terrymorse 

With yet another atmospheric river on its way, it looks like the wet California weather is the new normal.

My latest accommodation: a seatpost-mounted rear fender, which I had to order from Europe. Here's looking forwards to a slightly drier and cleaner posterior.


Topeak Defender RC11

datlas 

Talk to cyclists from the UK. Fenders (they call them mudguards) are a necessity.

They make ones with more coverage if needed. They also make ones for the font wheel.

genejockey 

I got an SKS S-blade from either Jenson USA or Bike Tires Direct. Arrived within 2 days for under $25. Makes a HUGE difference! No more wet shorts, no pile of mud where the shorts meet the saddle, no skunk stripe.

Here it is mounted on the Canyon, which I've designated my Rainy Day Bike (made of plastic, disc brakes, nice long naked seatpost for mounting fenders and lights and Varia. Full marks if you can tell me where I took the picture...

terrymorse 

That's a tough one. Rolling hills and oak. It looks like so many of the Bay Area rides.

ratell

As a rider from Portland, OR you need full fenders and give all your money to www.showerspass.com... Also, either winter cycling shoes or booties for your feet.

rivers

A winter bike that can take mudguards (I use my gravel bike as a wet weather bike). A really good rain jacket (I have an Endura mountain bike rain jacket for thw rainy season. It doesn't pack small, but im always wearing it so that doesn't matter). Bar mitts for the winter (nothing is worse than cold, wet hands). Velotoze (if youre wearing rights, make sure theyre against the skin and not the tights). A sense of humour.

The_woo

Kinesis Fend-off aluminium mudguards are the nicest I've ever had, and they come with generous mudflaps too - essential to not spatter your drivetrain, shoes and anyone riding behind you with muddy water for at least 6 months of the year in the UK.

They're proper screw mount ones, so kind of need a dedicated bad weather / winter bike. Kinesis also (used to) make the perfect winter bike frameset, the racelight 4s disc, but sadly stopped selling it recently in favour of ones with less aggressive geometry.

The other sides of the coin are clothing, weather forecasting and *judgement*: Deciding to delay your Sunday morning group ride by and hour or two can avoid riding in heavy rain in the first hour of a long ride, making the whole thing far more pleasant.

genejockey 

Deer Creek, between Page Mill and Arastradero. I go that way so I can get to Old Page Mill without getting killed trying to make a left off of Page Mill going under 280.

tak2

I much prefer full fenders on my winter bike. Those will still throw water on you and your drive train from the front tire and on anybody riding behind you.

terrymorse 

Argh, almost in my backyard!

I was thinking maybe Arastradero Preserve, but the fence was wrong.

zandoval 

Saw a set of these mounted on a nice "Road Bike" on the roof of a car with Oregon plates. They looked so out of place I was thinking it kinda silly. It was obvious how they had been modified with cut outs to fit the road bike But now that you mention it maybe not so bad!


Do what ya gotta do to keep on ridding...

t2p

did a cold rainy road ride one time - worse than riding in sub freezing weather

my ears were especially bad

genejockey 

I stop at the bus stop there every Sunday, about halfway through my ride, for a snack and a drink. I like observing the seasonal change in the vegetation there. These days, it's looking green like Ireland, after 8 months of dry and brown.

Carbonfiberboy 

I like SKS fenders. I mount them and then add mudflaps to both of them, made of rubber stair tread material, bolted on. They are about 4" wide at the bottom and taper up to fender width at the top. They should both come to about 2" above the ground, if possible. The front mudflap makes your feet a lot drier. The rear one makes it possible for someone to draft you. My wife and I once rode our tandem on a 75 mile group ride in pouring rain the whole way, and at at constant temperature of 36°. We were OK, but vowed to never do another ride like at below 40°.

Needless to say, it's a really good idea to have a dedicated rain bike. We leave our tandem in rain trim most of the year. I have a single "dry bike" and a single "rain bike."

Comfortable clothing is the trick. The following is for cold and wet:
Nothing waterproof except for your MTB boots. Skin out upper body - Craft LS undershirt, either very heavy poly jersey or two jerseys, windshell. Legs - just a pair of winter tights, like PI AmFIB tights or equivalent. Feet - WP MTB boots with wool socks. Over the MTB boots put a set of dry suit leg seals on your bare ankles so that the bell covers the boot top and the tights cover the top of the leg seals. Feet stay dry all day. Hands are hard. Giro 100 Proof lobster gloves are probably the best commercial cycling rain gloves. Many riders prefer heavy knit wool gloves, no shell over. A hard thing with gloves is getting your wet hand out to do something and then get it back in again.

The theory of all the above (except feet) is that you need to be water-cooled, summer or winter. In the rain, you have to let in just enough water to keep your body temperature down. The exact permeability of the wind shell is critical. You wear just enough insulating material to keep your body temperature about where you like it.

HelpSingularity 

Big plus one on the above. After commuting year round in Seattle for a decade you will hone your wet weather gear to a fine edge. Everything Carbonfiberboy says is right on the money, especially the long mudflaps to the ground. No cotton clothes.

Koyote

Avocet O2 Air 40r saddle. I bought the last one sold in the US, right from the warehouse. Guy put me on hold while he went in back and searched for it. Great saddle. Wish I had a few more of them.

elcruxio

I have a pretty different approach to rain riding. For me it's all waterproof breathable shell from head to toes. I've found that modern waterproof shells are breathable enough that they can be used even during moderate intensity in cold climates without sweat soaking issues. Of course you get what you pay for. Good waterproof shell is never cheap.

of course in warm rain (+18C) and with higher intensities even wind shell can get stuffy so it's always a balancing act between clothing and heat production. But if I consider common intensities for 2-4 hour road rides I often opt for waterproof shell.

Waterproof shoes I've found are difficult to find. But on tours and even sometimes on my road bike (GASP) I"ll use Shimano SPD sandals and sealskinz waterproof socks. Of course that'll mean that one needs to use MTB pedals instead of road pedals so for many that's not an option.

Sealskinz waterproof gloves are the best I've tried. They're so good in fact that I'll sometimes use them even when it's not raining or even wet. They work exceedingly well down to -5C after which I'll pull out my Hestra military leathers.

I don't typically use any cycling specific rain gear. For some reason the cyclign stuff is never as high quality or as functional as similarly priced generic gear. I'll lose some aero benefits but in the rain that's not a big issue. The only cycling specific rain clothing I have is the POC consort mtb dungarees. Bought them the second I saw them. Finally rain pants which have a high enough waist. And they're waterproof stretch which to me seems like cheating somehow.

in more general terms some sort of butt protection is mandatory. It can be either a buttsaver or full length mudguards, but something must be used to prevent direct water spray to the saddle/butt area. Nobody likes a wet behind (or a soaked chamois) and with direct spray even the best waterproof shell cannot help you. Once you start sitting on water it will get through.

genejockey 

Back in 2007 I was looking for one and discovered they'd gone out of business. My LBS suggested I get in touch with Palo Alto Bicycles, which had a relationship with Avocet. So I did! They had 5 of them. I bought 3. When i bought the Litespeed, I didn't have any left, so I had to find one on Ebay.

Koyote

That may have been where I bought that one...It was definitely later than 2007.

I had an older one that was worn out. I stripped off the cover, stripped off the moldy and crumbling padding, and spent a few minutes smoothing off the plastic shell with some sandpaper. Took it to my local cobbler, where we found a nice smooth piece of black leather, which he trimmed and glued onto the shell. It looked great, like a factory job, and the saddle was pretty comfy up to about 75 miles...After that, the lack of padding would take a toll. But it proved (to me, anyway) that it's the saddle's shape rather than the padding that provides most of the comfort.

Anyway, back OT: full-coverage fenders ftw! I prefer Hondo (i.e., Rene Herse in the US). And as others have noted, be sure to put a mudflap on the front -- you want it to extend to within a couple inches from the pavement. I like the Brooks leather mudflaps -- I've got a couple of them, oldest is probably six years old, and they hold up nicely.

Carbonfiberboy 

I overheat in anything waterproof. I've quit rides after 5 miles, trying out a cycling jacket. Water is how we get rid of heat, either sweat or rainwater. How do you do it? That said, I haven't tried a Shakedry jacket - they're supposed to be more breathable, though even that only lets the sweat out, which doesn't have anything to do with getting rid of heat, and they're $300+ and only come in black and I refuse to wear a black top on the bike. I dunno.

MTB boots are waterproof. There are also waterproof neoprene booties, and the dry suit leg seal setup works well with booties, too - except water can still get in through the cleat holes in the sole, if any. Booties work with roadie shoes and cleats, though still not as warm as MTB boots...

LarrySellerz

I’ve just resigned myself to getting soaked, bringing a backpack with a full change of clothes+shoes in a garbage bag. Attempts to stay dry when riding are in vein.

79pmooney

How Do Wet-Climate Riders Manage?

First, we wet weather riders get real fenders, not toys. Full fenders with deep flaps in front. (The rear flap doesn't affect the rider but is there to be civil to those on your wheel. I rarely ride in company in wet weather and skip the rear flap so I can wheelie the bike to go through doors.) Front fenders that extend well past the fork to protect the lower race of the headset and minimize high road water spray. Both fenders keep caliper brake pivots (excluding canti and V-brake) clean. Rear fender that runs down to the chainstays or slightly past spare the FD, BB and are considerably better for the chain. That deep front flap keeps feet radically drier and cleaner. (That flap is as effective as a large percentage of the rest of the two fenders. I regularly remove the front flap and install a deeper one. Drill out the rivets and use bolts. Makes replacing the flap easy.)

Serious wet weather fenders are also bright colors. The English got that message long ago. The common Blumels of the 60s and 70s were - full length with a real front flap and white. Yellow is probably better in daylight and near as good at night. (Why the current big fender companies don't make while and yellow road width fenders is beyond me.)

terrymorse, I believe you live in CA, no? (While I'm writing I cannot view your info and I forget to read up before I jump in. Oh well.) Anyway, if so, you get to ride in the early rain after long spells without more often than in some other areas. That means wet roads that are really filthy. Full fenders are wonderful things for any bike you care about and your wardrobe.

I am happy to cut and modify fenders to fit my road bikes. Some of those bikes wear fenders year 'round. Others I work hard at ensuring the fenders go on and off quickly and easily once set up. And funny, the timing of your post. Monday I'm running across town to the industrial Sherwin Williams with my good bike to look at 2-part epoxy paint colors to paint the fenders I ordered today to have bright yellow fenders on my fire engine red TiCycles. What I envisioned when I ordered the bike 15 years but never saw those fenders to plunk my money down and buy.

Edit: for close spaced road bikes, Portland's River City Cycles makes excellent kits so you can cut the fender at the seatstay or fork and continue on the other side. I've never used them but I made a similar but not as stylish one for the bike of my avatar photo. (That bike needed a super stiff bracket because there is much more fender behind the brake; a function of needing to accommodate nearly 2" of hub adjust in the dropout for varying fix gear cogs.)

Edit #2 in response to Larry Sellerz: Fenders aren't to keep you dry. Maybe drier, but not dry. No, fenders are to keep you clean. The stuff off the road is filthy. The stuff out of the sky is (almost always) good drinking water, often better than what comes out of the tap.

LarrySellerz

Terry is a silicon valley engineer, gadgets like the DeFender RC11™ instead of the tried and true are part of the fun (no offense)

Welshboy

For the past year or so I've commuted on this rain or shine but hope to use a second fenderless bike for dry days this Spring and Summer.

elcruxio

I suppose it's quite personal. I don't typically use a lot of clothing under the waterproof shell. My Gore-Tex Active jacket has the same specs as Gore-tex Pro, so it's as good as any gore-tex before shakedry. It's pretty much completely waterproof but also breathable enough that I don't remember many situations where I've overheated with it. Pants and other stuff is less important. Even though it's often said that the legs produce the heat, the core is what pushes it out. Legs stay warm easily but overheating them takes some doing.
It's true that rain gear is quite expensive. If my current jacket ever gives up the ghost I'll probably get Fjällräven Eco Shell, which is even more expensive than gore tex. But it's also better. Luckily rain gear is pretty durable. My current jacket is almost a decade old with no noticeable deterioration so in terms of units of money per hours of use the price isn't that bad.

There is also the factor of adjusting speed for clothing and conditions. If I'm wearing rain gear I, need to adjust my riding to my heat production. Slow is ok, moderate is ok, but attacking hills near red line is going to cause issues. Also taking the hat and gloves off at the base of large hills helps tons. The problem with hills is that you lose a large portion of the draft that would normally cool you down through the membrane layer.

I don't know what your conditions are like. Rain gear in the tropics would make little sense as there's no real danger of hypothermia in warm rains. In the north where I live getting even slightly damp during autumn, winter and spring can get really nasty after a short while. So what works for me might not work for you purely due to conditions we ride in. Not that I like getting soaked even during summer. But then it's at least possible to dry off after the sun comes out. A cold shower might even be welcome respite if one is riding in a heat wave (so anything warmer than 25C).

I just realized my fatbike kit is full jet black with a white helmet. The only worse thing I could wear would be a military winter camo. But I get past that by using very good lights. I've noticed while driving past cyclists that no amount of high viz can match or even come close to a good rear or front light.