Yet another lame question:
How do I attach an umbrella to my commuting bike? This guy,
,at the tdf has some sort of clamp/tape thingi. Is this even effective? What effective ways are there to not get rained on?
Let me know what your ways of staying dry in the rain are.

He's just being silly/looking for attention.

This setup is completely inappropriate for a bike. You think headwinds are tough?

well the problem is I wear glasses and the stinging rain really distorts my vision. and I get pretty wet.

I was riding behind a guy that was a lot faster than me over in Okinawa on a rainy night in rainy season. We were rocketing (takes practice but if you are young and clueless you can master it) along with our umbrellas infront of us. I lost sight of him in the darkness for a minute and then I see this umbrella go rolling down the street past me (didn't realize it was his until a moment later). Moving on I find my friend embracing the trunk of a car with his bike on the ground (good thing he had steel rims). Anyway, it was really funny (luckily nothing but his pride was hurt). So, personally I think Umbrellas on bicycles is a bad idea having learned from humorous experience (well humorous from my point of view anyway).

Seen this?

Wear a cycling cap; pull the bill down l-o-w over your glasses and unless it is a severely wind-driven rain, spectacles will stay dry.
Keep body dry with proper rain gear.
Umbrella? An accident waiting to happen . . .

Maybe goggles over your glasses?

In Japan, when it rains it is common to see cyclists holding umbrellas. I watched closely, and it seemed like they hold the handle between their thumb and first finger, while keeping the other three on the brake lever.

Of course, sidewalk riding is also common there, so perhaps Japanese practice is not the safest in the world.

...and you're usually riding at about 10kph max. One hand for the bike, one for the umbrella. Not always safe, but I've never seen a fatality or too serious an injury. No helmets either, but it's a different insurance culture as well. Car hits a bike, it's the driver's fault. Bike hits a pedestrian, it's thebikers fault. Pretty seamless. Public health care as well...

For the first poster, a hat with a bill will help, a la cyclists cap under your helmet. That's what they were made for originally before everyone needed shades to ride.

"well the problem is I wear glasses and the stinging rain really distorts my vision"


Try putting some "Rainx" on the lens of your glasses. I do and it works great.

all i can say...

Get a visor, seriously. It helps.

I'm surprised nobody else suggested a MTB helmet with a visor.

Yeah, unless you're some roadie obsessed with not having any mtb gear, visors work really really well. It keeps the sun off my face and the rain off my glasses so I can still see. Absolutely essential.

Half the time the only difference between Road and MTB helmets are the visors

That's true, though mtb helmets, at least the high end ones, usually are "domier" and have larger vents to allow for venting at low speeds, not as aerodynamic though, if anyone cares about shaving off 5 seconds over 10 miles.

Yeah it's not like you're chasing Lance Armstrong in a TT challange or busting ass up l'Alpe d'Huez. You're commuting - practicality is key

How about getting contact lenses?

That's just so wrong on countless levels

I wear glasses. but when it rains i don't mind, i either look over my glasses or wipe them off ever so many minutes. i can see not using your glasses a pain if you have a high perscription...

in that picture with that guy with a huge umbrella, i think he is going up hill. if you catch too much wind underneath the umbrella it will cause too much lift that you will become mary poppins.

best bet is to (recap)

1. contacts
2. visor
3. wipe your glasses
4. no umbrella regardless.
5. that rainGo thingy looks cool. but you will still have rain beading eh? i dunno.

Okay, so it's more a reason not to ride through puddles than a reason not to carry an umbrella, but I still like the picture. Also, ouch.

I don't usually laugh at people falling down or getting hurt. But that picture bwinton just posted made me "bust a gut." After catching my breath I began to wonder why that picture is funny to me when usually pictures like that just make me feel bad for the soon to be wounded. Then I realized it is the umbrella. No umbrella=just another picture of a guy taking a header. With umbrella=comedy! Maybe that alone is a good reason not to carry an umbrella?

Seriously though, I think an umbrella on a bike is a bad idea. You're still going to get wet. Plus I don't like to think about what would happen if the umbrella were to get caught in the spokes.

When I wore glasses I found that water got on my glasses to some extent no matter what I did. Buy one of those microfiber glasses cloths and keep it in a pocket of your rain jacket.

If you ride a lot, especially for transportation, a good rain jacket or rain suit is well worth the investment.

bwinton,
That is a great avatar!

i've seen other pots for using motorcycle goggles, has onyone done this and if so any specific recs? i'm currently trying to decided how much weather i want to ride in this winter and figure goggles will be the way to go, but haven't had the time to hunt some down

Thanks! I drew it myself on my Clie (Sony PalmOS handheld). I'ld love to hear from anyone who recognizes where it's from, and/or knows where I could get my hands on some back episodes. (It was one of the comics in a University of Waterloo paper, but I forget the title, and the name of the paper. Jeff-o? Any ideas?)

I still say get a visor. Unless you have a LOT of road spray, if you keep your head down a reasonable amount, it should take care of most of the rain.