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Wet Weather Riding
I picked this stuff up at North Face's outlet in Berkeley years ago and it still works for everything. Rainscape pants, Mountain Jacket, Outdoor Research Gaiters (cut newspaper plastic bags work ok too but kinda disposable), and Waterproof Dress shoes, Just started using a front fender (they rock! keep the drive train a lot cleaner), usually use my pack in a plastic bag bungied to my rack for rear tire protection. When its on my back in light rain I clip my LED to it and it seems to work. An extra set of batteries for the LED is a good idea because they can die if left on or pressed inadvertently. I use mine as an emergency flashlight during power blackouts! The front light is a 12 V LED setup I have running for 30 hours between charges, I hate recharging batteries and the LED is high visibility, but scratchbuilt. I use my pant straps by Jandd daily and they protect the big dollar rain gear from chain destruction. Honestly I only use the gaiters on heavy rain days when its raining so hard the runoff from the pants drains into my shoes! I know it rains this hard in Chicago, it happened to me once there, and has happened several times here too. I get the big bird thing from coworkers some times but as you can see against a black night, the yellow really stands out and the hood saves your ears from freezing off because its wind/water proof and the helmet fits right over it. The black pants don't show any road dirt or grease end of story. After I take off the gear and hang it up to dry, I am at work in yep you guessed it, dry work clothes that I wore in. Give yourself an extra ten minutes to disrobe and hang the gear up in the mornings on rain days. As a note: there are cheaper GoreTex Jackets, but I can vouch for daily use of the Mountain for probably a thousand days and the only thing going is the elastic in the drawstrings. Sometimes treating yourself to high quality gear is worth it in the long run. I am actually migrating my entire business wardrobe toward technical dress clothes because then you have all your bases covered plus when you go backpacking or bikepacking or traveling you got everything you need. Take note Californians: You're more comfortable letting the thermometer rise a few degrees in the office in those hot summer cooling months if you dress for the heat and DON'T WEAR A TIE IN THE SUMMER!
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