None of my bikes are made of sugar, so they are all rain bikes.

I ride my commuter road bike in the rain, but it's not specifically a rain bike. I don't have a dedicated rain/foul weather bike. However my utility bike is getting an e-assist conversion soon, and just got full, permanent fenders yesterday along with 2.15" Big Apple tires. My plan is to supplement my 2 days a week road bike commuting with the e-bike, to reduce car driving even more, and also to use it for faster grocery runs, etc. So it could turn into a "rain" bike of sorts. Hopefully it will shorten my 70-80 minute commute down to 45-50 minutes. That would be amazing.

Reasonable point, but this gets at something specific I was trying to capture with my original post. I'm not just praising bikes that I CAN ride in the rain. I'm praising bikes that are made to ride in the rain.

I actually do have one bike that may as well be made of sugar for how willing I am to expose it to water. I also have bikes that don't have fenders, some of which really can't have fenders. And I have bikes that are limited to skinny tires. And then there's the issue of rim brakes.

What I'm getting at is that there are two approaches to a rain bike: (1) a bike that you're willing to treat like a rented mule and expose to anything and everything, and (2) a bike that is built from the ground up to shine in the rain. Many people will argue that bikes are meant to be ridden and that in the final analysis all bikes should belong to the first category. I can go along with that. I even feel a twinge of shame about owning a pampered beauty queen in spite of how many alternatives I have available. I still have a dozen bikes that I'd be willing to ride in the rain, but I've got two that are absolutely built for it. (One of those isn't a commuter, BTW.)

For sure, any bike is more enjoyable to ride in the rain if you have fenders. My regular commuter bikes all have fenders, because I ride rain or shine. I don't own a beater because I don't like riding crappy bikes.

Owning different bikes for different riding conditions is kind of like having different golf clubs for different shots. Sure, I could play an entire round with a seven iron and putter, but what fun would that be? Truth be told, I probably wouldn't shoot much worse than having all 14.

The same applies to having a rain bike, a winter bike, a gravel bike, a weekend bike, etc. I wouldn't ride my steel bike in the wet because I don't need to, which is why I don't put fenders on it. So even though you should be able to ride any bike in the rain, you really don't want to.

That was my other main theme, for sure. I saw a comment on the C&V forum recently about not using "nice" components for commuting because you'll wear them out. I mentioned that I have the opposite view because my commuter is the bike that gets ridden most often, so I want nice components on it. Also, the purpose-built rain bike that I started with came with Tiagra components. I planned to use them until they wore out and then upgrade. Well, 5000 miles later they just weren't wearing out (not even the cassette!) and I wanted to switch over to hydraulic brakes so I had to upgrade them before they wore out.

I had a friend in high school who did exactly that, except with a 5 iron. He was just so frustrated with how badly he was hitting the other clubs that he decided to leave them at home. As I recall, he did better than I did on the rounds I played with him like that.

Some people hang their bikes on a wall like they are a work of art. Me? I keep them in the garage and ride the hell out of them. If they get wet and die? Well, they were just not up to the task.

I could see that.

This works pretty well. One day I'll extend the Bertouds. It's a rescued PX-10.

Bought this as a snow bike, but liked it well enough that it gets a lot of rain use. I thought I'd buy studded tires this winter but we have not had enough icy days to justify the purchase.

out in this morning's rain. The creek/ditch was up at trail height yesterday so it came way down overnight.

Not a dedicated rain bike, but it's the bike I use most in rain.

I could probably deduce this from the pictures, but what do you value in a rain bike?

Obviously fenders. I think wide-ish tires are important. In the winter the bike lanes here are always chock full of gravel, tree shedding and various other mystery debris. Riding a bike with skinny tires in that muck just isn't fun. I look for tires with a good "wet grip" rating and a fairly minimal tread. Because punctures are more likely in the rain puncture protection is even more important than usual, but I'm still not willing to go the Marathon Plus route. While I know any brake will work, I really like disc brakes for rain riding and especially hydraulic discs.

I'm a bit surprised to see so little IGH representation in this thread. I've always been tempted to build an IGH rain bike, but the weight deters me and I just don't have enough problems with a good old chain and derailleur to make it compelling. I do have a singlespeed that seems like it "should" be a good fit as a rain bike, but frankly while I find singlespeeds to be fun in good weather I feel like having gears reduces the psychological weight of the ride and in bad weather I'm always looking for whatever makes things feel easy. I choose a rack and trunk bag over a backpack in the rain for this same reason.

My current town bike, as have all iterations for decades, have the same '50's AW/Cyclo 3 cog hybrid drive train fitted.
The best and worst of IGH/Derail systems combined.
Finicky, obtuse and requiring an advanced degree in mathematics to divine the correct shift pattern to engage the "next" gear:

"Let's see is it one cog Down and shift Up on the hub, or the other way 'round?"

See post #2.

-Bandera

Yes, fenders for sure, and ones with mudflaps in the front, as I recently learned. But beyond that any bike with fenders would serve as a rain bike, or just a bike that can be ridden in all weather conditions. All other criteria are not so much weather-related as it is really personal preference, or perhaps terrain related--IGH vs geared vs SS, road bike vs hybrid vs mtb vs dutch-style, caliper vs linear pull vs cantilever vs hydro, etc. Yes, disc brakes are best for wet conditions, but unless you're racing crits I don't see a huge benefit to them. I don't recall ever having to make an emergency stop that my calipers or cantis couldn't handle. Maybe if I were stronger ride who rides 25+ mph all the time I would feel differently.

Many here extol the virtues of IGH and coaster brakes, and I'm sure they work fine for maintenance free operation. For me, however, I don't mind a bit of maintenance, and honestly, I've ridden my geared bikes through three winters now and the amount of maintenance I've had to do is pretty minimal. I wash the bike every now and then, especially when I've ridden in slush and snow and lube the chain regularly, but I'd have washed any bike that's gone through that muck. Aside from changing the brake pads every 5000 km or so I've had to do very little to maintain it.

But I actually like the maintenance aspect of having bikes. It's half the fun, tinkering it. And it's the same reason I have multiple bikes.

I normally avoid riding when rain is possible or likely, but on the occasions when I decide to risk it, I take one of my rain-ready bikes.

1982 Univega Viva Touring



1985 Ross Gran Tour

I've got the same Trans-It panniers on my beater bike. Love 'em, cause they maintain their shape, like a basket.

Mine is one of the few - Nexus 8. I like the low maintenance (drilled for an oil port) and has been trouble free for 26,000kms so far. I'd like a full chaincase too.