"Peter Walker" in the Guardian, cycling in the rain

[andrewc]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/jun/12/cycling-in-the-rain

"neoprene overshoes, slightly S&M-looking as they are. Worn with shorts, as I did this morning, it delivers a look roughly 50% Torture Garden and 50% Don Estelle in It Ain't Half Hot Mum"

I don't think it's _our_ Peter Walker.........

[clarion]

No.  Ours has never heard of Don Estelle.

[citoyen]

In the comments:
"They're using cars instead of umbrellas."

Sad but true.

I got chatting briefly to a fellow cyclist at the lights in Catford yesterday. She thought she might have been better off taking the bus. I had to correct her - even in that rain, better to be outside on your bike than stuck inside a stinky old bus.

I probably should see about repairing my mudguards if this weather is going to continue. I had hoped I could leave the job until the autumn...

d.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Some people - though not me - manage to use a bike and an umbrella at the same time!

Mudguards, everybody, please. Rain is clean, spray from tyres is dirty, often very dirty indeed.

[Peter]

Quite a good article but it could have done with editing; it's hard to know where to start with this bit:-

"There's some places where turning up wild-eyed and soaked to the bones isn't a good look, and coroners' courts are one of them."

Grammar that makes you cringe?

[citoyen]

Mudguards, everybody, please. Rain is clean, spray from tyres is dirty, often very dirty indeed.

Since I don't ride in a group when commuting, I'm the only one who suffers from my current lack of mudguards, hence I don't really care what other people think.

However, I am conscientious enough to avoid doing that "passing someone then sitting in front of them" thing* but anyone who chooses to sit on my wheel deserves what they get.

d.

*I actually suffer more from people doing this to me. 

[clarion]

No.  In London, you can't avoid riding behind people a lot of the time, even if you're just waiting for a safe moment to go past. 

Mudguards!

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's amazing how far behind a mudguard-less bike the spray goes. It's tens of yards rather than yards, though I think it's worse with wider tyres.

[Ian H]

Though it wasn't raining.

[citoyen]

Mudguards!

Well, I'd rather ride with than without, so maybe I should move fixing my mudguards up my priority list.

But I'm so fast these days that no one is directly behind me long enough to be really inconvenienced. 

d.

[Cudzoziemiec]

And I'm so slow everyone overtakes me in an instant, so I don't need mudguards either. I can take them off and then I'll be faster. Hmm!...

[clarion]

And then you might get trench bottom.

[citoyen]

I must say, by the way, that although I don't have mudguards at the moment, I've been avoiding the brown stripe up the back by virtue of my Barley taking most of the flak. It is very much to its credit that the contents have remained dry at all times - a great advert for Carradice, in fact. 

d.

[vorsprung]

Dog bites postman

It's another one of those "I did something entirely normal on the bike but I'm going to write about it like it's freakish" articles from the Guardian bike blog.  A short commute in the rain in a big city is so mundane it's not worthy of comment. 

Can there be anyone who rides a bike anywhere, any time of year in the UK and hasn't ridden in the rain?  If you haven't worked out yet that mudguards are quite a good idea and what clothing is nice have, you probably never will.

Peter Walker seems to be a particularly active source of these kinds of bits of writing.

[Cudzoziemiec]

But the fact is a lot of people are put off cycling by heavy rain, and this article was encouraging them not to be. It's not aimed at every-day hardened commuters but at the nervous (of wet, cold, what to do with work clothes etc) and new.

[citoyen]

Agreed. I think it's simply trying to reinforce the point that cycling in the rain is perfectly normal behaviour.

I know a lot of my colleagues think I'm mad for enjoying cycling in all weathers. And then complain about how horrible public transport is. 

d.

[vorsprung]

.. a lot of people are put off cycling by heavy rain, and this article was encouraging them not to be. It's not aimed at every-day hardened commuters but at the nervous .. and new.

Peter Walker said at the end of the article

• Don't be afraid to wimp out

I didn't cycle yesterday, for two reasons. Firstly, I was a bit wary of the strong winds. But mainly it was because I wasn't going to the office but to report on an inquest. There's some places where turning up wild-eyed and soaked to the bones isn't a good look, and coroners' courts are one of them. It's not a defeat to get the train or the bus, or drive.

He is basically saying you cannot depend on the bike if it is a bit rainy.  Which is bollocks.

[Cudzoziemiec]

He does say that some of his tips contradict others. Taking the whole article, I don't think he's saying "you cannot depend on the bike if it is a bit rainy", he's giving advice and then saying "if on some occasions it doesn't work for you, don't worry about it." Having said that, it's rather a space-filler of an article really. I think if it wasn't for the coincidence of the name, we wouldn't be paying it much attention.

[LEE]

It's amazing how far behind a mudguard-less bike the spray goes. It's tens of yards rather than yards, though I think it's worse with wider tyres.

It's surprising how far behind a mudguard-equipped bike the spray goes as well.

Race-blades do very little for people riding behind and many Audax riders (me included) add extensions to already long mudguards to protect them.

None of my bikes are mudguardless. I've experienced my shorts filling up with cold, muddy, gritty water and I didn't want to experience it twice.

Even when we have such crap weather it's still not that often you will commute in heavy rain, therefore mudguards and overshoes will keep the worst of it off.

[Cudzoziemiec]

You remind me that I've been meaning since March  to fettle a mudguard extension out of a roll of damp proof course I happen to have handily acquired.

[Toady]

Out with some "friends" recently I was shoved to the front on a long stretch in the rain on the basis that I had proper mudguards (and also provided the largest windbreak).  I'd love to say that I proceeded to turn a monster high gear and left them trailing in my wake.  But I didn't.