Today when I hopped on my bike, I realized that I had been tricked by our weather into thinking it was spring already. As I look outside and think about my ride home, I'm happy I have my "rain gear" with me most of the time. The hardest thing for me to commit to bike commuting full time was finding the proper gear to stay warm and dry. I figured I could share my favorite items....
Keeping Dry:
I absolutely love my bike rain jacket. I've never had a jacket that I would call "waterproof" and I was extremely skeptical about staying dry with this, but it does it's job! It's a "Waterproof Breathable Jacket" from J&G Cyclewear in Portland, OR.
I also bought a pair of shoe covers from them - I don't use special bike shoes, and this keeps by regular shoes dry and useable.
For pants, I just use a cheap pair of vinyl rain pants. I think mine are Columbia - just like teh ones we loan to SOP kids as rain pants.
Finally, to keep my head dry... I bought one of the helmet covers from J&G, but for Christmas, by family gave me a cool helmet cover from IllumiNITE. The neat thing about this is that, not only does it keep me dry, it's also highly visible in the dark.
Keeping Warm:
Dry is one thing, warm is another. Warm AND dry, is yet a third.In addition to some fleece ear warmers, and a variety of gloves for different times of the year, I highly value my bike mitts. I saw these in the Netherlands, and also in Japan, but I didn't know what to call them. They stay on the bike all winter, and I just reach inside to use the handlebars. A couple of years ago we saw some on a bike cop's bike in Seattle and chatted him up to find out where he got them. The manufacturer is call Brat Wear and they're even close - over in Fife. They call the product Bikehands or Climitts. This last year a couple of people have asked about my "Pogies" - I guess that's a similar product, but from what I can find out, it's for kayaks.
Keeping Seen:
The last part of this gear list is remaining seen. For a good quarter of the year, it's dark when I arrive at work, and dark when I leave. I figure I can't have too many lights on my bike. Right now I have two from behind - one on my bike, and one that clips on to a special band sewn into the back of my jacket from J&G - a pretty cool detail. I sometimes have one on my helmet, too.
In the front, I have three headlamps - one or two set to flash, and the other(s) on steady. They aren't there to help me see, but rather to be seen. The trick with these is finding a place to attach them. I solved that with the Topeak Bar X-Tender sort of like a perch for the lamps.
(Of course, I'm careful to use rechargeable batteries for all of these lights! There are many now that you can charge from your computer's USB port!)
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