How I get ready for a rainy commute:

Last night, I knew that it would be raining this morning.  My commute usually takes about 35-minutes, each way.  Eight miles and flat, mostly bike trail.  When I went to bed, I figured that if it were POURING, I would take transit with my bike and maybe ride home in afternoon.

It was not pouring, though.  It was raining lightly and a little windy.  If it wasn't a short week, I might have chickened out and taken the bus.  I only work three days this week and I hardly got to ride last week--I was on travel--so I rode. 

As you can see in the photo--and as you probably remember from an earlier post--my bike now has its own rain pants.  I got the set of Planet Bike "Hardcore" yellow fenders about a month ago.  They are pretty burly, designed for touring.  They are also eye-catching--which I wanted because I do not trust my motorized bretheren on the roads of Outer Sacramento.  The fenders are great because they keep me from getting soaked by my own tires.  Riding on wet roads--even under clear skies--I would get soaked by the water flying off of the tires without them.  These allow me to cruise right rough a mud-puddle with not even a splash on my clothes. 

They don't protect me from rain, though.  Yesterday, I bought a high-quality rain jacket for cheap at a Mountain Hardwear factory sale.  It's durable, stretchy, waterproof, breathable, and MATCHES MY FENDERS!  This last attribute is of course not required, but it is really cool and it makes me very visible in the misty rain.  I also have a pair of Patagonia rain pants that I bought years ago on Ebay.  I got dressed in a Patagonia silk-weight top, boxers, socks, and the rain gear.  I usually don't wear much under rain gear when I'm cycling because I just get TOO WARM!  The temperature was 48F this morning, and I was just fine dressed this way.  Part-way to work, I had to open the pit-zips on the jacket. 

Over the rain gear, I wear a pair of old-beat-up gaiters.  These keep the rain pants from funnelling water down into my low-top cycling shoes. 

I have a wool cycling cap which I wear under my helmet.  If it had been pouring, I might have put on a helmet cover to keep out the rain.  Either way, the woolly keeps me warm even when it gets damp. 

I wear neoprene paddling gloves when I go cycling in the rain.  I have a pair of NRS guide gloves that I bought for rowing the Grand Canyon, last year.  These are great--they get wet but still keep me warm and have a fair amount of cushioning. 

My shoes are Keen's Austin pedal shoes.  They look like sorta-dressy brown shoes and go well with my office clothes.  In their soles they hide SPD clips which attach me to my pedals! 

My helmet is a Specialized--Prospero I think.  I got it for the high degree of ventilation it offers--it gets hot here in the summer.  On a day like today, ventilation isn't much of a help, but whatever.  That's why the wool cap. 

I have a piece of double-sided velcro that I have wound through the back of the helmet.  I have a second tail-light mounted there.  I have a front-and-rear set on the bike.  I worry more about cars not seeing me from behind than from the front--my reaction time is better for problems in front of me. 

All suited up like this, I ride to work.  When I get here, I pull clean, dry clothes out of my pannier and change in the restroom.  My cubicle becomes a drying rack for a bunch of damp raingear.  And now, I'm sitting in my cube... eating lunch... looking out the window to see what this afternoon's ride will be like!  In the afternoon, I leave here after dark!

The Big Change

It doesn't seem like much of a change.  I mean, after all, I hardly drive my car anymore.  Since I moved to Sacramento, I mostly drive it from one side of the street to the other, avoiding the street sweeper.

It's nominally for sale, but I cannot find the title so that's kind of on hold.  The new title application is floating around the DMV somewhere.  The registration is up and it needed a smog test before I could pay that bill, so off to the smot test shop I went last week.

Is it good news or bad news that it did NOT pass smog?  I guess I'm upset to learn that my car has been an NO emitter for I don't know how long.  It has been two years since my last smog test.  It is true that I haven't driven much since July, but before that I was driving 500+ miles per week back and forth to Humboldt.  That could have been a lot of pollution. 

I guess it's good news that now I know.  Even better, since it is a smog car and the repair--new catalytic converter--probably costs almost as much as the car is worth, I may be able to sell it to a State of California program designed to remove such cars from the road.  If that goes through, my car will be crushed and hopefully recycled.  Maybe someday the aluminum in my car will go into the tubing for a mid-range road bike.  One can only hope. 

Part of me is sad to see it go.  We've been a lot of places together.  This car and my last one, an 88 Honda Accord, have been all over the West.  These little cars got good fuel economy and were decent at getting into remote places.  I once drove the Accord up Courthouse Wash, in Moab.  The Ford Escort once carried me up the Shaffer Trail, also in Moab.  Both of these cars carried me to dozens of off-the-beaten-path trailheads all over the Sierra Nevada.  Though not what you might think of as 4x4's or rock-crawlers... these cars did all I needed them to do.  After all, hiking and biking were always at the destination! 

At this point, I have no plans to replace my car.  That feels great and somehow revolutionary.  I know lots of people don't have cars.  All my life, though, I have been so surrounded by car culture.  It's exciting to move away from that. 

My bikes, Amtrak, RT, and BART carry me most everywhere I go on a regular basis.  For what I'll be saving in insurance and fees, I can certainly afford to rent a car a couple of times a year to do a backpacking trip somewhere remote.  It's like $40 a day to rent a compact!  So that's my plan.  If you aren't there yet, join me!  If you're thinking about it and want to start a conversation, post a comment! 

OH!  The best part of all of this.  I think I'll get enough from sale of the car to buy a Bikes-At-Work trailer--the 96A.  With that trailer, I will have probably more cargo capacity than I did with the car.  What justice!  Trading my car for a bike trailer! 

November Commuting

This was the view from the bike bridge over the American River, on the Sacramento Northern Bikeway yesterday morning.  I usually head out on my bike just a little after 7am for the eight-mile ride to work.  The whole way in I was riding through postcards.  The sunset just got redder and redder.  Last week's rains have a lot of the sloughs full of still water... which reflected these colors into the bottoms of the trees.  Many of the box elders have lost their leaves now, which opens up new views that haven't seen in a long time.

With the recent rain, I went out and got my bicycle a rain jacket.  The Tempo is now festooned with bright yellow touring fenders which go great with the 80's teal-on-white color scheme.  One of these days I'll get a photo that does the color justice.  It's been nearly 80F this week in the afternoons when I leave work--unseasonably warm.  It seems a sure sign that you can make the rain stop by putting on a rain jacket!

I'm starting to think about my winter rides, what I'll wear, what sort of weather I will make grounds for taking the bus in the morning.  I took the bus a couple days this week because I thought I was getting a cold--even with the perfect cycling weather.  Those couple days were fine but I'm glad to be on the saddle again! 

Next week I'll be out of town.  I will be visiting the old homeland--Northern Indiana and Chicagoland.  Today there is lake-effect snow in LaPorte.  It should hit 75F here in Sacto. 

I'll be in touch when I get back.  Have a great week!