My interest may sound odd from someone riding in the desert, but precisely because rain is so relatively rare here (9" citywide average between 14" foothills and 5" Westside) that when it arrives, it's interesting.
We've had the earliest and rainiest start to our SW Monsoon season in years if not decades, considerably reducing the fire danger so great just a couple of weeks ago (when there was a bush fire just 1 mile south of me; and I live along the bosque). We must have had as much as 2" of rain in the last 2 weeks, with more forecast. I wanted to ride in the rain to church yesterday morning, but was tired and late, and the rain kept off despite lowering clouds on morning's ride, although I carefully rode the Matthews 1:1 with new 4 1/2" front fender flap and carried my cape and so'wester. On the way out and back I passed a group of young mothers along the bosque bike trail shepherding a large group of very small children having the time of their lives riding little bikes in the mud and playing in a big mud puddle. Funny, you don't see small children playing in the puddles nowadays, but I remember having great fun, age about the same as these children playing in the flooded, muddy field across the street from my house; rather like Christopher Robin in the WtP story. But I'm curious, what do all y'all in rainy places wear and ride on in rainy weather? I find it fun to imagine the ideal rain bike: fixed gear (no damned ss freewheel to complicate things), full oil-bath chaincase, full fenders, with front extending 1/4 of the way around the forward curve of the tire, and flap skimming the tarmac, with skirts covering the spokes on the trailing 1/4 of the front wheel and forward 1/4 of the rear wheel; clips 'n' straps with toe covers; dyno lighting mounted sufficiently low to clear front and rear raincape overhang; have I missed anything? Oh, and while I've found that rain capes keep you perfectly dry from neck to knee even in SW downpours with howling winds -- I commuted extensively years ago across town with various rain capes, waxed cotton, various grades of plastic -- (and so'westers keep one dry from neck to crown) my lower legs and feet get wet. I guess this is where Splats come in handy? -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Patrick Moore Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/CALuTfgtu46_BYrEq%2BO9Ycm3ALn%3DcSELrcx11Gv5qvE%3DZHmM7UA%40mail.gmail.com.
