The Fuji after the ride.
The other day I went out for a two-ish hour ride. The interesting part is that it was raining. I actually don’t mind riding in the rain, there a certain peacefulness to it. Also a badassness. I only saw one other cyclist, and I’m fairly sure he gave me the same “holy crow another cyclist out in this” look that I gave him.
As I was riding, I noticed that I went through several stages of thought. It goes something like this:
-
Not so bad:
The start of the ride, it’s really only a mild rain or drizzle, and between the booties and rain jacket you’ll be fine for the ride. It’s not so cold out, anyway.
-
Ok, now I’m feeling it:
Yeah, so, it started to rain harder, but that’s ok, I still have the jacket, and a hat on, so it’s kind of nice out.
-
Oh shit I’m soaked:
This damn rain jacket isn’t breathable, huh. Now I’m soaked. I hate this. I want to go home.
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I’m soaked anyway, might as well keep riding:
I’m not going to get dryer anytime soon, so I might as well just keep on trucking. Being completely soaked is a release of sorts, I’m not in this middle-ground of trying to stay dry.
-
OMG shower!
Get me home. Now. My hands are all shrivelled up. I’ve drunk more water from the rain than my bottle. I want a shower. Please make this end.
I think I have some cleaning to do.
That’s essentially what happened with me. There’s kind of a sixth state which is after the ride, after the shower, when you’ve gotten to work, the “yeah, I did that” feeling. Which is the best. As far as the ride itself, the best thing that can be said is I was out on familiar roads, so I wasn’t trying to reinvent my ride as I went along. I picked out a decent loop that was almost the right amount of distance, and I enjoyed the ride, and also enjoyed not being in the rain afterwards.
How often do you ride in the rain, and what do you enjoy about it?
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I ride in the rain if it’s raining when I’m scheduled to go. I have limited time to ride like everyone else so rain doesn’t stop me anymore. It used to. But then I got a rain/winter-rat bike which was very liberating. I no longer worried about my good bike getting nasty. Then I found fenders. What a dream! I won’t go if it’s lightning, I got stuck in a lightning storm once that really put the scare in me.
I enjoy riding in the rain because I’ve figured out a way to overcome the 2 bad things about it: getting my good bike, and me, nasty.
Besides, where live, I come backed drenched from nearly every ride. I’m either drenched in sweat or drenched by rain. What’s the diff?
Eric
Haha thanks Eric. I have several bikes, but I still take the race bike out in the rain when I want to do real intervals. I think I need to set up another bike like it and put fenders on it.