhat expected, "Yes, you will need a plastic bag if you don't want that wet."
My commute gear is all non cotton and dries fast so that isn't a problem, but drying the shoes over the monitor is a bit of a pain. And what do I do when I get an LCD panel at work? I think I'll give some rain booties a try, we'll see if this works with an SPD setup .
I'm surprised your backpack didn't hold up better; I rode to work out in Seattle on Monday in the rain with a Thinkpad and it came out pretty darn dry. Of course, midwestern rain seems tougher that Pacific Northwest rain anyday.
I wouldn't worry about getting an LCD monitor at work... you know why
. If you do, you can always drop them off in the lab in front of that heater^h^h^h^h^h^h Itanium workstation. Or better, use Pete's cube.
I think we should buy a clothes dryer for our office.
Yes, the booties will work with SPDs, they have a hole in the bottom for the cleat. Go to Target and get shoe goo or something like that and coat the edges of the booties, especially around the toes and the cleats. My shoes were still wet this morning so I wore heavy smartwool hiking socks, which made all the difference.
I found a hill (well a viaduct technically) yesterday on 45th St. NE going into the University District here in Seattle. It rivals that bastard on Summit/Grand Ave. in St. Paul. There are lots of hills that are almost that steep out here, and usually a lot longer, but the really steep grades have been a bit harder to find. I've been given some tips about some other parts of Capitol Hill and First Hill that are supposed to be brutal. I can't wait. I'm still satisfied with my double (39t/27t) for the climbing, but I have some 53t chainring envy on the big descents. 48t isn't getting me past 44 mph. Why I want to go 44 mph without medical support I don't know... oh yeah, so I can make the timing on the traffic lights.