Celticgirl

Sigh...... Another day stuck in the house here in Connecticut, raining all day and cold, the rest of the week doesn't look much better. Oh how I hate the North East!

alloo

Just get wet gear and you can continue to ride! The nice thing about rain is at least you're cool.

rumrunn6

sympathies. we wait so long for the nice weather. it does take some getting used to this every year. last fall was beautiful & we had a mild winter. so I remain optimistic. going away w/ Wifey this weekend to CT, to visit Daughter. hoping to get a nature hike in somehow, somewhere

Bikewolf

Indeed, there are days when you don’t feel to ride – due to the weather, or maybe because you’re not feeling as energetic etc.

One thing I discovered that sometimes helps, is to have your ‘lazy day’ so to speak but prep for a ride the next morning. Perhaps starting the mental process by cleaning your bike. Then, the next morning early: RIDE! No matter how foul the weather or how you feel. You decide how long, how far. You can make it a very short ride, but often you’ll discover that joy is upon you :-) Once home: relax, take a shower, drink a cup of tea ...

Bigbus

I ride in all kinds of weather thanks to my old faithful MTB with fenders, lights, the works. Yet, no matter how cold or wet it is outside (be wary of ice) I never fail to overheat in the rain gear I have because it doesn't breathe. Woe is me But hey, it's that time of the year so we push through it and really really look forward to that cup of Joe at the end of the ride (and sometimes at the convenience store we pass along the way) It's all good, just make the most of it!

BobbyG

I ride with a rain cape. It doesn't keep me 100% dry, but it keeps me more comfortable.

bpcyclist

Got absolutely soaked on a 3-hour ride this afternoon. I think the famous Oregon rains are finally starting. Hang on...

3S1M

I'll admit rain is probably my least fun riding. No, wait, very windy is worse. I've been blessed, most of the times on the rainy days I'll catch a break and it'll stop long enough for me to go. But a lot of times I'm going at 9pm or 10pm. Which seems like a lot of times it stops around then.

Notso_fastLane

Proper gear can at least make it tolerable (some people actually enjoy it). I have good wet weather gear because I lived in Seattle for 3 years. People here think I'm nuts for riding in mild rain.

I regularly rode 12 months, although when conditions actually got icy, I would drive.

Now that I have a velomobile, I'm going to ride all winter too.

noglider 

You should definitely try making a go of rain riding. For me, a bad day riding is better than a day with no riding. Riding is my therapy. The more I ride in bad weather, the less bad it is for me.

Fenders make a huge difference. Enough time in the rain and I will get soaked, but it's SO uncomfortable having my front wheel splashing my feet and my rear wheel splashing my butt crack. With fenders, the rain falls on me from above only.

I often wear a cycling jacket which is basically a heavy jersey. It's synthetic and has the property that wool has in that it keeps me pretty warm while wet. It doesn't keep me dry. I usually prefer it to a rain jacket because a rain jacket traps too much moisture and heat inside. With my cycling jacket, I'm basically wearing a warm sponge, and I usually don't mind. Sometimes I put my rain jacket over the cycling jacket.

Another thing I've noticed is that on most days when rain is in the forecast, I miss the rain on at least one of my trips. (I'm a bike commuter.) And then when I do ride in the rain, most of the time, the rain is light and not the soaking kind. So when I head out on "rainy days," I'm taking a risk but it's not a sure thing that I'll get uncomfortably wet. And when the risk is pretty big, I make sure I have a change of clothes so I can change out if I get wet.

bpcyclist

I second pretty much everything @noglider shared. Ultimately, for me, you can come up with whatever combo of stuff you think is going to give you your best shot in the wet, but at the end of the day, for me it is all about the feet. If my feet are miserable, I'm probably headed toward miserable. If my feet are pretty good, I don't really care how hard it's raining. It's water. Who cares? At that point, even if it is really coming down, it is just a technical challenge added to the ride. And as pointed out above, unless you live in West Maui or St. Barts or something, sustained extreme downpours just aren't that common. I'm of course excluding severe thunderstorms in, say, Texas or Florida, which no reasonable cyclist should ever be out in. That goes without saying.

I've lived all over the United States and I do believe the people who have the rain best figured out are in fact the Pacific Northwesterners. People in Seattle and Portland just don't let it slow them down. If they did, if they waited for the weather to clear before they went outside to do something, they would never do anything. It rains eight months out of the year! So you pull a hood over your head and carry on. Like I said, it's just water. It's just not that big of a deal.

3S1M

I went in the rain last night. Like mention previously it wasn't a downpour and it was actually kind of nice. The rain drop were like icicles though. But my face was the only thing cold. And not overly so. I gotta figure out something for my face as the temps drop. I don't like growing a beard cuz my hairs are so thick it hurts. I kid you no, every once in a beard hair will actually penetrate skin and be like a sliver. I did buy some beard balm but lately I've just been shaving more cuz it's just better. But won't be better for winter.

baldilocks

I second the rain cape. I only use it when the temps get cooler. Also, I don't use it in high wind or thunder and lightening.

noglider 

The Tour de Bronx was scheduled for today. I think 7,000 riders were registered. They canceled it because of a predicted deluge, and it did come. It's sad, but it was the right decision.

3S1M

I rode in the rain last night and I quite liked it. But I only go 2 miles so.... And it's just for exercise, not commuting.