wet ride, windy ride

I woke this morning to weather reports of fifteen knot winds, with gusts to thirty. Oh, yeah, it was raining as well. I thought about driving. Thought about riding the Raleigh, since I could use the rain cape. Thought about riding the Ryan, and just dealing with being wet when I arrive at work.

I rode the Raleigh.

There is something even more challenging about riding in rain when it's dark out as well. Several somethings, in fact: Rainy weather seems to absorb more of one's headlight output. Road imperfections are harder to see, coupled with the reduction in light, making one's lane positioning more a matter of road memory (and being willing/able to deal with imperfections without always having room or enough warning to perform "rock dodge" avoidance tactics). I must slow down quite a bit rather than "out-ride" my headlight. Motorists seem to give even less room for error rather than more room. I tend to crouch my head more, making it harder to use my mirror as well (and tense my arms more, causing more hand numbness). My rain cape is not as reflective as my Illuminite jacket, so I don't feel as visible (despite that I have my decent-sized reflector and flashing light/steady on light mounted).

On the other hand, I also imagine the thoughts of some of the motorists: "Poor guy can't drive, and he's out in THIS weather on a bike," or "He must be insane to ride a bike in this mess," or "He must be pretty confident--I'd better give him more room."

Jenn is home taking some vacation time (she has tons). Her younger daughter has the car in Georgetown for the week, as she has some tight time scheduling or something (I didn't press on the details). Jenn has been doing stuff around the house (and it does show), and I figured she may need to haul something today.

One good thing about my ride today is that it has reinforced that I can ride in rain. I still am not fond of doing so, but I deal with it. Another is that, the wind direction being what it was as I crossed the bridge, my ride across the bridge was one of the more comfortable ones in that direction I've had--tailwinds are nice. Of course, I'm hoping the wind direction and strength will change significantly before I head home, or I'll be walking across the dumb thing tonight.

More review on the cape, for those interested: I need to have good rain pants to make the whole ensemble work. The cape is nice--I wore a long-sleeve zip-t base layer under it, to keep from feeling clammy, and the temperature range was just right (weather.com reported 62F when I left the house). I had some sweat moisture near the open zipper, and the cuffs were wet where the cape didn't cover them. In some wind gusts, I found that the rear of the cape would blow up enough to have some air cool my back a bit.

I got close to work, and realized that I had left my work key ring on the Vanguard. Fortunately, I had secreted a spare key to my building in one of the Raleigh's packs.

When I got to work, I found that one of my small panniers is tearing at a support. I'm surprised they have lasted as long as they have (I bought them in 1992), so I should not mind replacing them too much. I don't want to spend the money (nor the time to research my choice), but they will still be cheaper than gas.