Yes, you might get a little wet, however, if you have some rain gear that you normally wear walking in wet weather, you can wear it on your bike too. Some individuals in Northern Europe even carry umbrellas while cycling. For the ladies, boots and tights under a raincoat present a practical solution.
Some tips though - you should make sure your breaks are nice and tight and you might want to invest in some fenders and a chainguard. My left (non-rolled up) pant leg got sprayed with some wet grease last night.
I was nominally wet when I got home, but honestly it made me feel young again, getting irresponsibly trapped in the rain, and then quickly changing into my dry cozy pyjamas.
11 comments:
Definitely familiar with how to deal with that weather :)
http://www.portlandize.com/2011/01/winter-cycling-portland-style.html
I used to do exactly the same, but nowadays, I find it rather puzzling why one would consider using a bicycle without a chainguard and fenders as a main "biking around town" bike! Fenders changed my cycling life! :-)
Combined with not having any easily removable gear on my bike (like, um, wheels!), that makes for really quickly getting on and taking off, without rolling your pant leg, wearing special clothes, or doing anything, really.
Just hop on, and ride! :-)
Yeah Pierre! Exactly - fenders and chainguard will most likely be part of my new for 2011 bike!
Hehe! In fact, I'm bringing my Opus Lugano to San Francisco in a bit more than a week. It's not as fancy as my new Civia Hyland that I got from Pedal Revoluation, but it's pretty nice! :-)
Their new Ivanna looks pretty nice! I actually met their designer last summer, and I was saying how much I'd have liked a fancy rack in front, apparently he agreed!
These Opus Bikes look really nice... are they available outside of Canada?
I've yet to cycle on my Pashley in "real" rain, but I know that the Chainguard on it will come in handy! Fantastic pictures btw :)
Lovely look, and a really beautiful city by the looks of it too, where is that ?I'd like to go, looks very Bicycle friendly :-) x
@Lady - Do it! It's just a little water!
@Mary - Barcelona! It is quite a lovely town for biking!
@Kristin: I think they are available, but maybe not on the West Coast? I'm sure that if you inquired at a good bike shop, they could work something out. Too bad if not, they compared rather favourably to the Gary Fisher Simple City and the Public Bikes of similar prices that I was also checking out...
Looks like my Lugano will be pretty unique on the streets of San Francisco! ;-)
@Lady Vélo: It might still not be so great in "real rain", but it basically make cycling equivalent to walking, in terms of getting wet/dirty. If it's raining hard and find yourself wanting an umbrella, might end up the same (you have to bike slowly with an umbrella!), but if you can do without an umbrella, it can be better than walking, due to simply spending less time out in the rain. :-)
@Pierre - give us a heads up on when you'll be in SF!
woohoo!
rain boots is foot saver....cools boots.
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