Panter
Just call me Chris...
- Location
- Sittingbourne, Kent
Checked the weather online last night, yup, both the BBC and Met office forecasts are dry for today so I can cycle in.
I won't do my commute by bike if its going to rain hard as there's a long section of riding in the 2' wide road edge of a fast, unlit dual carrigeway. I don't mind riding in the rain but i want the drivers to be able to see me, and have a chance of stopping if they don't
Anyway, got up at 5:00am, put all the summer gear on (it was quite mild this morning and I have to ride up a long steep hill so get very hot) and take the bike outside.
Hmmm, its raining. Not hard but raining none the less.
Still, the forecast was dry so i'm sure it'll stop soon.
Set off and it gets a bit harder, 5 miles in and it stops. Woo hoo things are looking rosey.
10mins later, and on the dual carrigeway and it starts again but this time its quite heavy. Ok, no worries I'm going to get wet.
10 miles in and the top of the downs and the heavens open, really torentiall rain. So i'm tackling the short, steep downhill section where there's no road edge to hide in, where its steep enough to easily hit 45mph in the dry, with quarter of an inch of water cascading down it and 2 manhole covers somewhere in the middle concealed by the spray
Despite the tyres being slicks, they're acting like waterwheels and sending a river of cold, muddy water straight up and into my knackers which isn't the best cycling experience this newbie has encountered so far
Still, at 15 miles the rain stopped which gave me a couple of "dry" miles of just getting soaked by the tyres.
I'm in work now, wandering round the lab in bare feet while various bits of clothing dry off in ovens and on radiators
And it was all STILL way less stressfull than driving in
Cheers
Chris
I won't do my commute by bike if its going to rain hard as there's a long section of riding in the 2' wide road edge of a fast, unlit dual carrigeway. I don't mind riding in the rain but i want the drivers to be able to see me, and have a chance of stopping if they don't
Anyway, got up at 5:00am, put all the summer gear on (it was quite mild this morning and I have to ride up a long steep hill so get very hot) and take the bike outside.
Hmmm, its raining. Not hard but raining none the less.
Still, the forecast was dry so i'm sure it'll stop soon.
Set off and it gets a bit harder, 5 miles in and it stops. Woo hoo things are looking rosey.
10mins later, and on the dual carrigeway and it starts again but this time its quite heavy. Ok, no worries I'm going to get wet.
10 miles in and the top of the downs and the heavens open, really torentiall rain. So i'm tackling the short, steep downhill section where there's no road edge to hide in, where its steep enough to easily hit 45mph in the dry, with quarter of an inch of water cascading down it and 2 manhole covers somewhere in the middle concealed by the spray
Despite the tyres being slicks, they're acting like waterwheels and sending a river of cold, muddy water straight up and into my knackers which isn't the best cycling experience this newbie has encountered so far
Still, at 15 miles the rain stopped which gave me a couple of "dry" miles of just getting soaked by the tyres.
I'm in work now, wandering round the lab in bare feet while various bits of clothing dry off in ovens and on radiators
And it was all STILL way less stressfull than driving in
Cheers
Chris