Biking In The Rain With The One I Love

So I woke up this morning to the sound of pouring rain. My first thought - well, I guess we'll take the car to school. Second thought - or we could ride... My son does say he wants to ride in all weather and I am pretending there is no car sitting outside waiting for us to hop in.

I figure that rain riding has plenty of similarity to snow riding - precipitation, slippery roads, drivers so stressed about the weather they pay even less attention to bikes, the need to dress appropriately. People who do notice you thinking you are nuts. Especially if you have kids with you.

Morning went great. It wasn't raining too hard. My older son thought it was okay. I had to take the 2 y.o. on this rain trip, too. I strapped him in his seat (in front of me) and then zipped a rain jacket around him and the seat. It worked great! Hat with brim under his helmet, jacket hood on the outside. When we got home he kept saying "rain fun. ride ride. play rain." Atta boy...wait until he sees riding in snow.

My midday ride was a bit rainier so I decided to try riding in a poncho. I have toyed with the idea for a while. Advantages....most definitely helped keep the sweating down. I was as comfortable as I would have been on a dry ride for the day's temperature. Also, no water pooling on the jacket in my lap. I ride pretty upright with this bike so pooling sometimes happens with a jacket. And my poncho is smurf blue -- I was so noticeable to everyone.

Late day ride was pouring. Poncho still worked fine for my upper body but my legs got a bit wetter higher up due to side openings in the poncho. My little one still had fun. He was so not bothered by the rain he even fell asleep. He slouched a bit to the side and rested his head on my arm which was not so comfy for me but seemed perfect for him.

All in all, a good day. The kids seems okay with riding in inclement weather. And that had been my concern. So I am happy to think maybe I can get back to all-weather riding. And I only missed the car a little bit. I did have some moments of thinking this is miserable but then I remembered that even folks in cars tend to be miserable on rainy days. And the traffic slows them down much more than it slows me.

My poor lonely car - I hope somebody buys her soon.