Wet day again

I had a meeting to attend at the main office this morning, and there is rain forecast for much of the day, so I rode the Raleigh. I'm more comfortable wearing office clothes on the Raleigh, for some reason, although I could easily do so on the Vanguard. I'm certainly more comfortable riding the Raleigh if I'm wearing regular shoes, as it has Shimano dual-use pedals (sometimes called campus pedals) that are flat on one side and have the SPD cleat system on the other. I also consider the Raleigh my rain bike, as I have a rain cape (more on that in a moment), and the cape is simply not functional on the Vanguard.

I'm a recumbent guy. I have to justify riding a wedgie bike. I don't have to justify riding a 'bent.

I've mixed feelings about the cape. In cooler weather, I think it's fairly nice to have. On a fairly warm day like today (temperatures in the upper 60s F), it gets quite warm inside that tent.

I brought a change of cycling clothes, but wore office clothing to get to Liberty Street and to N'Awb'ny from that meeting. My shirt was pretty wet, from a combination of sweat and water coming through the cape. Of course, I keep several changes of clothing at the office, so a clean dry shirt was ready at hand. I'll wear a cycling jersey and shorts for my ride home, just to be a bit more comfortable.

About the rain cape: It is billed as being waterproof material. That description is something of a moving target, in my experience. Even fairly waterproof fabrics can allow water to leach through if there is something water-absorbing against the inside of the fabric--in this case, my shirt. The object on the inside of the fabric doesn't even have to really absorb lots of water--skin can do the trick, for example--as much as simply provide a way for water to move by capillary action between it and the fabric, and it will "pull" water through the cape.

That said, my tr*^$er$ were almost totally dry when I got to the apartment building. The cape had kept rain from falling on the legs of my p@nt$. All I had to do was change shirt and footwear when I arrived.