Rain or shine

Now it's my turn to start my month of commuting. As luck would have it, today had a light rain in the morning followed by some pretty decent weather in the afternoon. I had a couple good-natured questions about my sanity when I arrived at the office on a dripping wet bike.

However, riding in rain isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. You just need the right equipment and the right caution. Your gloves and boots should be waterproof. My boots do pretty well (they're actually construction boots instead of "official" riding boots, the only part of my riding gear that didn't come from a motorcycle gear shop). The rain gloves I have (Alpinestar Drystars) keep my hands dry but their outside doesn't shed moisture too well, so there's some room for improvement there. Getting a soaked outside can mean cold hands even if they are dry.

There's a variety of rain suits meant to keep a rider dry. I wear Frogg Toggs over my riding suit. They're kind of all purpose rain gear; I think they were originally designed for fishing. They seem papery but work pretty well. There's really only two difficulties with them: they billow instead of fitting tightly (which can be a bit annoying at 60 mph), and you must keep them away from hot exhaust pipes. I picked a set in bright orange; you can't have too much visibility when it's raining and foggy. Loud jackets save lives.

I'll post some comments about techniques later, probably on the next rainy commuting day.

I recorded the GS500's odometer reading at the start of the commutel it was 8,246.3 miles.