OneAndOneIs2

This evening's ride home was my first experience of riding in rain. I've had wet roads before, but not been actually rained on.

First thing I noticed: Relaxing is crucial. When you're tense, you don't move much. That's a problem in the corners, particularly when your bike is as small and light as mine - it's only about 20kg heavier than I am, so my body weight makes a big difference. When you go round a corner, you have to lean - and the more the rider leans, the less the bike has to.

Relaxing and going with the curve, the bike stays more upright and gets more grip. Being tense and staying upright feels massively unstable.

Some parts of some roads get VERY slippery in the wet - it was like ice in a few places. I'm sure some of it is down to inexperience - that little grip would see cars sliding off the road all the time. But I took it VERY slowly on the winding part of the route - the first half, there was nobody else around so I didn't feel guilty about holding up traffic. The second half, I was sitting behind a car that was going even slower than I was. So that was helpful.

The bulk of my journey is much easier - dual carriageways with very little cornering to do. And going faster has a few advantages - keeps your visor from misting up & blows the rain off the front (especially if you turn your head a bit to the sides occasionally.) Feels safer than you might expect - you just get into a procession of cars and sit there, you're no worse off than a car.

The main problem that left was the whole "getting wet" thing. My gloves, being very breathable summer weight, were no help at all in keeping warm & dry. That's expected. I also got quite a wet front, but in fairness this isn't entirely the jacket's fault: the bike has zero storage space, so I take my lunch in to work in a bumbag, which I wear back-to-front - the bag in front of my stomach - which causes the jacket to bend back on itself in the midsection. Which gathers a small pool of water beautifully in the rain - I'll have to work on that in future, because that little pool of water seeps through the zip.

Other than that, I stayed dry - the trousers did their job, the helmet only let a little water in, and the boots - probably my favourite purchase for the bike, they're highly breathable, very comfortable, and totally waterproof judging from today - justified their rather high price tag yet again.

So, so far so good - the waterproof stuff is mostly waterproof & will probably do better next time; and tho the roads are definitely treacherous and I've got a lot to learn, they're not as bad as they could be - the bulk of the journey being straight helps a lot.

It goes in for its 600 mile service tomorrow. It's done 900 miles.. ho-hum!