Road Ride Report Rain Day

Discussion in 'The Roadie Hangout' started by Doughboy, Dec 7, 2009.

  1. Doughboy

    Doughboy Simple Man

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    I like to ride in the rain. Without me getting all “kumbaya” let’s just agree that around here rain is a gift and let’s leave it at that. Maybe it’s because I’m used to living in places that have weather so I try and get out in it whenever it actually happens around here – I feel somehow like I’m home I suppose. In fact, last night I was giddy with anticipation of my ride to work this morning as I put the fenders back on the bike for the first time this year. Anything to break up the monotony of the ride to work.

    However, when zero-dark forty five rolled around this morning (I refuse to get up at zero-dark thirty like the rest of the herd) and the alarm wailed, I almost hit the snooze. But upon laying back in bed and hearing that tell tale dripping water outside the window, I jumped out of bed as best a 42 yr old dude with a tweaked back can manage (think "Brett Favre on a Monday") - but I felt like a school kid when snow is in the forecast hearing the snowplows the next morning and knowing for certain that school is cancelled.

    So I guess today was my “Rain Day” instead of a "Snow Day", except I still had to go to work (aah to be a kid again). Screw it, it was time to ride! This is why I have rain gear ferchrissakes.

    Sure, I could complain about the wood screw that skewered my rear tire and forced me to fix a flat in the dark on the shoulder of the busiest portion of my ride. I could also whine about the moronic drivers I saw, especially that one that punched through that retaining wall when he missed that turn. But I’d say the jolt of the humid coffee-infused atmosphere in the bagel shop this morning made up for it, as did the hiss of my tires and watching each and every hypnotic vortex of water shed from my front tire as I climbed each hill, the tempo perfectly timed to my grinding cadence. <Pedal stroke>, get off my frickin tire... <pedal stroke>, get off my frickin tire... <pedal stroke>, get off my frickin tire... ad nauseum. That damn water won this battle...

    I do this ride a lot and anticipate that toward the end of it I'll get screwed up in my flow by the traffic signals and their timing – I almost always get stopped at a light at the bottom of a huge hill. I hate to waste momentum, especially at the end of a stupid long commute – and this is a long ride to work for sure. I have found though, that if I sprint up the hill immediately after the light preceding the big downhill section, I usually get through the next light at the bottom.

    I wasn’t exactly “feeling it” this morning but still I sprinted up the hill like usual, then zipped up my rain jacket as I pedaled over the crest and got into an aerodynamic tuck to scream down the other side. Well, as aerodynamic as you can get while riding a bike with fenders and wearing a massive backpack that is...

    100 ft or so from the light, it switched to yellow – we’ll blame my late arrival on the drag from the fenders and not all the beer I’ve been drinking lately. I thought about gunning it but instead leaned back and got on the brakes hard. I came to rest just slightly into the pedestrian crosswalk as it turned red. A cloud of steam rose from the disc brakes on my Salsa Fargo – a second or two later more steam swirled around in the vents of my helmet, then was lost to the atmosphere to return as rain.

    All that effort to beat the traffic light expended as steam - I think we (my bike and I) were both a little peeved, and the steam only mocked us. It’s tough to actually see your effort vanish into thin air like that. What a great ride to work though.

    Happy Rain Day!
     
  2. calzone

    calzone Banned

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  3. SheDevil

    SheDevil I just ride my bike....

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    Makes me want to take a shower. (a hot one) :lol:
     
  4. Doughboy

    Doughboy Simple Man

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    :lol::lol::lol:

    Judging by the sodden nature of the clothes hanging off my bike's handlebars, I don't think the ride home will be quite as much fun...
     

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