Biking in the rain is a challenge.<\/p>\n
Some of the challenges I was ready for; that brief moment when you hit your brakes, and it actually feels like you’re speeding up<\/em> (it’s an illusion, of course; your body expects to slow down, and it doesn’t, at least not as quickly as you think you will) is old hat to me.<\/p>\n And while this summer is my first real experience at bike commuting, I was ready for the big <\/em>challenge.<\/p>\n Let me explain.<\/p>\n When you bike on a wet surface, your tires throw off water in a plane directly out from the center of the tire.\u00a0 This is especially true on thin little road-bike tires like mine, which come to a pretty fine peak (to cut down on rolling resistance); you can actually see water sheeting off and flying into the air in an almost-plumb-straight line.<\/p>\n Now, if you don’t have fenders (and I don’t), that water’s gotta go somewhere<\/em>; that somewhere is a fat, wet, sloppy line from your butt to your neck, straight up your back.<\/p>\n But I rode to work, secure in knowing that a hot shower and a change or two of dry clothes (one in my backpack, another stowed in my cube just in case) awaited me.<\/p>\n