rain gear

In article <[email hidden]>,

Will said:

I am in the market for some rain gear. The capes look interesting from
a ventilation point of view. Anyone have a recco?

My own rain cape was locally made, so I can't really recommend it.
On some Google research, the Campmor cape looks pretty good.
And apparently Carradice makes an interesting cape + spats combo.

I /can/ offer some first-hand-experience hints & tips about rain capes:

1) you'll also surely need full-length fenders.

2) if your cape comes with a hood, don't use it. Not only
can they obscure your peripheral sightlines, but they also
make your head hot.

3) forget about being able to do hand signals. Plan your
routes accordingly.

4) rain capes drape over the handlebar. If you also need lights,
they'll have to be mounted lower than on the handlebar.

5) at the end of your ride, immediate hang the cape up on a
coathanger to dry, don't just roll it up wet and put it away.

6) Without additional coverage, your legs will still get wet, from
your feet up to your knees. If it's summer and you're wearing
shorts, it's no big deal. In cooler seasons, I've found a pair
of cheap hiking gaiters over my long pants and shoe uppers does
the trick. Strips of inner tube wrapped around my toeclips keep
the rest of my shoes nice & dry. Maybe it looks funny, but if I
have to go out on a rainy fall/winter/spring day or night, I'm
actually drier if I ride, than if I walk or take the bus (I don't
drive.) Still,it would be nice to get some real cycling spats,
such as Carradice's.

7) sooner or later the water repellant coating on your new rain cape
will wear out. I had been re-coating mine with green-cap
Scotchguard, but I've recently switched to "World Famous" brand
Storm Guard[tm], which seems to be a superior product for my
purposes. I haven't tried the Campmor stuff yet.

8) sometimes I wish I had 2 capes, so I have a dry one at my avail
while the just-used wet one is still hanging to dry.

9) my own rain cape has a neck zipper that I have to access from outside.
I wish I could access the zipper from the inside.

HTH.

cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

William Waller said:

I am in the market for some rain gear. The capes look interesting
from a ventilation point of view. Anyone have a recommendation?

I don't know what sort of riding you have in mind but I can tell you
why I use what I do.

I've found that bicycle capes don't do what I need, something I
learned many years ago climbing Mt. Evans in Colorado. As we got
higher, the wind got stronger and colder, where the cold wind on my
neck was so painful that I had to ride with my head against my right
shoulder, even though I had a "wind proof" bicycling jacket that was
well vented.

There was no way we could descend in that weather and it gradually
turned into light snow, even though it was early summer. We were
fortunate to find someone with car with an empty trunk and a good
heater to dive us down. Since then I have ridden in the alps often,
where it can snow any day of the year. I have descended the Stelvio,
Gavia, Gross Glockner, and Iseran in snow and am glad to have had a
non ventilated parka.

A parka has a hood and it must be able to be cinched down around the
face exposing only the nose and eyes with good closure to the body of
the jacket. A separate hood will not do. The sleeves must have a
Velcro or elastic band that can close on the wrists and the Zipper
must have an overlapping cover to make it water and wind proof. This
has served me well for the many tours of the Alps in the last fifty
years and I don't plan on making changes.

When looking at parkas pick a fairly stiff one because if it begins
flapping (as practically all bicycle jackets do) you generate forced
convection that cancels any warmth retention. If need for a parka is
evident, putting on long sleeves is advisable because direct contact
with the shell is a heat sink. It takes little separation to add a
lot of insulation.

The classic of my experience was Andy Hampsten's victory on the Gavia
that probably was the day he won the giro d'Italia. When he got to
the summit Mike Neal had him strip down, put on all dry clothing,
neoprene gloves, and a hooded parka. Riders who passed him at the
summit were standing at the roadside later unable to continue for
freezing hands and shimmy caused by chattering.

On my 2004 tour, my friend brought along a bicycle jacket and after
descending several passes in France decided to stop in Brianon and
buy a hikers parka. This came in handy because it snowed the next day
on the Galibier and was close to it on the Iseran.

Of course there are nicer days but even they can be cold:

http://tinyurl.com/dm4pp
http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/f83.ht

I put on a dry jersey, gloves and parka after John took that picture.

Jobst Brandt

Will said:

I am in the market for some rain gear. The capes look interesting from
a ventilation point of view. Anyone have a recco?

Capes are great if you're tootlin' in town on a rod brake roadster
wearing cycle clips on your pants. A jaunty rain hat is recommended as
the hood, as another poster mentioned, limits visibility.

For folks that are riding more than 10mph in the city, and in regular
drizzle, not torrential rain, and provided you've got fenders, any
number of well ventilated shells will do nicely. Skip the rain pants
and get wet as they make you sweat. Better clean rain than saltiness. I
personally prefer a ball cap to hoods.

For touring, I'm at a loss. In general, you're going to get wet one way
or another from either rain or exertion.

landotter said:

Will said:

I am in the market for some rain gear. The capes look interesting from
a ventilation point of view. Anyone have a recco?

Capes are great if you're tootlin' in town on a rod brake roadster
wearing cycle clips on your pants. A jaunty rain hat is recommended as
the hood, as another poster mentioned, limits visibility.

For folks that are riding more than 10mph in the city, and in regular
drizzle, not torrential rain, and provided you've got fenders, any
number of well ventilated shells will do nicely. Skip the rain pants
and get wet as they make you sweat. Better clean rain than saltiness. I
personally prefer a ball cap to hoods.

For touring, I'm at a loss. In general, you're going to get wet one way
or another from either rain or exertion.

My favorite set up for cold wet riding is a well-vented waterproof
jacket with knicker-length rain pants and waterproof shoe covers. My
jacket has venting on the back (flap) and insides of arms (plain
fabric). The shoe covers I use are industrial supply latex booties --
very thin, stretchable and wrap the shin under the tights for a good
seal. This works well even in hard rain and temps just above freezing. I
also have full neoprene gloves (also industrial supply), they work well
in some conditions, but have a rather narrow temperature range, outside
of which they're either too hot or cold.

For warmer rain I like a membrane (Activent), loose-fitting vest -- it
allows circulation without soaking penetration. Some distance riders cut
off rain paints to make rain shorts for warm wet riding. Fenders are
particularly useful when there's a lot of grit on the road, otherwise
you tend to get coated -- the worst conditions being merely wet roads
without real rain to wash it off.

Quoted message said:

...
On my 2004 tour, my friend brought along a bicycle jacket and after
descending several passes in France decided to stop in Brian

on and

Quoted message said:

buy a hikers parka. This came in handy because it snowed the next day
on the Galibier and was close to it on the Iseran.

Of course there are nicer days but even they can be cold:

http://tinyurl.com/dm4pp
http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/f83.ht

I put on a dry jersey, gloves and parka after John took that picture.

Jobst Brandt

That second link didn't work but the first was a killer. It must be
very pretty.

Quoted message said:

Of course there are nicer days but even they can be cold:

http://tinyurl.com/dm4pp
http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/f83.ht

I put on a dry jersey, gloves and parka after John took that picture.

Maybe this should go in .tech ... but I got a question from looking at
the first picture.

Why the really tall headtube and really short chainstays?

-M

(My very first bike geometry question ... I feel so ... so ... very
grown up all the sudden.)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Of course there are nicer days but even they can be cold:

http://tinyurl.com/dm4pp
http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/f83.ht

I put on a dry jersey, gloves and parka after John took that picture.

Maybe this should go in .tech ... but I got a question from looking at
the first picture.

Why the really tall headtube and really short chainstays?

-M

(My very first bike geometry question ... I feel so ... so ... very
grown up all the sudden.)

The head tube is tall because the rider is tall, the chainstays are
actually long (by today's standards) what's throwing you off is the
frame pump (painted to match) behind the seat tube.

Marian Rosenberg said:

Quoted message said:

Of course there are nicer days but even they can be cold:

http://tinyurl.com/dm4pp
http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/f83.ht

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I put on a dry jersey, gloves and parka after John took that
picture.

Quoted message said:

Maybe this should go in .tech ... but I got a question from looking
at the first picture.

Quoted message said:

Why the really tall headtube and really short chainstays?

I suppose I could use a long tall bar stem and seat post as is common
these days. Somehow the bars need to get to the height that I like to
have them and this frame layout does that. If you look at pictures
from the 1950's, I've been riding this arrangement for a while.

http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/s01.html

As to chainstays, they are extra long as you can see, because the tire
pump is behind the seat tube and still leaves plenty of clearance to
the tire. The stays are long to reduce front wheel lift off on steep
climbs when seated.

You can also ski with bicycle and bicycle shoes as you can see from
slide tracks in the snow:

http://www.paloaltobicycles.com/alps_photos/s52.html

Jobst Brandt