Ride On!

Friday, I started crunching numbers and figuring what I'll need for the next trip I've got in mind. Part of that included revisiting my budget, and deciding I'm actually going to have to start sticking to said budget in order to have savings up to where they should be before I leave. Sticking to that budget will require me to ride the bike pretty much everywhere I can and retiring my truck for the most part this summer. All in all, not a bad problem to have. This morning I rode to church and it was lovely (both the ride and the service). First time to get the mesh jacket out this year, and it was one of the most comfortable rides for the temps (upper 80s) that I've had yet. The pants I bought for the trip are mesh, and they are cooler to wear than jeans, even though they are a sun-sucking black.

For the past several weeks we've had some old fashioned weather patterns going through, with almost daily thunderstorms in the late afternoon, and today turned out to be no different. I decided to stick to my plan, and loaded up rain gear on the back of the bike when I left the house to go to church tonight. At the house, it was overcast, but not ominous. A mile from my house, the ominosity started to kick in. The only light(er) patch in the sky was behind me, over my house, and I was heading 14 miles east and a little south. Over there...towards that slate blue patch of clouds. I thought about putting on the rain gear then, but figured I'd wait and see. About two miles from the house, the pavement was wet from recent rain, but drying off, as it was by the time I got onto I-385. The car in front of me was kicking back some spray, so I got into the next lane, watching oncoming traffic for signs of rain ahead, as well as watching the clouds and road. Shortly after the next bridge, the road was probably 50% dry, no oncoming cars had on wipers, but the sky still looked portentous although no rain was coming down more than a mist. Beyond the following exit, the road was looking very wet, and I started seeing some wiper activity in the northbound lanes. Now the question was not if, but when.

There were only two overpasses left...I was over three quarters of the way to church, but that last quarter had the potential to be soggy. I opted for the second overpass, pulled over and started doing the raingear shuffle. While I was putting on the layers, a cruiser went past. Neither the rider or his passenger had any riding gear (helmet, jacket, pants, boots), much less rain gear. She was wearing a halter top and trying to hunker down behind him as best she could. I've not experienced it, but have heard that riding in rain is extremely painful, and if you've got drops of water hitting your bare skin at 60 miles per hour, yeah, I can see where it would hurt.

Finally got my silver space suit on and headed up to the Woodruff Road exit. About 45 feet beyond the cover of the changing station overpass, the rain started coming down in earnest...no more of that weenie misting we'd been having (owie for the cruiser folks). I rode the last three miles (and nine stoplights) to church, very glad I had my rain gear on. Did learn an important object lesson tonight. While my gloves do have gauntlets (a cuff that comes over the top of the jacket sleeve), in stop and go traffic they will work better if the gauntlet is tucked under the sleeve cuff. The rain was running down the sleeves of the jacket and into the gauntlet right near the end of the ride. The only part of me that got wet was just the underside of my wrist where that happened. Good to know for future rainy rides. (And not an issue on road trips, since the wind keeps the rain blowing away from the gauntlet.)

The other rain suit issue I'm discovering is the fact that the pants in my suit are too stinking short! I bought the size small of the suit since it fit while walking around in the store, but once they are put on over riding pants (bulkier than jeans) they hike up just a little bit, and then when you have to sit on the bike with knees bent, they ride up a little more. The elastic cuff holds them firmly in place, so when you get off the bike, they are firmly held...hiked up to mid calf , with two inches of riding pants sticking out over the exposed riding boot. Paints a pretty picture, I tell ya. I don't think I can buy the pants separate from the suit, so I might have to go test out some mediums and see if they give me enough leg length so I don't impersonate Urkel after riding through the rain. The rain protection of the pants is superb other than the length. After church, flicked them once and they were dry. Happily, the rain had moved on and there was a lovely sunset, perfect for riding off into. So I did.