Rainy season is upon us. Right off the bat, let's get a cycle chic truth out of the way:
Any clothes you can walk in, you can cycle in.
Including rainy weather. Over at Copenhagenize.com we have an article about the statistical chances of getting rained on if you commute the route each day. It's not as bad as you may think.
Copenhageners just get on with it in the rain, like in the photo above. Like my mother used to say, our bodies are 37 C degrees, which is perfect for drying clothes. :-)
Here's me and the boy wonder a couple of years ago out in the rain. He was sitting pretty, tucked in behind me as we rode and avoiding the main brunt of the rain.
The poor wee laddie doesn't look to happy...
ReplyDeleteI found out this summer how waterproof copenhagers are. When it rained, my gf and I would seek shelter. But the crazy copenhagers, men in suits and women in nice dresses, just kept pedaling. Some even gave us condescending sneers when they saw us huddled under a building overhang.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a big surprise to me actually riding year-round in Portland how few times per year I actually get totally soaked. Most of the time it's just a light drizzle, which, unless it's really cold, is actually pretty pleasant to ride in.
ReplyDeleteAs a new resident of Denmark I biked the first time in pouring rain in the city we live. It was an interesting experience.
ReplyDeletethe wee laddie was knackered after along visit to the zoo...
ReplyDeleteDo you have any of your Copenhagen Chic photos under a Creative Commons licenese, so that bloggers like me can promote this great site? My blog's at http://irontwit.creativeblogs.net
ReplyDeleteOnly if the people in Vancouver would look at that.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing people complain about with regards to spending money on bicycle infrastructure, is that NO ONE rides in the rain.
I regn og slud - cyklen skal ud (In rain and sleet - join the bike fleet!)
ReplyDeleteno CC photos. but use them if you like with full linkage back to the source. and please link the photo to the source, too.
ReplyDeletethanks!
re: vancouver. if you make the bicycle the quickest way to get around a city, people will ride all the time.
My experience is the same as Chris's. CPHrs just get on with it and ride in the rain like it's no big deal. Rain is not the event it is here in NYC, where the slightest drizzle brings out the umbrellas (and, just as quickly, the streetcorner umbrella salesmen).
ReplyDeleteMy odds for getting rained on seem a little higher than the study may suggest : )
ReplyDeleteI find that you can even get less wet if you bike, assuming you have a proper bike (full fenders!). I live a 10 minutes walk from the closest metro station, but it takes me only a bit more than that to bike all the way to work (up to 15, say?). Since I'm well protected from the water on the ground, it's basically a factor of how long I stay out there, just as if I was walking. For many errands around work, taking the bike is often how I can stay as dry as possible!
ReplyDeleteOk, actually, for some reason, the front fender of my city bike is a wee bit short, so my feet get a bit wet, but I should be fixing this soon.
When the temperature gets too close to zero, though, I skip the wet days, riding on solid ice or getting covered in icing rain isn't too fun. But that's not very much, until it switched to dry snow...